Lockheed Martin Wins Pentagon's Cyber Crime Center Contract, Will Run U.S. Cyber Crime Lab

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp on Thursday said it had won a contract worth up to $454 million to support the Pentagon's Cyber Crime Center, a government facility that investigates the growing number of attacks on U.S. government networks.

Lockheed beat out General Dynamics Corp, which previously ran the center, to win the contract in January, but the award was held up by a protest filed with the General Accountability Office.

General Dynamics had protested the contract award but dropped its protest after securing a subcontract with Lockheed, according to a source familiar with the decision.

Lockheed spokeswoman Darci Bushey declined comment on the role that General Dynamics would play on the new contract.

The company said it would deliver a full range of technical, functional, and managerial support to the lab, which helps investigate criminal, espionage and terrorist threats to government networks.

The center also provides support to the Defense Industrial Base, a pilot program that allows the U.S. government to swap data on cyber threats with 37 weapons makers and which is due to be expanded to 200 companies in coming months.

Lockheed said the contract has a ceiling value of $454 million if all options are exercised.

Lockheed, the largest provider of information technology to the federal government, said it would bring its extensive cyber analysis expertise to management of the center.

"Because of its size and importance, the (Department of Defense) is targeted by cyber criminals ranging from terrorists to spies to identity thieves," Lockheed said, noting that its team of cyber experts would help the government deal with the threat, which is growing in volume and complexity.

The company said its work will include digital and multimedia forensics examination, analysis, research, development, test and evaluation, information technology and cyber analytical services.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Comments

[Max Sevilla]

01:23 AM on 05/05/2012

should have just contracted Anonymous

[ReignSupreme]

03:12 AM on 05/07/2012

They didn't think it through. Rather than doing their jobs, they want to milk the US government of it's money first before they start doing something. Anonymous would've probably did that for half and still do twice a better job.

[Suz LeBoeuf]

11:13 PM on 05/04/2012

Does Lockheed and the Pentagon really want to protect citizens from energy based technologies that torture citizens? Does the U.S. really want to uncover their energy-based technologies that access people's nervous systems, taking over their bodies and brains and flogging them nearly to death?
I am a victim of such technologies that I believe John Flemming wrote about in his article: "Big Brother: Spying on Americans, The Threat of Satellite Surveillance" here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21433
Please sign a petition to expose and stop this madness: http://signon.org/sign/stop-harmful-energy-based
We need your support - expose this network of violence and corruption taking our lives away. The public needs to wake up to this and pressure our Congress to investigate this and tell the public the truth about these advanced weapons.
My latest article, "Satellites and Citizens United" is here: http://cfasw.net/Politics.html
War and surveillance to control the population is too powerful for wealthy criminals to resist. You can murder people and make it look like a heart attack or some other natural cause, or you can cause an accident or stage a crime to be committed by someone you have control of if you have enough money and technology to do so.

[Carbon Forteetoo]

12:37 PM on 05/04/2012

That's not a crime lab!

Where are all the green and yellow spotlights washing stylish lighting effects through decorative grating, and glass walls? Where are the racks of test-tubes and beakers containing neon colored liquids with no stoppers? Where are the beautiful lab techs holding samples up close to their faces, then spotting a rare lizard scale that only exists in one place, thus solving the case? Where is the wall-sized computer screen that add elaborate, processor intensive, animations when displaying test results, with enough audible beeps, trills and warbles to drive a lab tech insane? Where's the computer that can take a fuzzy, ATM camera photo and zoom in to a perfectly sharp frame showing a license plate, a mile away?

That guy in the photo above probably doesn't even surf on his days off!

[ProudGOPMember]

05:32 PM on 05/04/2012

I assume that you are being facetious as what you describe is only on TV and the movies. Real life computer forensics labs don't look much different than any other workplace, just with specialized (but normal looking) computer equipment or software.

[alientotech]

12:04 PM on 05/04/2012

should have just contracted Anonymous

[Sundialsvc4]

11:25 AM on 05/04/2012

And why isn't anyone outside of the military industrial complex asking hard questions about why this amount of money is being spent?

[alientotech]

12:08 PM on 05/04/2012

the wars are winding down..have to keep defense co. in the loot system...even when what they are selling is just a ridiculous idea