ATTACHMENT J Security Appendix C VA Handbook 6500 6

VA Handbook 6500.6

APPENDIX C

April 22, 2024

APPENDIX C — VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY AND

PRIVACY LANGUAGE FOR INCLUSION IN CONTRACTS, AS APPROPRIATE

NOTE: Any sections (1-14) which DO NOT apply should not be included in the Statement of Work (SOW), Performance Work Statement (PWS), Product Description (PD) or contract.
1. GENERAL. This entire section applies to all acquisitions requiring any Information Security and Privacy language. Contractors, contractor personnel, subcontractors and subcontractor personnel will be subject to the same federal laws, regulations, standards, VA directives and handbooks, as VA personnel regarding information and information system security and privacy.
2. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE. This entire section applies to all acquisitions requiring any Information Security and Privacy language. a. Information made available to the contractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract will be used only for the purposes specified in the service agreement, SOW, PWS, PD, and/or contract. The contractor shall not use VA information in any other manner without prior written approval from a VA Contracting Officer (CO). The primary clause used to define Government and Contractor data rights is FAR 52.227-14 Rights in Data – General. b. VA information will not be co-mingled with any other data on the contractor’s information systems or media storage systems. The contractor shall ensure compliance with Federal and VA requirements related to data protection, data encryption, physical data segregation, logical data segregation, classification requirements and media sanitization.
c. VA reserves the right to conduct scheduled or unscheduled audits, assessments, or investigations of contractor Information Technology (IT) resources to ensure information security is compliant with Federal and VA requirements. The contractor shall provide all necessary access to records (including electronic and documentary materials related to the contracts and subcontracts) and support (including access to contractor and subcontractor staff associated with the contract) to VA, VA's Office Inspector General (OIG),

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VA HANDBOOK 6500.6

APPENDIX C

April 22, 2024

and/or Government Accountability Office (GAO) staff during periodic control assessments, audits, or investigations.
e. The contractor may only use VA information within the terms of the contract and applicable Federal law, regulations, and VA policies. If new Federal information