The U.S. Army has commenced a competition that challenges U.S.-based organizations to present technologies, which address various needs faced by the service branch.

The Army Strategic Rapid Acquisition (AStRA) challenge will assess technologies in the areas of cross-domain solutions, tactical edge processing, novel batteries, multifunction antennas and cyber-electromagnetic operations, the Army said Wednesday.

The competition, which has a total prize pool of $25 million, will run across four phases: concept white paper, oral proposal, request for project proposal, and basis for the award. The first phase ended on May 25 and the second phase will occur in late June.

The Army may award one or multiple other transaction agreements to succeeding entrants.

The service's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) sponsors the competition, which runs under the leadership of the xTech Program. The assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology launched the xTech program to manage the Army's prize competitions that drive technological innovation.

“This will be RCCTO’s third technology outreach event to industry, resulting in many ongoing rapid prototyping efforts,” said Rob Monto, deputy director for advanced concepts and experimentation at RCCTO.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will use an existing document and input from stakeholders to develop best practices in response to an executive order on cybersecurity, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

Executive Order 14028 tasks NIST to inform how the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would guide federal software procurements.

The Biden Administration issued the order in response to breaches that stemmed from a cyber attack against information technology company SolarWinds, which provides services to the U.S. government.

NIST asked stakeholders for input on software development best practices and hosted a workshop to foster discussion on the topic. The agency will apply gathered input to further build on an existing white paper published in April.

"We are going to try to leverage and expand where appropriate the NIST secure software development framework, which has strong relationships and pointers and leverages many of the great existing industry practices in secure software development,” Kevin Stine, who leads NIST’s applied cybersecurity division, said at the workshop.

Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the military must address China in an integrated, collaborative way that supports U.S. interests and security, DOD News reported Wednesday.

He said the U.S. would have a more competitive relationship with China, which challenges the U.S. across economic, political, technological and military aspects. 

Kahl noted that handling relations with China will require a holistic response that also involves the participation of non-defense agencies and international partners.

“We need to play to our strengths, which is an unrivaled network of partners and allies around the world,” he stated.

The undersecretary also emphasized that DOD must be ready to deal with disruptive world threats, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change as examples.

Dave Zvenyach, director of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization, said the agency is looking to modernize Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) processes with automation technology.

Zvenyach noted that FedRAMP, which set a standardized assessment and certification approach for cloud offerings, generates nonlinear costs as the agency onboards more providers into the program.

Zvenyach added that automating the cloud security authorization process will serve as one way to drive the reuse of authorized cloud products.

In Dec. 2019, the FedRAMP management office reached a milestone with the development of an Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and industry partners.

The OSCAL standard is designed to automatically publish, implement and assess security controls.

Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, said a new report presents recommendations for how defense organizations can field artificial intelligence and one of those is building awareness and understanding of AI.

Organizations seeking to bend the learning curve as they work to apply AI capabilities should engage leaders with experience in AI adoption and development of employees with AI expertise, Chenok wrote in a blog post published Wednesday.

He noted that the report calls on defense agencies to explore a range of opportunities to leverage AI and prepare the organization for the AI journey to realize the technology’s potential benefits.

“An active change management plan would enable success for organizational strategies for leveraging AI, one that also increases awareness at all organizational levels around digital transformation and new and emerging technologies,” Chenok wrote.

The recommendations are part of the report titled Deploying AI in Defense Organizations released by the IBM Center and the IBM Institute for Business Value on Wednesday. The report highlights insights from a 2020 survey of 250 defense technology leaders worldwide about how their organizations implement AI.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said advancing modernization programs will be her top priority to enable the service to meet future challenges.

“I am committed to continue transforming our forces to be able to compete, deter, and if necessary fight and win across the multi-domain battlefield,” Wormuth wrote in a letter released Tuesday on the Army website.

“The Army must be manned, trained, equipped, and modernized to be ready to fight today, but also to meet the demands of an uncertain and unpredictable future,” she added.

Wormuth said she intends to prioritize talent recruitment, development training and retention efforts to maintain the Army’s position as the “world’s premier land force.”

“I will ensure the Army continues to adapt and stay ahead of the capabilities of our adversaries, whether they are near peer nations or newly emergent threats, while also competing successfully below the threshold of conflict,” she noted.

She added that she will continue to pursue improvement efforts for Army health care, housing, childcare and employment opportunities for service personnel’s spouses.

Wormuth was sworn in as the 25th secretary of the Army on Friday a day after the Senate confirmed her for the role.

If you're interested to know more about the Army's information technology reform efforts, then check out GovCon Wire's Army: IT Management and Transformation Forum coming up on June 17th. 

Featuring Raj Iyer, chief information officer with the U.S. Army and 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, as the keynote speaker, join our event to learn more about the Army’s digital transformation, modernization and cybersecurity initiatives, in addition to how industry can help meet critical missions in 2021 and beyond.

To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the GovCon Wire Events page.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued guidance meant to help network defenders on how to better use the Mitre ATT&CK framework to analyze and report on cybersecurity threats.

Mitre said Wednesday CISA teamed up with the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute – a federally funded research and development center operated by Mitre for the Department of Homeland Security – to develop the guidance.

The document titled Best Practices for MITRE ATT&CK Mapping provides cyberthreat intelligence analysts with tips, strategies and instructions for detecting adversary behaviors in raw data and finished reports.

“Our close and collaborative partnership with HSSEDI enabled us to produce a valuable resource to help entities apply ATT&CK, a framework that can build cyber defenses and resilience,” said Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

Mitre’s ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of tactics and techniques used by adversaries and can be used as a foundation to develop threat methodologies and models in government and the private sector.

“Successful applications of ATT&CK should produce an accurate and consistent set of mappings which can be used to develop adversary profiles, conduct activity trend analyses, and be incorporated into reporting for detection, response, and mitigation purposes,” the document reads.

If you want to know more about the latest updates about the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, then check out Potomac Officers Club's CMMC Forum coming up on June 16. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the POC Events page.