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Clauses · FAR · Cybersecurity

FAR 52.204-21 Basic Safeguarding of Covered Contractor Information Systems

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

Subs (including commercial, except COTS) where FCI may reside on or transit through the sub's system

Form
substance
Reaches
all tiers

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-09 · edition Nov 2021 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. A program you have to be running

    You are either running it or you are not, and what the prime asks for is the date it started.

    • Fifteen named controls running on any system of yours that holds or carries the buyer's contract information — access limits, authentication, media sanitization, boundary protection, timely patching and malware scanning

      Owed when federal contract information — information not intended for public release, provided by or generated for the Government under the order — resides in or transits your own system

      52.204-21(b)(1)

When it is used

Contracts where the contractor may have FCI on its own system; not used in exclusively COTS acquisitions. No threshold — applies below the SAT.

Read closely

There is no score, no outside audit and nothing to submit under this clause: the fifteen controls are contract terms you can be held to. It is the floor beneath the controlled unclassified information requirements rather than a substitute for them. Under the class deviations DoD contracting officers have used since 2026-02-01 the same fifteen controls sit at 52.240-93, and the obligation survives the renumbering.

The 18 templates that name it, with the line
76CORPDOC 2A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Commercial Products/Services under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 77143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 93155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 95233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 53251Raytheon TC-001 — General Terms and Conditions of PurchaseRTXline 443166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 204269Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-002 — U.S. Government FFP or T&M Order for Commercial Products and ServicesNorthrop Grummanline 2136166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 1992168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 20816Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-005 — Non-U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price OrderNorthrop Grummanline 2033255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 928243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1851122GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-095 — FFP Purchase Orders for Commercial/COTS Products or Services in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 945240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1395106L3Harris LGL-50.F2 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1246273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 218107Honeywell — Supplemental Provisions Under Fixed Price U.S. Government Contracts for Commercial ItemsHoneywellline 72178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 301

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.204-21, codified text read at FAC 2026-01 (effective 2026-03-13), prescribed at 4.1903 with designation (Nov 2021), and printed [Reserved] in the RFO Part 52 disposition table (verified 2026-08-09)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.