The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Office of Information and Technology is seeking a contractor to maintain an Authority to Operate (ATO) for the Social Security Numbers Reduction (SSNR) Tool in the VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) environment.
In a performance work statement (PWS), VA said that it is seeking a contractor to “perform all functions to maintain the ATO for the SSNR tool in the VAEC cloud-based environment to include any and all ATO related requirements including code changes to enhance and upgrade the existing SSNR Tool to meet [Technical Reference Model] requirements and for long-term sustainability and use; security and legal compliance; and the eventual collection, reduction and/or elimination of the use of SSNs in VA databases.”
Additionally, the contractor will need to provide upgrades and maintenance of the VAEC platform to support the functioning of the SSNR Tool, provide database management, troubleshooting, and user-support for VA officials utilizing the SSNR Tool.
An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum requires that VA establish short- and long-term plans to “eliminate the unnecessary collection and use of SSNs.” VA developed the SSNR Tool in 2018 to use enterprise-wide to eliminate the use of SSNs in VA operations, programs, and services because the increased availability of SSNs with the aggregation of other personal identifiers exposes individuals to identity theft.
Further, the contractor will “provide Weekly Progress Reports in electronic form in Microsoft Word and Project formats. The report shall include detailed instructions/explanations for each required data element, to ensure that data is accurate and consistent.”
Responses to this work statement are due July 20.
