Three bipartisan senators have reintroduced a bill to retain and develop the skills of federal cybersecurity professionals. Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., John Hoeven, R-N.D. and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., reintroduced the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act to improve the recruitment and retention of cyber employees across the federal government, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) said Tuesday.

Under the legislation, civilian professionals can benefit from a “personnel rotation” program that will allow them to work with various agencies and gain experience while expanding their networks. The bill comes as part of efforts to help agencies compete with industry benefits and salaries, according to HSGAC.

“The recent and unprecedented cyber-attacks targeting U.S. government agencies and the private sector underscore the urgent need to hire and retain highly-skilled cyber professionals to defend our nation,” said Rosen.

If you're interested in government cybersecurity then check out the GovCon Wire's Defense Cybersecurity Forum coming up on May 12. Click here to learn more.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has developed a tool the military intends to use for securely handling credentials and network access. Financial management teams at the Department of Defense (DOD) will be the first to use the new identity, credentialing and access management (ICAM) tool.

David McKeown, DOD's senior information security officer (SISO), said the technology is part of DOD's wider zero-trust cybersecurity implementation. McKeown told the Senate that the ICAM tool's implementation must apply department-wide.

DISA developed ICAM based on input submitted by industry entities. McKeown, who holds over three decades of DOD experience, concurrently serves as the department's SISO and deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity.

The small business summit will deepen relationships and build on existing partnerships to drive growth and deliver enduring value to our customers across the U.S. public sector.

“Now that Sev1Tech has grown into a large business, we recognize the need to evaluate our strategies to shape corporate growth and support the success of our small business partners,” said Bob Lohfeld, CEO at Sev1Tech. “Small businesses are an important element of our growth strategy, and we want to be able to go to market and be successful with our partners.”

Our business partners represent diverse socioeconomic statuses, capabilities and customers. They will gain insights into Sev1Tech’s capabilities and growth strategy in a session with key stakeholders across all our business units, including Bob Lohfeld and Yogesh Khanna, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer.

Small business partners will have an opportunity to brief their corporate capabilities to the Sev1Tech business unit leaders. Our business partners will then meet individually with Sev1Tech’s Army, Air Force, Federal Civilian, Health IT, and Commercial business units in a series of virtual break-out rooms.

“The Sev1Tech small business summit is a first step to develop and expand our affiliate ecosystem to include strategic, channel and technology partners,” said Joe Re, Vice President of Small Business Partnerships. “We are excited about hosting this event to create new relationships and share marketing opportunities with our small business partners.”

Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said VA will pause the deployment of its new electronic health record (EHR) system to a second site in Columbus, Ohio until it has concluded and shared the results of a strategic assessment of the EHR program with Congress, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

“The strategic review covers a full range of program areas, including productivity and clinical workflow optimization, a human-centered design effort to understand what veterans want to see from VA’s patient portal and a sandbox environment that will allow employees at future implementation sites to conduct interdisciplinary, team-based rehearsals of these workflows in the new EHR solution,” Carolyn Clancy, VA’s acting deputy secretary, told lawmakers during a House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Clancy said the department has a new senior information technology adviser and chief acquisition officer who are currently assessing the requirements of the EHR program and are reporting to VA Secretary Denis McDonough.

In March 2021, McDonough announced a 12-week strategic review of VA’s EHR modernization effort to address issues with Cerner’s Millennium EHR system, which was first deployed at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.

The U.S. Air Force has started developing and integrating joint all-domain command and control approaches and Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) technology into the red flag exercises, weapons school and operational test community of the Nellis Air Force Base to gain insight and help with ABMS development.

The service branch said Wednesday Nellis AFB has a battle laboratory where teams from software companies and military use training exercise data to create a network technology that could enable JADC2 through rapid decision-making capability.

ABMS programs from the Shadow Operations Center will then be moved to the Virtual Test and Training Center, another Nellis AFB facility, for simulation activities.

For testing and validation efforts, the technology will be carried by aircraft while on a training mission at the Nevada Test and Training Range, which is part of the Nellis AFB complex.

“The U.S. Air Force Warfare Center has all of the Air Force’s warfighting domain expertise with respect to the weapons school and operational test community. Nellis [AFB] is a one-stop-shop for collecting feedback,” said Lt. Col. Kelii Chock, head of the Warfighter Integration Division within the Department of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office.

Through ABMS, the service branch aims to launch a joint virtual C2 infrastructure capable of opening communications between equipment to enhance warfighter mobility.

“The idea of JADC2 is to synchronize activities in all of the domains to create effects on the battlespace,” said Chock.

If you missed the 2021 JADO Forum today, you can still access the OnDemand footage by visiting Potomac Officers Club’s Event Archive.