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IARPA Advances DNA Data Storage Tech Development Via MIST Program; David Markowitz Quoted
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IARPA Advances DNA Data Storage Tech Development Via MIST Program; David Markowitz Quoted

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is pursuing a multiyear research program that seeks to develop next-generation technologies for data storage using synthetic DNA. 

The Molecular Information Storage (MIST) program intends to use manufactured DNA to build data storage platforms that can scale into 1 million terabytes while allowing organizations to reduce the physical footprint, cost and power requirements, IARPA said Friday.

“When fully realized, MIST will be a game-changer for the Intelligence Community, government, industry, and academia by significantly expanding data storage capacity while dramatically reducing the space needed, environmental impact, and expense,” said David Markowitz, MIST program manager at IARPA.

Some of the organizations selected to work on the MIST program are the Broad Institute and the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory will work with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to test the technologies that will emerge from the program.

“I’m excited about the possibilities DNA storage technology offers,” noted Markowitz.

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Air Force Seeks to Automate Data Sharing; Lauren Knausenberger Quoted
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Air Force Seeks to Automate Data Sharing; Lauren Knausenberger Quoted

The U.S. Air Force is working on a draft strategy to guide the military branch’s investments in robotic process automation (RPA) and other areas and Lauren Knausenberger, the service’s chief information officer and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said a large portion of that strategy seeks to automate data sharing, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“When we’re talking about moving data, or talking about visualizing data, we want to do more and more with feeds that are automatically sending data to where it needs to go, rather than having operators have to get into loops,” Knausenberger said. “So we still do have a problem with that in certain places, or you know we’re passing data via chat in certain places.”

In 2020, the Air Force inquired about tasks warfighters want to be automated through the Vice Chief’s Challenge and selected 15 proposals as part of the program, including a chat bot that could respond to financial queries at Air Education Training Command.

Knausenberger said those initiatives are now in various implementation phases and that she wants to see the service make RPA applications widely available as part of its cloud platform.

“What I’d like to get us to is for robotic process automation is, here are the products that are accredited for our networks. Let’s have them available and easily consumable in cloud one,” she said. “And let’s have industry be thinking as part of their solutions, ‘How do I use those enterprise services to help you?’”

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Oracle Eyes Healthcare IT Expansion With $28B Cerner Buy; Safra Catz, Larry Ellison Quoted
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Oracle Eyes Healthcare IT Expansion With $28B Cerner Buy; Safra Catz, Larry Ellison Quoted

Oracle Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire North Kansas City, Missouri-based health information technology company, Cerner Corporation, in an all-cash tender offer for $95 per share.

Under the $28.3 billion transaction, Oracle will implement its Autonomous Database, Voice Digital Assistant user interface and low-code development tools to modernize Cerner’s electronic medical records systems and move them to Oracle’s cloud environment, the companies said Monday.

Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, said the deal builds on Oracle’s increasing revenue growth rate and will help the company expand its footprint in the healthcare vertical market, which Catz noted was valued at $3.8 trillion last year in the United States.

“We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to Oracle’s earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closing—and contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter,” Catz explained.

She added that Cerner will be a “huge additional revenue growth engine” as the company broadens its growth trajectory internationally.

Additionally, Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer for Oracle, commented, “With this acquisition, Oracle’s corporate mission expands to assume the responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications.”

He said, “This new generation of medical information systems promises to lower the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, improve patient privacy and outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs.”

The purchase, which marks Oracle’s largest to date, is expected to close in 2022 upon receiving regulatory and stockholder approvals and satisfying other closing conditions.

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Air Force Lab Taps 2 Teams for Space University Research Initiative
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Air Force Lab Taps 2 Teams for Space University Research Initiative

The Air Force Research Laboratory has selected two multi-institute teams to research topics related to space logistics, mobility and domain awareness under the new Space University Research Initiative program.

Around 32 researchers and students from eight universities and one business could receive up to $1 million in annual funding between three and five years to help transition concepts from academia into military capabilities, AFRL said Friday.

Representatives from Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M, University of New Mexico and Northrop Grumman will look for research enablers for space logistics and servicing activities such as assembly and refueling to inform existing satellite design and operation procedures.

Meanwhile, participants from the University of Buffalo, Pennsylvania State University, Georgia Institute University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Purdue University will explore various space domain awareness applications such as sensors, data fusion and autonomy.

“We are excited to kick-off this new initiative as one AFRL supporting two services that strengthens the way we lead and manage the transition from academic basic research, through expanded AFRL and industry partnerships, to applications for our Air Force and Space Force,” explained William Roach, Air Force Office of Scientific Research chief scientist.

AFRL received 40 full proposals for the SURI funding opportunity.

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GAO: DHS Must Take Steps to Fully Implement Contractor Privacy Policies
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GAO: DHS Must Take Steps to Fully Implement Contractor Privacy Policies

The Government Accountability Office advises the Department of Homeland Security to take steps that boost oversight of contractors’ privacy controls and incident mitigation.

DHS has made policies to protect contractors’ personally identifiable information but has not yet fully complied with all of them, GAO said Thursday.

The government watchdog cited as an example that DHS headquarters did not provide a complete set of privacy training to contractors.

These policies supposedly address a set of federal privacy requirements including the oversight of contractor-operated information systems and the maintenance of a comprehensive privacy program.

GAO made a total of seven recommendations, including one that urges the U.S. Coast Guard’s privacy office to establish a time frame for developing a gap assessment process regarding a contractor’s privacy compliance.

Google Cloud Extends NSF Partnership to Support Research at Minority-Serving Institutions
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Google Cloud Extends NSF Partnership to Support Research at Minority-Serving Institutions

Katie Berlent, strategy and operations lead for education at Google Cloud, said the company has extended its partnership with the National Science Foundation to offer research credits and training to principal investigators from minority-serving institutions.

Google Cloud will support NSF-funded projects through the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Minority-Serving Institutions Research Expansion Program, which awards up to $7 million in funding annually, Berlent said in a blog post published Thursday.

The company will deliver live, instructor-led courses and workshops to teach CISE-MSI program awardees about the fundamentals of cloud and the big data and machine learning capabilities of the technology.

The program is aimed at advancing research programs and fostering innovation in the sciences, engineering and technology fields at MSIs. It covers research areas such as cyber-physical systems, secure and trustworthy cyberspace and smart connected communities.

Fay Cobb Payton, program director in the NSF’s CISE directorate, said four of the 25 projects that secured funding in September intend to use Google Cloud for research in areas like artificial intelligence, deep learning, data science, cyber systems, distributed frameworks and wireless networks.

“This collaboration improves support and lowers costs for PIs, who get access to Google Cloud credits and resources like CloudBank, as well as training for researchers and students,” said Payton.

Alice Kamens, strategic projects and program manager for higher education at Google Cloud, said that allowing principal investigators to request cloud computing resources “resulted in a higher level of cloud adoption, which benefited their proposals and will now benefit their research.”

Principal investigators looking to apply for the next round of the program must submit their applications until Feb. 11, 2022.

NATO Seeks Public Input on Information Environment Assessment Capability
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NATO Seeks Public Input on Information Environment Assessment Capability

Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, has released a request for information seeking public comments on the future NATO Information Environment Assessment Program.

In a special notice published Tuesday, HQ SACT said the intergovernmental military alliance requires an information environment assessment capability that combines analysts’ experience with data management, predictive analytics and visualization into a common digital platform to support strategic communications and inform decision-making.

The capability would support NATO analysts in assessing and visualizing open-source, publicly available information and drawing conclusions and recommendations to help senior leaders and communicators make data-driven decisions.

The IEA team is seeking information on data management and data analysis tools capable of supporting the development of a non-monolithic modular componentized platform and is looking for potential sources of information.

Interested parties have until Feb. 28, 2021, to respond to the RFI.

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CMMC Accreditation Body Elects New Board Officers; Karlton Johnson, Jeff Dalton Quoted
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CMMC Accreditation Body Elects New Board Officers; Karlton Johnson, Jeff Dalton Quoted

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body has elected new officers for its 2022 board of directors.

Following the election, Jeff Dalton will serve as chairman, Paul Michaels will assume the role of vice chair and Sheryl Hanchar will serve her second term as secretary, CMMC-AB said Monday.

Outgoing Chairman Karlton Johnson noted that the CMMC-AB was responsible for establishing a new ecosystem to support cybersecurity missions for the nation’s defense industrial base, which he identified as a top national security challenge.

Johnson commented on the recent appointments, “I am extremely proud of the work that the CMMC-AB has accomplished thus far, and I know the next slate of Board officers will guide the organization to an even higher level of excellence.”

Jeff Dalton, who succeeds Johnson as chairman of the board, previously served as vice chair. Currently, Dalton serves as CEO and president of Broadsword Solutions Corporation, and he has certifications in Scaled Agile Framework, Capability Maturity Model Integration and Agile Performance Holarchy.

Dalton thanked Johnson for his leadership during a “critical time” and outlined his priorities for his term as chair, including enhanced training, recruitment and certification efforts.

He shared, “Two of my top goals are to ensure that all CMMC participants understand that the recently announced ‘CMMC 2.0’ offers continued, compelling and implementable value, as well as to provide our CEO, Matthew Travis, all the tools and support he needs to make the CMMC-AB and the entire ecosystem successful.”

Other newly elected officials include Vice Chair Paul Michaels, who previously held the role of acting government security officer and chair of the ethics and compliance committee. Michaels, CEO and founder of Monoc Securities, holds certifications from the National Association of Corporate Directors and the CERT Cyber Risk Oversight Certificate program.

In addition, Sheryl Hanchar has been elected to serve her second term as secretary. Hanchar currently serves as vice president and chief information security officer for CAES. Previously, she served over 20 years as a naval officer for the U.S. Navy Reserve.

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DOJ CTO Ron Bewtra Steps Down
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DOJ CTO Ron Bewtra Steps Down

Ron Bewtra, who has served as chief technology officer at the Department of Justice since 2015, has left the federal government after an 18-year career. according to his LinkedIn post.

“I’m excited to start this next chapter in my career and will share details soon,” he noted.

As the DOJ CTO, Bewtra provided strategic technology direction for the department’s key emerging technology projects that include data management, geospatial data, analytics and artificial intelligence.

He previously worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 2003 to 2015, which included three years as the agency’s CTO.

The earlier part of his career was spent at Raytheon Company, SGI and FNX Limited.

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Maj. Gen. Davis Nominated Air Force Inspector General
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Maj. Gen. Davis Nominated Air Force Inspector General

President Biden has nominated Maj. Gen. Stephen Davis to serve as inspector general for the Department of the Air Force.

The Department of Defense said Friday Davis, who serves as director of global power programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, is also in line to receive a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general.

In his current capacity, he oversees more than 150 domestic and international programs with a combined annual budget of approximately $22 billion. These include the Air Force’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, E-4B National Airborne Operations Center and F-35 programs.

He joined the Air Force in 1989 as an undergraduate military training student at Vandenberg AF Base in California and later took on staff assignments at the Air Force Space Command, Air and Joint Staffs, U.S. Strategic Command and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

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