By 
On June 30, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a request for quotations (RFQ) for social media collection, analysis and support. Quotes are due by 12:00 p.m. Eastern on July 10.
This is a Request for Quotation (RFQ) issued on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), Cyber Mission Center (CYMC) for Social Media Collection and Analysis Support Services. DHS intends to issue a Single Award Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contract for Social Media Collection and Analysis Support Services in accordance with the Statement of Work.
The mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) is to equip the Homeland Security Enterprise with the intelligence and information it needs to keep the Homeland safe, secure, and resilient. This Statement of Work (SoW) defines the tasks and deliverables for contractor support to DHS, I&A for detecting foreign influence activity through open source analysis of commercially available public information.
Election security and related malign influence by foreign actors is a top priority and an enduring threat. Foreign adversaries continue to challenge our democracy through influence campaigns designed to affect the views of voters. Russia, China, and Iran have on-going efforts to influence the U.S. political environment in ways that could affect voter preferences or election processes, and they are adept at using social media platforms to foment divisiveness and propagate disinformation to achieve this goal. Currently, there is a significant amount of foreign influence activity targeting U.S. 2020 elections on social media platforms, and the IC’s lack of capability and resources in this area result in this activity being left largely untracked. Agencies with the requisite expertise and tradecraft to do this work are building the capability but those efforts will not be operational in time to help defend the 2020 general election.
An urgent and compelling need exists to build the capacity to detect and mitigate foreign influence operations conducted against the U.S. using social media in time for the 2020 U.S. elections. The FY 2020 National Defense and Intelligence Authorization Act has numerous provisions calling for a more integrated approach to social media data analysis of foreign threat networks, and there is continuous pressure to make real progress in this arena in time for the 2020 election. A small number of companies have been previously identified by other IC partners and the DoD as capable of supporting a limited Request for Proposals to provide social media collection, network and trend analysis, finished intelligence production, and related consulting and briefing services.
The Intelligence Community (IC) has a critical requirement to fill gaps in its understanding of social media trending topics, and procuring third party analytics will provide a bridge until the IC matures its capabilities. This requirement defines the tasks and deliverables for contractor support to DHS, I&A for detecting foreign influence activity through open source analysis of commercially available public information. This foreign influence collection and analysis will result in raw and finished intelligence products that support election security and countering foreign influence efforts.
Full information is available here.
Source: SAM
