NASA's Ames Research Center has entered the final phase of preparations needed for an upcoming six-month biology mission that aims to measure how space radiation can affect living organisms.

The BioSentinel mission would lift off with 12 other CubeSats on the Space Launch System (SLS) for the first Artemis flight, the space agency said Saturday. A biosensor payload would detect the radiation affecting yeast cells carried by the small satellite. Microfluidic cards will quantify how radiation impacts the cells.

Dan Rowan, an integration and test engineer at Ames, is working to prepare BioSentinel’s internal components including the biosensor, a radiation detection instrument, subsystems, batteries and a radio. BioSentinel's spacecraft systems have also undergone electromagnetic resistance testing.

Once ready, Ames will ship the spacecraft to the Florida-based Kennedy Space Center for launching.

The Departments of Energy (DOE) and Agriculture (USDA) are separately applying cybersecurity and software development approaches based on efforts previously done by the Department of Defense (DOD), Federal News Network reported Friday. 

Venice Goodwine, chief information security officer at USDA, said her department is standing up a security-focused software factory similar to the U.S. Air Force's Platform One, which consolidates software development talent from multiple teams within the service.

Goodwine said at an AFCEA Bethesda panel she plans to certify a process through which USDA's 29 agencies would align their software development work with. She noted that automation would help the agencies develop needed software in a faster, timelier manner.

DOE, similarly, is trialing a new rapid authority to operate designed to speed up delivery while still keeping risks in check. The department is basing this work on something previously done by the U.S. Navy. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a program that focuses on establishing testable metrics for assessing progress in quantum computing research. 

DARPA said Friday the Quantum Benchmarking program seeks to identify the returns on investment into quantum research, establish metrics with a multidimensional scope and deploy “wind tunnels” designed to support diagnostics for testable quantum computing metrics.

The agency also intends to produce estimates for traditional and quantum resources including complex algorithms and standard hardware. The agency plans to hold a webinar on the benchmarking effort over the coming weeks.

Joe Altepeter, a program manager at the Defense Sciences Office at DARPA, noted that the agency’s focus is geared toward developing “large, fault-tolerant quantum computers”.

“Building a useful quantum computer is really hard, and it's important to make sure we're using the right metrics to guide our progress towards that goal,” he said.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has announced it will continue a partnership that aims to develop the country’s workforce of architects and civil engineers (ACE).

GSA said Friday its partnership with the ACE Mentor Program of America will run for five more years to help high school students gain interest in the design-build industry.

The ACE program engages with students in after-school skilled trade activities to encourage careers in the architecture and construction industries. The agency will encourage its personnel to serve as board members and mentors for ACE.

“This partnership is a great opportunity for GSA to foster relationships with youth who are interested in architecture, design and construction, and expose them to potential careers in public service,” said Allison Azevedo, acting commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service.

The Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP) plans to release guidance on federal identity, credential and access management (FICAM) next year to cover topics such as managing digital identity risks and single sign-ons, FedScoop reported Friday.

Ken Myers, chief federal architect for ICAM at the General Services Administration, said at an ATARC event that the new guidance should address issues such as modernizing agency infrastructure and ensuring secure remote access amid migrations to a cloud environment.

Previously the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo to help agencies in implementing remote access operations while mitigating risks to agency personnel’s digital identities.

OGP, which serves as a GSA component, intends to use its new guidance to also highlight the OMB memo which seeks to address the impact of providing access in addition to determining assurance levels to identify alternative authenticators, according to FedScoop. Myers noted that the OGP is willing to launch collaborations on updating the FICAM guidance.

“It is deprecated,” Myers said. “But we are looking at updating it because privileged access management is such an important topic today,” he noted.

The U.S. Air Force plans to select research proposals on energy storage and infrastructure modernization to mitigate reliance on fossil fuels. The Air Force said Friday that its AFWERX innovation arm partnered with Air Force Futures to launch the Reimagining Energy for the Department of Defense Challenge in September 2020. 

Research work under the Energy Challenge focuses on establishing resilient infrastructure for energy production and storage, which can be implemented immediately or on a long-term basis.

AFWERX and AF Futures downselected 179 proposals following a virtual showcase in Feb. 2021, which saw 1,895 participants representing the academic, public, private and nonprofit sectors. Participating companies were also able to connect with venture capitalists and funding entities as part of the challenge.

In addition, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is looking to issue contract awards covering research areas such as renewable energy, battery technology and electrical equipment in line with the Energy Challenge.

“It is through these ongoing collaborative events we are forging strategic partnerships that will have impacts reaching far and wide, and continue to break department and industry barriers,” the Air Force said.

BAE Systems successfully flight tested its Small Adaptive Bank of Electronic Resources (SABER) technology, paving the way for a critical software upgrade to the EC-37B Compass Call, a next-generation electronic warfare aircraft. Teams from both BAE Systems and the U.S. Air Force conducted tests on 11 flights of an EC-130H from Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

“SABER allows flexibility to update systems without significant physical reconfiguration,” said Pam Potter, director of Electronic Attack Solutions at BAE Systems. “It also adapts to new applications as well as revisions to existing applications. It is the technology that will enable the U.S. Air Force to rapidly and proactively respond to emerging enemy threat systems.”

SABER complies with Department of Defense standards to embed protective measures during product design, as well as leverages an open architecture to enable hosting of various government contracted applications.

The SABER system is a major technological advance – transitioning from hardware to software-based electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) warfare capability for the U.S. Air Force and its Compass Call weapon system. The system is built on a suite of software defined radios using an open system architecture and will provide the backbone of the EC-37B’s operating system.

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) office of inspector general (OIG) has recommended that the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security update the DOD Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza to include revised planning assumptions regarding the use of telework for essential and non-essential employees and align the plan with the Pentagon’s telework policy.

DOD component agencies should also update their pandemic plans by integrating updated assumptions regarding telework for employees and the resources needed to back the remote workforce, according to OIG’s report publicly released Thursday.

The OIG surveyed DOD military and civilian personnel to determine how the components provided them access to information technology and communications systems during maximum telework and received answers from 54,665 respondents who reported their remote work status during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The office found that DOD moved 88.2 percent of respondents to part to full-time telework between March 15, 2020 and Aug. 26, 2020, and that those who worked remotely reported issues when accessing voice and video teleconference applications and networks of the department’s components.

The problems mentioned in the survey decreased over time as the Pentagon added video and voice conferencing applications, raised its network capacity and availability and bought and distributed communications and computer equipment.

The inspector general’s office also called on the undersecretary of defense for policy to come up with management oversight procedures to ensure that DOD components have carried out exercise, training and testing requirements of the telework policy and implementation plan.

The recommendation was made after OIG found that DOD’s initial problems were linked to some components that had not conducted full testing to assess whether their information platforms could back governmentwide telework and had not performed telework exercises with their employees before March 2020 in compliance with the requirements of the Pentagon’s implementation plan and telework policy.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center has released a report to raise awareness of the threat posed by humans to critical infrastructure and provide best practices on how to mitigate insider threats.

NCSC discussed how critical infrastructure entities can adopt insider threat programs to identify and address vulnerabilities and prevent adversaries from exploiting such vulnerabilities, according to the report released in March.

The center said an organization should have a program that identifies anomalous behavior of individuals and resources to address such behavior and respond to such behavior in a manner that promotes trust and involves employees as a partner to help mitigate insider threats.

The center listed key elements of an intelligence function to improve critical infrastructure security, including the creation of a security intelligence program to analyze vulnerabilities and threats to personnel, information and physical disciplines; development of a communications plan to educate the workforce of security concerns; and incorporation of civil liberties and privacy protections into security and intelligence-like programs.

NCSC discussed the nine elements of insider threat programs for critical infrastructure. These include recognizing insider threat as a human challenge, designating a top-level senior official to oversee the insider threat program, conducting red teaming and tabletop exercises to help strengthen insider threat programs and integrating technological systems for insider threat mitigation with programs for detection and deterrence.

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