Gen. David Thompson, the U.S. Space Force's vice chief of space operations, said the military would like to task an agency to manage traffic caused by commercial space systems, Space News reported Monday.

Thompson told Space News that the Department of Defense (DOD) does not mainly perform regulatory functions, despite the fact that Vandenberg Air Force Base tracks space objects and caution on orbital collisions.

The Department of Commerce (DOC) is expected to take up collision warning responsibilities by 2024 but, according to Thompson, there are other tasks required to prevent space traffic hazards. 

These tasks include safety-centric activity management and the development of satellite maneuverability guidelines. The vice chief said the military will most likely consider increasing operational risks in certain orbits, and thus require corresponding oversight.

Raytheon announced on Tuesday that Raytheon BBN Technologies, a subsidiary of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, have published their research regarding, via the academic journal Science, a component called a “Josephson junction,” which is a new method to detect a single photon, or a particle of light.

As a result of the discovery by Raytheon BBN Technologies, scientists are anticipating that quantum processors’ speed will be greatly improved and can be applied to potential applications for sensors, communications and quantum computers.

“In theory, quantum computers can take over where traditional computers would run out of processing power,” said Brad Tousley, president of Raytheon BBN Technologies. “Quantum computing allows for more finite analysis of something like a wing shape than ever before. Fundamental everyday processing optimization is the first problem we’d like to tackle with quantum computing.”

The most jarring limitation in quantum computing has been a “noise problem,” or a background noise that causes qubits to lose memory and creates errors in the processing. However, Kin Chung Fong, a quantum information processing scientist with the company sees the opportunity for significant advancements in quantum capabilities.

“Our new device enables this basic unit in quantum computing to communicate through as little as one photon. It will improve the speed in the communication and can make quantum networking and sensing possible,” said Fong. “We’ve filled a technological void with the first Josephson junction to detect a single photon. It’s an enabling technology for networking, communication and computation. We are really just scratching the surface,” he added.

Raytheon BBN has been providing advanced technology research and development for more than 70 years, often serving as a crucial link between the military and researchers at universities.

“The next step is characterizing performance and scaling up to more than one device in parallel or linking multiple devices,” said Tousley.

Guidehouse and ReefPoint Group announced on Tuesday that their joint venture has, Taurian Consulting LLC, has been launched as a a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) company in accordance with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) “All-Small” Mentor-Protégé Program (MPP).

“Guidehouse and our clients benefit daily from the contributions of veterans, and through this venture, Taurian Consulting will continue to honor and support our nation’s service members, veterans and their families with meaningful mission-focused client engagements,” said Scott McIntyre, CEO of Guidehouse and five-time Wash100 Award recipient.

As a jointly owned company of both organizations, Taurian Consulting will work to deliver scalable, easy to implement innovative solutions that address a client’s key challenges and harness the more than two decades of experience between both companies to drive healthcare innovation and transformation for defense, federal and commercial health markets.

“The joining of our two companies to form Taurian Consulting will provide new impact and value to clients of both firms within the government healthcare ecosystems, and I look forward to tackling challenges together and working with clients to shape their futures,” McIntyre added.

ReefPoint Group President Peter Anthony will serve as the managing director for Taurian Consulting and emphasized the formation of the new company was to ensure the highest quality of support with robust and innovative technologies and solutions to create lasting, measurable impacts for its clients but also for federal agencies and the federal landscape.

“This will allow us to jointly support federal, state and local government organizations and empower them to improve their performance, efficiencies and effectiveness for the customers they serve,” said Anthony.

Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) has entered into an agreement with OneWeb for the subscription of a c.24% equity stake, becoming a leading shareholder of the company alongside the UK Government and Bharti Global. Eutelsat will invest $550 million in OneWeb, with closing expected in H2 2021 subject to regulatory authorisations.

With much of its global network already deployed, the OneWeb constellation, which enjoys valuable ITU-backed priority spectrum rights, will operate 648 satellites in low orbit (LEO) offering low latency. This first generation of satellites will offer significant regional coverage by the end of 2021, reaching global coverage the following year. OneWeb will be the first complete non-geostationary constellation with truly global coverage, significantly ahead of competing projects.

It will deliver 1.1 Tbps of capacity addressing the government, fixed data and mobility markets. Plans include a second-generation constellation that will provide significant enhancements in terms of capacity, flexibility and economics. It anticipates annual revenues of circa $1 billion within three to five years following the full deployment of the constellation, with a partnership approach and profitable wholesale business model. Eutelsat’s investment leaves OneWeb almost fully funded and the company is well advanced in terms of securing its remaining funding needs this year.

Octo Consulting announced on Tuesday that it has completed its branding integration with Sevatec. The two companies combined in Dec. 2020, to the benefit of both. The merger reinforced crucial customer relationships and increased each company’s capabilities.

Octo developed a revised brand identity, including a logo, color scheme and other branding-related elements that illustrate and respect both company’s legacies. The companies will immediately begin to operate under the Octo banner. 

“We are all extremely pleased with and excited to launch this new brand. Octo’s evolved brand identity was crafted, so employees and customers understand how the best of both organizations was thoughtfully woven into a cohesive message to the market,” commented Mehul Sanghani, Octo’s CEO. 

“We believe there is a strong differentiation of our brand within a market that includes both multibillion-dollar aerospace and defense contractors that sell ships and weapons but who also claim commodity-based IT capability and a sea of niche providers that lack the depth of capabilities or modernization qualifications at a scale that modern government missions demand,” Shanghani added.

Octo’s transaction with Sevatec illustrates Octo’s remarkable growth. Since its foundation, Octo has grown every year and boasts approximately 1,100 skilled employees who solve complex technical challenges for government customers.

“The smooth transition to this fresh, new brand demonstrates our combined company’s ability to flex and grow as we have embraced our position as a pure-play modernization and technology solutions provider to the government’s most challenging technical problems,” said Octo’s vice president of Marketing Ethan Meurlin. 

Together, Octo and Sevatec are extremely agile partners for government customers and can provide innovative, high-touch service that incorporates considerable operational resources. The merger essentially created a mid-sized federal information technology modernization provider with the scale to compete with much larger system integrators without losing the responsiveness of a small business. 

“In our new branding, we worked collaboratively with legacy Sevatec employees to retain many elements of Sevatec’s unique visual identifiers. For example, we crafted a new, more contemporary logo that prominently incorporates the arrow from Sevatec’s prior logo,” stated Meurlin. 

“We also embraced the idea of 'seva,' or selfless service, that was at the core of Sevatec’s culture into our official values statement. It was important for us to show our customers, partners, and our employees who we are and what we stand for as a unified company, and we believe these new brand elements do just that,” concluded Meurlin. 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released Defending Against Software Supply Chain Attacks, a document containing information on software supply chain risks and providing guidance on the application of frameworks from NIST for cyber supply chain risk management and secure software development.

CISA said Monday that its Defending Against Software Supply Chain Attacks publication warns against the consequences of attacks to an organization's software supply chain, including privileged and persistent access to a victim network, and lists measures that can help prevent and mitigate attacks and enhance supply chain resilience.

According to the document, software customers are advised to create and execute a program for managing identified vulnerabilities and to employ resilience measures for limiting the impact of a successful attack against a vulnerable software.

It cited NIST's key practices for applying a cyber supply chain risk management approach, including establishing a C-SCRM program and integrating it across the organization, knowing and managing critical components, collaborating with key suppliers and including them in resilience and improvement efforts, and planning for the full life cycle.

For software vendors, the document recommends preparing for secure software development by defining security requirements, automating developer and security toolchains, creating criteria and processes for data collection for security evaluations. Suppliers are also encouraged to establish SSDF roles and responsibilities within the software development life cycle.

CISA said vendors are encouraged to take a systems security engineering approach to safeguard their development infrastructure and implement NIST's SSDF to protect the cyber supply chain from malicious software content or vulnerabilities.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have released a joint advisory to provide information on cyber tools and techniques used by Russian Foreign Intelligence Service actors to compromise government networks, information technology companies and think tanks.

Russia’s SVR actors use password spraying, zero-day vulnerability and WELLNESS malware, among other techniques, to infiltrate networks, the agencies said Monday.

FBI also observed that SVR actors have transitioned from using malware to homing in on cloud-based platforms to gain access to data starting in 2018.

The agencies also suggest best practices that network operators can implement to protect IT systems from the identified techniques, such as mandating the use of an approved multifactor authentication for all users, performing regular audits of mailbox settings and account permissions, monitoring the network for evidence of encoded PowerShell commands and auditing log files to detect attempts to access privileged certificates.

“The FBI and DHS recommend service providers strengthen their user validation and verification systems to prohibit misuse of their services,” the advisory states.

In mid-April, CISA, FBI and the National Security Agency issued an advisory listing five network vulnerabilities used by SVR actors to compromise U.S. and allied government systems. The White House also issued a statement attributing the SolarWinds hack to SVR.

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