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Report: US Eyes Sanction Campaign Against Iran’s Precision-Strike Capabilities
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Report: US Eyes Sanction Campaign Against Iran’s Precision-Strike Capabilities

The U.S. government is planning to impose sanctions against Iran’s precision-strike capabilities using guided missiles and drones citing concerns over the threats pose by such weapon systems to the U.S. and its allies, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Officials said zeroing in on Iran’s suppliers of parts used to make unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided missiles and others within its procurement networks could result in a disruption to the Middle Eastern country’s activities.

“It’s part of a comprehensive approach so we’re dealing with all aspects of the Iranian threat,” said a senior U.S. official. Another U.S. official said drones from Iran have become an increasing threat to U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Security officials from the West said they view Iran’s precision-strike capabilities as a larger immediate threat than ballistic missile and nuclear-enrichment initiatives to stability in the region.

The planned move comes as the White House considers scaling up enforcement of oil sanctions to prod Iran to comply again with the 2015 nuclear deal. However, some officials said the measures against Iran’s missiles and drones should be viewed as separate from the nuclear accord.

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GAO Offers Recommendation to OMB Over Contractor Paid Leave Reimbursements
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GAO Offers Recommendation to OMB Over Contractor Paid Leave Reimbursements

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) gather and share lessons learned from agencies’ implementation of section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to reimburse contractors for paid leave in order to inform future federal emergency responses.

Section 3610 of the CARES Act allows agencies to reimburse contractors for paid leave offered to employees who cannot access work locations or telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, GAO said in a report published Wednesday.

GAO assessed the use of section 3610 authorities by NASA and the departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS) and Energy (DOE) and found that the four agencies reported $882.8 million in paid leave costs over a period of 14 months.

The report showed that the agencies implemented policies and monitored paid leave reimbursements in various ways.

The congressional watchdog interviewed 15 contractors about the effect of paid leave reimbursement on workforce retention and 12 of them said such a measure had a “great” or “moderate effect” on efforts to retain personnel.

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GSA Announces April 2022 Transition to New Entity Verification System
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GSA Announces April 2022 Transition to New Entity Verification System

The General Services Administration has set April 4, 2022 as the deadline for transitioning to the new Unique Entity ID to help verify individuals, companies or organizations that want to do business with the federal government.

GSA said Wednesday vendors and other entities that previously registered in the System for Award Management website have been assigned a UEI that can be viewed in SAM.gov’s entity registration record.

Aside from SAM.gov, other Integrated Award Environment systems such as FSRS, FPDS.gov, CPARS and FAPIIS will require entities to use the UEI starting April 2022.

Sub-awardees and other entities with a DUNS number but are not registered in SAM.gov can request a UEI through the website starting this October.

“In preparation for the full transition to the Unique Entity ID (SAM), you should prepare any of your own internal systems to accept the new identifier and to stop using the DUNS number for federal awards processes by April 2022,” GSA said.

GSA added that agencies will start migrating to UEI between now and April of next year and entities should pay attention to instructions from such agencies with regard to the use of the new identifier.

In March 2019, GSA awarded Ernst & Young a contract to provide support for the new entity validation system.

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Army, IBM, University Researchers Pen Book on Network Performance Management Techniques
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Army, IBM, University Researchers Pen Book on Network Performance Management Techniques

Researchers from the U.S. Army, IBM, University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Imperial College London have written a book covering studies about network performance tomography.

The book "Network Tomography: Identifiability, Measurement Design and Network State Inference," published by Cambridge University Press, describes several techniques for indirectly reconstructing a communications network's internal state by examining external information from edge nodes, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) said Wednesday.

ARL noted the authors also offered best practices and guidelines for using network tomography in various applications such as peer autonomous systems and military coalition networks.

Ananthram Swami, the Army's senior research scientist for network science, said the book "covers all major components of network tomography, from the construction of a measurement system to the computation of the network state of interest."

Researchers plan to expand their work to include inferring link properties to help in resource allocation for tactical network analytics. They are also looking to study network tomography along with topology inference and quantum networks. 

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NASA Tests Imaging System Designed for Moon Landing Safety; Ron Sostaric Quoted
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NASA Tests Imaging System Designed for Moon Landing Safety; Ron Sostaric Quoted

NASA has tested the performance of a hazard detection lidar (HDL) technology in potentially producing images of extraterrestrial planetary surfaces and supporting safe landing for space exploration.

The space agency said Wednesday that its Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) effort prototyped and demonstrated an HDL system at Goddard Space Flight Center.

The HDL operated from a metal rig on a pickup truck and collected 3D images of buildings while traveling at various speeds and angles.

"It can collect 16 million data points in just two seconds, and each range measurement is accurate to about one centimeter,” said Ron Sostaric, SPLICE project manager, said about the HDL prototype.

NASA believes SPLICE's sensors and algorithms could help future Moon missions visualize complex landing sites such as those with shadowed craters and dangerous boulders.

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Army Researchers Develop New ML Framework to Improve In-Vehicle Network Cybersecurity
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Army Researchers Develop New ML Framework to Improve In-Vehicle Network Cybersecurity

U.S. Army researchers have developed a new machine learning-based framework that optimizes the moving target defense method used in protecting in-vehicle computer networks.

The deep reinforcement learning-based resource allocation and moving target defense deployment framework helps identify the optimal internet protocol shuffling frequency and bandwidth allocation for effective moving target defense, the Army said Tuesday.

Frederica Free-Nelson, an Army computer scientist and the DESOLATOR program lead, noted that the framework keeps networks unpredictable for hackers without being costly for operators and affecting computer performance.

By fastly shuffling IP addresses, "the information assigned to the IP quickly becomes lost, and the adversary has to look for it again," explained Terrence Moore, an Army mathematician.

The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) teamed up with Virginia Tech, Australia's University of Queensland and South Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology to develop DESOLATOR.

Since it is based on machine learning, the framework can be modified by other researchers to solve various problems.

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DOE Provides $60M to Passenger Car, Vehicle Decarbonization R&D; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE Provides $60M to Passenger Car, Vehicle Decarbonization R&D; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $60 million to 24 research and development projects aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions of passenger cars and trucks. 

The projects will study work on improving electric vehicle batteries and systems, preparing for new mobility technologies, developing lightweight chassis materials, lessening exhaust emissions and understanding the environmental impact of EV innovations, DOE said Wednesday.

Research by General Motors, the University of Pittsburgh and other fund recipients will tackle two of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.

"DOE’s investment in these 24 projects will create technologies and techniques that will cut vehicle greenhouse emissions and boost America’s competitiveness in the global clean energy market," said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The projects, funded through DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicles Technology Office, are in line with the U.S.' goal of maintaining a lead in the battery technology R&D sector.

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Gen. Glen VanHerck: DOD Tests Collaborative Communications in Connectivity-Limited Places
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Gen. Glen VanHerck: DOD Tests Collaborative Communications in Connectivity-Limited Places

Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command, told reporters that his group tested the performance of a collaborative communications system in environments where connectivity is limited.

Global Information Dominance Experiment 3 (GIDE 3) ran from July 8 to 15 to test how combatant commands can collaboratively boost domain awareness and support decision making through artificial intelligence and sensors, DOD News reported Wednesday.

The Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated this collaborative application between 11 combatant commands and other DOD components during the experiment.

GIDE 3 also aimed to trial how DOD can augment decision-making across both tactical and strategic levels, VanHerck noted.

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US, UK, Australia Agencies List Common Vulnerabilities in Joint Advisory; CISA’s Eric Goldstein Quoted
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US, UK, Australia Agencies List Common Vulnerabilities in Joint Advisory; CISA’s Eric Goldstein Quoted

Cybersecurity agencies from the U.S., the U.K. and Australia have released a joint advisory detailing the 30 most exploited vulnerabilities in 2020 and 2021.

The FBI, one of the agencies, said Wednesday that malicious actors mostly targeted remote work, virtual private networks and cloud-based technologies, with many cyber weaknesses left unpatched.

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA), Australian Cyber Security Centre and U.K. National Cyber Security Center, together with the FBI, provided organizations the vendors, products, and common vulnerabilities and exposures that need urgent patching.

The group also listed resource materials and various government and industry partners that could help in mitigating and remediating cyber weaknesses. The joint advisory comes weeks after CISA launched new tools for securing government-issued smartphones and other mobile devices.

"Organizations that apply the best practices of cybersecurity, such as patching, can reduce their risk to cyber actors exploiting known vulnerabilities in their networks," said Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

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James Beutel: 5G May Help Air Force Unlock Modern Data Applications
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James Beutel: 5G May Help Air Force Unlock Modern Data Applications

James Beutel, deputy chief technology officer of the Department of the Air Force, said 5G has the potential to serve as a gateway for a range of “futuristic” data-centric applications including artificial intelligence, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

He said at the Verizon-sponsored Federal Insights discussion that 5G could allow for head-up displays, virtual reality and other applications with the potential to speed up data transmissions.

“You talk about how much of force multiplier that is when one person can see that much data at one time and be able to share it and talk to with leaders in real-time,” he said.

Beutel said 5G could also address the complex data processing needs of AI in support of critical decision-making. The deputy CTO said the Air Force expects to have 5G technology implemented across all bases.

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