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GAO to Issue Report on Pandemic-Driven Tech Adoption’s Cyber Impacts; Jennifer Franks Quoted
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GAO to Issue Report on Pandemic-Driven Tech Adoption’s Cyber Impacts; Jennifer Franks Quoted

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to issue a report in fiscal year 2022 about the impact of technology adoption driven by mass telework on federal agencies’ cybersecurity posture, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity at GAO, said Tuesday at a webinar she cannot discuss the report’s findings but noted an expansion in agencies’ threat surface as more employees shifted to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And that this was a risk agencies were willing to indeed accept to maintain the health and safety of their employees, among other reasons, during the pandemic,” Franks said.

She called on agencies to adopt zero trust and implement proactive threat hunting measures. She also noted that the congressional watchdog intends to broaden its reviews in the near future to include risks to supply chains amid recent cyberattacks.

“So now not only do agencies have to worry about their network, but now we have to worry about the networks of the entities of supposed ‘trusted’ partners and suppliers,” Franks added.

Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations

ExecutiveBiz, sister site of GovConDaily and part of the Executive Mosaic digital media umbrella, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” event.

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House Panel OKs Measure to Add Nearly $25B to President’s FY 2022 Defense Budget Request
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House Panel OKs Measure to Add Nearly $25B to President’s FY 2022 Defense Budget Request

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) voted 42-17 Wednesday to approve an amendment that would increase the topline of the defense budget for fiscal year 2022 to $778 billion, The Hill reported.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the House panel's ranking member, introduced the amendment, which reflects a $37 billion increase from the FY 2021 enacted level and a rise of nearly $25 billion from the president’s FY 2022 defense budget proposal of $753 billion.

The amendment to the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposes $9.8 billion for procurement, including $4.7 billion for shipbuilding and $1.7 billion for aircraft.

Breaking Defense reported that the measure includes $5.2 billion for research, development, test and evaluation; $4.2 billion for innovation; $3 billion for operation and maintenance; $490 million for space; and $780 million for missile defense.

“The bipartisan adoption of my amendment sends a clear signal: the President’s budget submission was wholly inadequate to keep pace with a rising China and a re-emerging Russia,” Rogers said in a statement.

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Labor Department Stands up New Office to Update Unemployment Insurance System
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Labor Department Stands up New Office to Update Unemployment Insurance System

The Department of Labor has created a new office to strategically lead the modernization of the country's unemployment insurance system.

The Office of Unemployment Insurance (UI) will work with partner agencies and state governments to implement a UI system modernization strategy.

Efforts contained in the strategy include the oversight of $2 billion in fraud prevention funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The newly established organization will work with teams of the Labor Department's chief information officer and assistant secretary for administration and management, as well as the Employment and Training Administration.

Yvette Meftah, who has worked under the secretary of labor since 2009, will lead the Office of UI as director. Michele Evermore, senior adviser on UI, has been named the office's deputy director for policy.

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Nicolas Chaillan: DevSecOps Boosts Timeliness of Software Development
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Nicolas Chaillan: DevSecOps Boosts Timeliness of Software Development

Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer at the U.S. Air Force, said that DevSecOps allows USAF to meet the timeliness requirements of software development. He said at an event with the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC) that DevSecOps has accelerated the speed of mission delivery across development and production by 106 times, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Chaillan noted that DevSecOps allows software developers to experience failures faster but also avoid repeating these failures.

DevSecOps refers to the approach of combining development, security and information technology operations from the start of a software development effort.

Officials have also reported that time spent on addressing cybersecurity issues has been halved as a result of DevSecOps.

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Cypress International Launches New Two-Part Series of ‘The Cypress Perspective’ Podcast
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Cypress International Launches New Two-Part Series of ‘The Cypress Perspective’ Podcast

Cypress International’s podcast “The Cypress Perspective” recently launched its new two-part series titled Understanding the Future of Naval Aviation on August 5th.  

This series focuses on what the Navy needs from industry to make the future Carrier Air Wing more effective in Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO). The podcast features several of the federal government’s top names, including:

ADM Scott Swift, USN (Ret.), former Commander, US Pacific Fleet, and VADM Bruce Lindsey, USN (Ret.), former Deputy Commander, US Fleet Forces Command, and former Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic.  

Jim McCarthy, SES, USN (Ret.), former Assistant Deputy CNO, Integration of Capabilities and Resources (OPNAV N8B) and current VP of Naval Programs at Cypress International acts as the moderator of the discussion.

Part I of this series includes topics such as the “why, how, and what” of building the future Carrier Air Wing, TACAIR Integration of USN and USMC (plus allies), the capability and capacity requirements within the strategic context and current budgets, and the current and future roles and missions of the nuclear aircraft carrier and of unmanned aircraft and the in future Carrier Air Wing.  

Part II picks up where Part I left off regarding the contributions and risks of current and future type/model/series aircraft in the Carrier Air Wing and autonomous systems, trust, and AI in the future Carrier Air Wing.  

The subsequent discussion centers around the role of innovation, ingenuity, and technology to drive down total ownership costs, the role of LVC training in building readiness and trust in autonomous systems, and the attributes of Naval DMO systems required to interoperate with the other services and contribute to SECDEF’s Integrated Deterrence mission.

Tune into Cypress International’s two-part series on Understanding the Future of Naval Aviation and tune into the three-part series on Unmanned Systems. Upcoming podcasts include Supply Chain Resiliency and Artificial Intelligence.

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Peraton Labs Awarded U.S. Army Contract to Extend UNO Planner for Integrated Planning of Tactical Network; Petros Mouchtaris Quoted
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Peraton Labs Awarded U.S. Army Contract to Extend UNO Planner for Integrated Planning of Tactical Network; Petros Mouchtaris Quoted

Peraton Labs announced on Wednesday that the company has been awarded a one-year, $10.3 million contract with the U.S. Army to extend its Unified Network Operations (UNO) Planner software for the Product Manager Tactical Cyber and Network Operations (PdM TCNO).

Peraton Labs will extend UNO Planner to support additional transmission systems and additional planning capability, including communications security planning and document generation.

“Agile, intelligent and easy-to-use network operations are critical to the Army’s current and future mission success,” said Petros Mouchtaris, Ph.D., president of Peraton Labs. “UNO Planner delivers next-generation planning support across the entire ITN, enabling efficient, accurate and flexible NetOps with reduced training requirements.”

UNO Planner provides intelligent, easy-to-use, integrated planning for the Army tactical network with lower complexity, greater accuracy, increased flexibility, and reduced time and training.

In addition, UNO Planner supports tactical satellite communications and terrestrial networks with fast, easy, and error-free creation of critical configuration files, required to set up network elements and signal systems.

“Peraton Labs is proud to continue supporting the Army in modernizing its operations for the Integrated Tactical Network to significantly reduce complexity and operational burden,” Dr. Mouchtaris added.

About Peraton

Peraton drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted and highly differentiated national security solutions and technologies that keep people safe and secure.

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Blackstone Completes Acquisition of QTS Realty Trust; CEO Chad Williams Quoted
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Blackstone Completes Acquisition of QTS Realty Trust; CEO Chad Williams Quoted

Blackstone has officially announced that its acquisition of QTS Realty Trust has been completed for approximately $10 billion. The acquisition was completed through the affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., and Blackstone Property Partners.

“Completing this transaction with Blackstone marks an exciting new chapter for QTS,” said Chad Williams, CEO of QTS. “Our Powered by People approach will continue to be the foundation for how we serve our customers, local communities and each other, enabling QTS to continue setting a new standard for innovation and service delivery in the data center industry.”

Blackstone Senior Managing Directors Greg Blank and Tyler Henritze expressed their enthusiasm for the acquisition and the future of QTS.

QTS aligns with one of Blackstone’s highest conviction themes – data proliferation – and the required investment makes it well suited as a long-term holding for our perpetual capital vehicles,” said Blank and Henritze in a collective statement.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisors to Blackstone and Jefferies LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to QTS.

About QTS Realty Trust

QTS Realty Trust is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 7 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space within North America and Europe.

Through its software-defined technology platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.

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CISA, FBI Recommend Steps to Mitigate Risk of Ransomware Attacks; Eric Goldstein Quoted
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CISA, FBI Recommend Steps to Mitigate Risk of Ransomware Attacks; Eric Goldstein Quoted

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued an advisory outlining mitigation measures that organizations in public and private sectors can implement to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks and other cyber incidents. CISA and the bureau have observed a rise in ransomware attacks during holidays and weekends.

The bureau and CISA recommend that organizations conduct preemptive threat hunting activities on their networks, such as understanding the baseline environment, reviewing data logs, using intrusion prevention and automated security alerting systems and deploying honeytokens.

They also suggested network best practices to mitigate the risk of compromise, including making an offline backup of data, updating software and operating systems, using strong passwords and multifactor authentication, implementing segmentation and creating an incident response plan.

CISA and the FBI also warn against paying a ransom to threat actors since it does not guarantee data recovery or protection from future attacks. Should organizations decide to pay the ransom or not, they should report attacks to the agencies to provide critical information to track attackers, help victims and hold criminal actors accountable.

“Ransomware continues to be a national security threat and a critical challenge, but it is not insurmountable,” said Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity, CISA. 

“With our FBI partners, we continue to collaborate daily to ensure we provide timely, useful and actionable advisories that help industry and government partners of all sizes adopt defensible network strategies and strengthen their resilience. All organizations must continue to be vigilant against this ongoing threat,” he added.

Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations

ExecutiveBiz, sister site of ExecutiveGov, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” forum.

Amanda Toman Named Acting Principal Director for 5G Initiative at DOD
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Amanda Toman Named Acting Principal Director for 5G Initiative at DOD

Amanda Toman assumed the role of acting principal director for 5G initiative at the Department of Defense (DOD) following Joseph Evans’ departure from the role within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in mid-August, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

The temporary Pentagon 5G lead has worked the department for over a decade now. She was a program manager from December 2010 to May 2020, and has served as 5G initiative director since then, according to her LinkeIn profile.

Prior to joining the government, Toman was with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for more than three years. As program analyst, she was responsible for leading several research and development projects, analyzing novel armor materials for various applications and engaging customers and government users, among other tasks.

Toman, earlier in her industry career, also worked as research scientist at System Planning Corp. where she was a technical lead who developed new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program.

If you’re interested in the fifth generation wireless technology, then check out the Potomac Officers Club’s Fall 2021 5G Summit on Sept. 16. The event will feature a NextG and space insfrastructure-focused discussion that Toman will join as one of the panelists.

Amanda Toman Named Acting Principal Director for 5G Initiative at DOD

Click here to gain additional information about the summit and visit POC Events page to learn more about other GovCon-related gatherings.

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NNSA’s Jill Hruby: Nuclear Science & Tech Adoption Key to Address Climate Change
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NNSA’s Jill Hruby: Nuclear Science & Tech Adoption Key to Address Climate Change

Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said she believes that adopting nuclear science and technology advancements will be key to reduce the global consequences of climate change.

She told the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management and the European Safeguards Research and Development Association's joint annual meeting that nuclear energy has the potential to become a “safe, secure, reliable, clean base power capability” for the world.

Hruby called for global cooperation in the climate science field and pointed to reactors, alternative fuel, nuclear material safeguards and spent fuel management as essential approaches to advance energy innovation.

“We still have the same common longstanding goals to achieve – providing effective nuclear materials security and safeguards to protect our citizens from incidents or accidents while allowing the development of nuclear energy and other peaceful uses," she added.

NNSA's Jill Hruby: Nuclear Science & Tech Adoption Key to Address Climate Change

On Tuesday, Sept. 14th, Potomac Officers Club will host its Bolstering Climate Resilience for National Security Forum featuring Senior Climate Advisor for the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joseph Bryan as the opening keynote speaker.

Ecological Futures Group Founder and CEO Dr. Rod Schoonover will join Bryan as the closing keynote speaker as both execs discuss the challenges that climate change presents to U.S. supply chains, military readiness and our federal infrastructure as a whole.

Visit PotomacOfficersClub.com to register for the platform’s Bolstering Climate Resilience for National Security Forum to learn more about the impact climate change is having on the federal landscape and U.S. national security.

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