Lumen loses bid for a second shot at DHS security contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Lumen falls short in its bid to at least get another shot at winning a $157.6 million network security services contract
Lumen Technologies has fallen short in its bid to at least get another shot at winning a $157.6 million contract covering network security services to government agencies.
The contract to support the Federal Network Protection System at the Homeland Security Department was competed as a task order under the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions vehicle.
Verizon won the award and Lumen, bidding under the predecessor name Qwest, filed a protest challenging the evaluation. Lumen claimed they would have won if the evaluation was done properly instead of Verizon.
The Government Accountability Office has now ruled against Lumen, denying the protest. The task order will remain with Verizon.
The details of the decision handed down earlier this week have not been released yet. It generally takes a month or more for a decision to be released after the parties agree upon a public version -- in this case DHS, Verizon and Lumen.
Also because the contract was awarded as a task order, details are hard to come by so it isn’t clear exactly what the services are that fall under the Federal Network Protection System. But that system broadly helps protect federal agencies from cyber threats.