GSA awards data security agreements

Ten companies have won five-year blanket purchase agreements for products that protect data residing on government laptop computers and other mobile or removable devices.

The Office of Management and Budget, Defense Department and General Services Administration jointly awarded the contracts on June 18. While their value depends on how actively agencies purchase through them, they could be worth up to a total of more than $79 million, according to the agencies.

The agreements are intended to provide for the encryption of sensitive, but unclassified, data. The information is called data at rest, or DAR, to indicate it is stored on a disk or other media. Recent thefts of laptop computers from agencies have underscored the importance of protecting the data they hold from prying eyes.

The contract winners are:

• MTM Technologies LLC, Stamford, Conn.
  
• Rocky Mountain Ram LLC, Louisville, Colo.
  
• Carahsoft Technology Corp., Reston, Va.
  
• Spectrum Systems Inc., Fairfax, Va.
  
• SafeNet Inc., Belcamp, Md.
  
• Hi Tech Services Inc., Herndon. Va.
  
• Autonomic Resources LLC, Cary, NC.
  
• GovBuys Inc., Bethesda, Md.
  
• Intelligent Decisions Inc., Ashburn, Va.
  
• Merlin International Inc., Englewood, Colo.