The Department of Veterans Affairs' National Artificial Intelligence Institute is sharing its expertise with other agencies to develop a catalog of AI use cases, FedScoop reported Monday.

The institute has shared input with the Veteran Engagement Board, the Data Governance Council and other federal agencies to create a reference for AI uses.

Gil Alterovitz, VA's director of AI, said at the SNG Live: Enhancing AI in Government event that the department plans to trial a set of modules that can support an AI-focused internal review board.

Agencies have engaged in AI data sharing as part of efforts to align with Former President Trump's executive order on trustworthy AI made in late 2020.

U.S. Army researchers used lead hafnate, a compound with anti-ferroelectric properties, to produce antiferroelectric thin films that could help warfighters with maintenance and control the large volume of energy and provide the military with a technological advantage over adversaries.

Brendan Hanrahan, a materials engineer at Army Research Laboratory, said in a statement published Monday anti-ferroelectrics enable harnessing of raw watts of pulse power needed in a defibrillator, railgun or other technologies that work on a burst of electrical power.

“Anti-ferroelectrics also naturally absorb oscillating signals, which make them excellent electronic filters,” he added.

Hanrahan and Nicholas Strnad, an Army materials scientist, studied the use of atomic layer deposition, which is a process employed by semiconductor manufacturers, to develop anti-ferroelectric thin films for silicon wafers.

“ARL has been a leader in atomic layer deposition of ferroelectrics for the past five years. If you combine this capability with the current ubiquity of hafnium, it’s very easy to imagine why we should try tackling this anti-ferroelectric lead hafnate from the old literature,” said Hanrahan.

Army looks to further evaluate the potential of lead hafnate as an anti-ferroelectric material.

The Government Accountability Office has proposed six measures to help the Department of Defense address challenges associated with the development and integration of alternative position, navigation and timing technologies.

GAO said Monday it came up with policy recommendations after the government audit agency reviewed efforts at the department to develop backup PNT or complementary systems to GPS.

The office found that DOD is pursuing strategies to produce relative and absolute PNT systems. The first approach involves inertial sensors and clocks capable of giving relative PNT information without external signals, while the second approach supports celestial and magnetic navigation and utilizes satellites in low Earth orbit or very low radio frequency bands for data transmission, according to the audit report.

Defense officials told the congressional watchdog that dependence on GPS systems, the lack of a central office that oversees PNT development efforts and unclear performance requirements are among the factors that hinder the work.

GAO recommended that government and industry stakeholders consider adopting policies to increase collaboration, boost resilience, clarify requirements, encourage public-private coordination, implement a permanent open architecture initiative and facilitate vulnerability analysis for the department’s alternative PNT projects.

The FBI issued a statement on Monday attributing the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline’s networks to the ransomware group called Darkside.

The bureau said it was notified of a network disruption at Colonial Pipeline on Friday and that it continues to work with government partners and the company on the investigation with regard to the breach. Nextgov reported that Colonial Pipeline is working on a “system restart plan.”

“While our mainlines (Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4) remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational. We are in the process of restoring service to other laterals and will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations,” Colonial Pipeline said in a statement obtained by the publication.

The White House also established an interagency task force led by the Department of Energy to respond to the cyber breach at Colonial Pipeline, according to Nextgov. 

Liz Sherwood-Randall, homeland security adviser to the president, said in a press briefing that the task force also includes the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the departments of Defense and the Treasury and other agencies.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said the ransomware used in the attack is a known variant and that the intelligence community is investigating potential links to nation-states.

To register for this virtual forum, visit the GovConWire Events page.

The National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) have released an analysis paper that assesses vulnerabilities associated with the adoption of 5G technology. 

The document analyzes the major threat vectors across 5G domains and those are policy and standards, supply chain and 5G systems architecture, NSA said Monday. Under the three threat vectors, the paper outlines the sub-threats that describe additional vulnerabilities that cyber actors can exploit and potential threat scenarios.

Standards sub-threat vectors include open standards and optional controls, while supply chain sub-threats cover counterfeit and inherited components. For 5G systems architecture, software, network security, legacy communications infrastructure and spectrum sharing are some of the sub-threat vectors described in the paper.

The Potential Threat Vectors to 5G Infrastructure analysis paper was developed by the 5G Threat Model Working Panel, which seeks to explore potential threat vectors that may be linked to the use of 5G non-standalone networks.

The working panel was established through the Enduring Security Framework, which was created to help assess risks and vulnerabilities to 5G infrastructure as one of the lines of effort of the National Strategy to Secure 5G.

To register for this virtual forum, visit the GovConWire Events page.