Anchorage-based Koniag company does cybersecurity work for nuclear weapons agency

An Anchorage company in the family of businesses owned by Koniag, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Kodiak Archipelago, is doing cybersecurity work for the federal agency that maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. On Thursday, the Energy Department added $4.7 million to the job, according to the federal award record.

The agency is the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous part of the Energy Department. It is responsible for maintaining the country's nuclear weapons, and it also handles nuclear nonproliferation and emergency response and supplies reactors and fuel for the Navy, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

The award record describes Koniag IT Systems' work in three words: "cyber information assurance." It's paid for out of the agency's weapons budget, and the record lists Washington, D.C., as the place of performance. The agency's public notice for the work didn't include a description of the tasks.

Koniag's job listings for the agency give a sense of the work, though they don't say which contract they're for. Koniag IT Systems has advertised for an information system security officer to support the nuclear security agency, based in Las Vegas, with candidates in Washington, D.C., Maryland and New Mexico also considered. The job requires a Top Secret or Q clearance, the Energy Department's highest level of security clearance. The work is preparing the paperwork that computer systems need before they're approved to run, then keeping watch on whether their security controls hold up.

Another Koniag listing, for a cybersecurity service provider manager on-site in Washington, D.C., also for the nuclear security agency, would lead a team that runs cybersecurity operations. The manager would be the main contact between the agency's information assurance team, federal overseers and the Defense Department command that defends the military's networks.

The agency wants to spend more on cybersecurity. It has asked Congress for $935 million for information technology and cybersecurity in the budget year that began Oct. 1, up 36% from last year, according to its budget request. That program pays for continuous monitoring, cloud technology and systems that control who can get into what.

The agency gave Koniag IT Systems the work last November without competition, through the federal 8(a) program for disadvantaged businesses, which includes companies owned by Alaska Native corporations. With Thursday's addition, about $8 million is committed. The order could reach about $18 million if the department keeps it running through 2029.

Koniag IT Systems also does cybersecurity work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service. At a Commonwealth North panel on the 8(a) program, Nicole Borromeo, president of the ANCSA Regional Association, said, "You will see our corporations in the cybersecurity space."