Technology

GSA to delve deeper into counterfeit technology issues

Six meetings planned over the next three months to look at variety of topics.

Federal News Network Staff

June 5, 2009 2:57 pm

1 min read

By Jason Miller
Executive Editor
FederalNewsRadio

Over the next three months, the Federal Acquisition Councils will hold six public meetings on counterfeit technology.

Each of the all-day meetings will address different subject areas “to develop greater assurances regarding the authenticity of IT products acquired by the government,” the councils say in a June 3 Federal Register notice.

Some of the meeting topics will include:

Performance and security
Contractor liability and consequential damages
Competitiveness issues associated with procuring IT products from the original equipment manufacturers or authorized distributor
Identifying viable means of authenticating IT products
Contractor supply chain risk management requirements as an evaluation factor in procurements

All the meetings will take place — the first one is scheduled for June 23 — at the General Services Administration’s headquarters in Washington.

These discussions follow one that GSA held in December that provided insight into just how bad counterfeit technology has become in the public sector.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will issue a report later this year detailing just how serious the problem has become.

At the December meeting, BIS detailed some initial findings including companies discovering 473 counterfeit electronics through Customs and Border Protection notifications.

That is up from 120 in 2007.

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On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio — Preliminary Data Shows Technology Counterfeiting Is Rampant

GPO — Federal Register notice of counterfeit IT meetings

Commerce Department — Bureau of Industry and Security press release of counterfeit technology study