The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently awarded CenturyLink [CTL] a service expansion contract to provide EINSTEIN 3 Accelerated (E3A) protections to federal civilian agencies, the company said Monday.
The CenturyLink contract covers agencies that cannot otherwise access E3A services through existing internet service providers (ISPs). It was earlier awarded a contract to provide the EINSTEIN cybersecurity protections in March 2013
The new contract features a six-month base award of $1.2 million with four one-year options, a DHS official said.
The EINSTEIN program is meant to guard the perimeter of an agency network, akin to a gateway and perimeter scanners. E3A, the latest version of the EINSTEIN system, adds to the first and second phases. EINSTEIN 1 serves and records basic information about entry and exit to a network, akin to a camera. EINSTEIN 2 detects known prohibited adversaries and alert personnel. E3A resides with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that serve the federal government and uses classified information to both identify and block known malicious traffic.
Under E3A, the company offers web Domain Name Systems (DNS) protections, advanced email filtering, and signature-based intrusion prevention security services to agencies that receive internet service through CenturyLink, the company said.
The expansion contract also allows CenturyLink to provide these services to other federal civilian departments and agencies whose internet providers are not able to deploy these cybersecurity protections.
“CenturyLink is excited to be able to offer EINSTEIN cybersecurity protections to more federal agencies. CenturyLink’s E3A service was the first to achieve initial operating capability from DHS and the first fully operational E3A system to begin actively providing cybersecurity services to federal civilian agencies’ end-users,” Tim Meehan, CenturyLink senior vice president and general manager, who leads the company’s federal government team, said in a statement.
CenturyLink also highlighted its status as a commercial services provider under the DHS Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (ECS) program. ECS allows voluntary information sharing involving sensitive and classified information to assist U.S.-based entities from unauthorized access, exploitation, and data exfiltration.
“By supplying E3A and ECS services over its carrier-class network, CenturyLink is able to provide federal government agencies and U.S.-based companies with the information security and reliability they need to carry out their missions,” the company said.
CenturyLink is one of three providers currently offering E3A services along with Verizon [VRZN] and AT&T [ATT] (Defense Daily, Nov. 13).