Since being appointed to his new position last June, Floyd has been promoting the use of various social media to spread the DoD’s message.

“This means all [DoD] components have been told … that the default switch on access is to be open,” Floyd said March 10 at a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable. “It’s balanced with the need to be security-conscious and tells the combatant commands to continue to deny access to sites when people try to access them inappropriately.”

The new policy supports longstanding regulations denying access to Web sites with inappropriate content, such as gambling, hate crimes or pornography, he said. The policy also considers the importance of operational security, which he said becomes more important because of social media’s reach.

“Don’t say or do anything on these sites you wouldn’t say or do in any other form of communication,” he said. “The people here in public affairs have started an education campaign to push out both the fact that we have this new policy, and the need to use it appropriately.”

The policy comes largely as a result of a culture shift outside the DoD, Floyd said. That shift needs to be carried over into the department’s culture, he added, as young people, many of whom have grown up using sites such as MySpace and Facebook, join the military.

“I think we have work here to do at the Defense Department,” Floyd said. “People who are coming into the military take all of this for granted. They can’t imagine a world where one didn’t have access to these sorts of sites. For those of us who are a little longer in the tooth, it’s only been in the past few years that we’ve seen these developments and discovered how useful they can be. So we have some education and cultural shifting to do.”

The early months of the new policy will be a learning period for everyone, Floyd said. In six months, he added, a review will lead to further guidance. However, for now, he encouraged exploration of social media.

“We shouldn’t be so dogmatic about this stuff,” he said. “Try new things, see what works. What works for me here in Washington might not work on a base somewhere else. I would encourage people to open a Twitter account, create a Facebook page, and see what works for them and their audience.”

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“These incredible young people, the enthusiasm they have, and they have some good feedback about partnering with the Afghans,” Gates said. “And talking to them directly always in some ways is more reliable than what you see on a PowerPoint slide.”

Among his stops were the headquarters of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, where 22 names of fallen soldiers were read. The 17th Infantry is part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade based at Fort Lewis, Wash. The unit was supposed to deploy to Iraq, but the mission shifted when President Barack Obama ordered more troops to Afghanistan.

Addressing how the area around Frontenac was a Taliban redoubt, Gates praised the soldiers for their efforts to endure roadside bombs and indirect and direct fire.

“You came into an area that was totally controlled by the Taliban,” Gates said to about 200 soldiers at the battalion headquarters. “You fought for critical battle space, you bled for it, and now you own it. And you demonstrated extraordinary courage and determination in making that happen.”

Gates said he wants to ensure that servicemembers in the fight get the tools they need to do the job. He noted he has read a memo calling for improvements to the Stryker wheeled armored vehicle to make it more effective in Afghanistan, and he is overseeing the effort to get more all-terrain mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles to the fight.

The secretary also met with young soldiers in Now Zad and Marines serving in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, and visited Regional Command South leaders before taking a V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft to Frontenac. Gates said the young servicemembers he met are inspirational.

“They are resilient, they know what they’ve lost, and yet they seem very committed and very much with their heads in the game,” he said. “They know what they are here to do, and they are clearly prepared to do whatever it takes personally to make it happen. I was very impressed.”

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In her address at a conference in San Francisco, Napolitano declared, “We need to recognize that those answers are found not just in Silicon Valley or Washington D.C., but in the wisdom of crowds, in the creativity of a classroom, a series of small refinements and large technological leaps.”

Ideas for the campaign need to be submitted by April 30. What will the winner of the contest receive? He or she will be invited to an event in DC at the end of the spring to work with the department in the planning process of the campaign that will be launched in October, during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

This contest prize aligns with the release of the memo by Zients on Monday because it is not an end in itself, but it is a way to spur more innovation in change. Ideas can be submitted to this website: http://www.dhs.gov/files/cyber-awareness-campaign.shtm

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The increased funds will go into projects that are in the Veterans Health Administration, as well as the Veterans Benefits Administration. The senate committee also wanted to increase funding for the Veteran Affairs Telehealth budget by 23%.

Ironically, Roger Baker, the Veterans Affairs Department CIO, said he did not need any more funding for fiscal 2011. If all of these new increase proposals go through, Baker and the VA Department will have a budget of nearly $7 billion.

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To cull information from officials of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the committee organized public meetings, including contractors involved in the development of its environmental impact statement. Also included were Fort Detrick emergency personnel, the Frederick County Board of Commissioners and members of the local community.

While acknowledging the uncovered problems, the committee came to the conclusion “that it would not be useful to propose specific revisions to the environmental impact statement given that construction of the new facilities has begun.  Rather, the Army should develop new guidelines for conducting hazard assessments of biocontainment facilities.”  There is, at this time, no specific guidance for such assessments.

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The Army has invited companies who are bidding on the email contract to partner up with the Defense Information Systems Agency. DISA operates 13 computer centers worldwide and would be able to house the email system.

Using numerous systems creates a more vulnerable environment for potential cyberattacks. Multiple systems can also lead to large administrative costs, so the consolidation would be a large cost-cutter. Sorenson hopes to have the entire Defense Department using it in the future.

The department hopes to have the service completely consolidated by fall of 2011. Due to the fact that it is going to be built on Microsoft Exchange 2010, Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting, remarked, “No matter who bids, Microsoft is the winner.”

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This advanced imaging technology has been rather controversial because it is in a way a “virtual strip search.” The Transportation Security Administration promises blurred images and remote viewing, however, privacy advocates still believe this is an invasion of privacy.

However, the Christmas Day attack begs a different response. Would the terrorist be able to smuggle the explosives in his underwear if there were full body scanners? The answer is probably not.

In the aftermath of the event, there has been much debate over the airport body scanners. However, the number controversial body scanners will continue to grow. TSA plans to have 450 more body scanners by the end of 2010.

In the immediate future, they plan to add 11 more to U.S airports from the following list: Boston Logan International, Charlotte Douglas International, Chicago O’Hare International, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, Kansas City International, Los Angeles International, Mineta San Jose International, Oakland International, Port Columbus International, and San Diego International.

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Harding retired from the Army in 2001 after a 33-year-long career in the military. Some of his roles in the Army included most recently the Army’s chief of intelligence, and prior that role he served as director for operations in the Defense Intelligence Agency.

After Harding retired from the Army, he started Harding Security Associates, which is a defense and intelligence contracting firm. Harding has been selected to head TSA after Erroll Southers was removed from consideration back in January due to reports that he may have been misleading Congress about an incident back in the late 1980s.

Harding will acquire many responsibilities at TSA, including handling issues associated with the new body-scanning machines after the Christmas Day bombing attack, as well as dealing with whether or not TSA employees should get collective bargaining rights.

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In a request posted on FedBizOpps earlier this week, DARPA wrote: “In today’s military, handheld systems are characterized by a tight integration of specialized hardware with a narrowly focused software suite. Most of the handheld devices are heavily optimized for a particular task and are ill-suited for general-purpose use.”

The agency also called for a transformation in technical approaches and business processes that ideally would result in rapid development of applications and system enhancement used by warfighters; encouragement and support of competition among suppliers in the military applications development process, and support of new business models and streamlined processes to incentivize suppliers.

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“The Department of Defense banned flash-media devices over a year ago due to network threats,” said Maj. Gen. Michael J. Basla, the Air Force Space Command vice commander. “These threats have not disappeared. There are a number of military and government agencies working to mitigate these threats. The Air Force will be a partner in these mitigation strategies as we work to allow the limited use of flash media for mission essential requirements.”

STRATCOM said the services and combatant commands must develop policies and procedures for use of flash media on their computers and networks. The Army will not lift its ban on flash drives until certain conditions outlined by STRATCOM are met, including using only government-approved flash media and operational practices to ensure that malicious code does not infect Army systems.

According to NextGov, while he did not provide any details, Navy Lt. Myers Vasquez said the service has an interim ban in effect while its cyber command, the 10th Fleet, conducts a review of the STRATCOM policy.

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