These 10 encryption products are available through the Data At Rest governmentwide blanket purchase agreement.
Data Armor, from Mobile Armor.
GuardianEdge, from GuardianEdge Technologies.
Mobile Guardian, from Credant.
Pointsec, from Pointsec Mobile Technologies.
Safeboot NV, from Safeboot Device Encryption.
SafeNet ProtectDrive, from SafeNet.
Secret Agent, from Information Security.
SecureDoc, from WinMagic.
Skylock At-Rest, from Encryption Solutions.
Talisman/DS Data Security Suite, from Spyrus.
Source: General Services Administration
An encryption software company on the governmentwide Data-At-Rest blanket purchase agreement is being accused of using a misleading matrix in its marketing. The matrix implied that government officials had found its product was better than its competitors’. However, no agency has conducted such an assessment.
The company, Mobile Armor, has reportedly pulled the document from its marketing materials. But questions have been raised about whether agencies were misled and what contracting officials should do about it. The contracting officer for the BPA has not indicated whether the government will take further action against Mobile Armor.
Mobile Armor is one of 10 software companies on the Data-At-Rest BPA, a joint effort of the Defense Department’s Enterprise Software Initiative and General Services Administration’s SmartBuy programs. Soon after the June 2007 award, companies started marketing their wares, and some prospective customers began asking Mobile Armor’s competitors to explain their low scores on the competitive matrix.
The matrix showed several encryption software products, most of which were available through the BPA, ranked on a scale of 0 to 5 in 11 specifications. Mobile Armor’s product scored the highest ratings in all categories on the chart. The chart’s source line stated that the information came from data the companies submitted to the Data At Rest Tiger Team (DARTT), DOD and GSA. But competitors say they submitted no information that could have been distilled into such numerical rankings.
Mobile Armor officials declined to comment for this story. However, they told the BPA contracting officer that a consultant, who no longer works for the company, created the matrix without the knowledge or approval of company executives, sources said.
The case comes to light as contractors increasingly are under scrutiny for ethical lapses. The Environmental Protection Agency abruptly suspended IBM from all federal contracting for a week in early April after reports surfaced that company employees obtained protected source selection information from an EPA employee and used it in contract negotiations.
The matrix has apparently circulated beyond the circle of government customers for whom it was originally intended. Pete Morrison, vice president of sales for Credant’s North America operations, said a commercial customer first brought the matrix to his attention.
“The key features as well as the rankings were a total fabrication,” Morrison said. “This was not part of the process that the DARTT folks went through when they awarded the contracts.”
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