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.

Jamie Holcombe, chief information officer of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), said machine learning algorithms have helped patent examiners speed up the process of searching concepts and gather in one place all the relevant prior art they need, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

“The ability to search, especially the big datasets, gets me so excited,” Holcombe said Tuesday during an American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council event. “Because that means we can unleash that power to anybody who can get on a computer and access the net.”

He also discussed USPTO’s process for issuing an authority to operate if the agency intends to adopt a technology that lacks authorization but has the potential to advance modernization.

“We’re not exposing everything to it,” Holcombe said. “But I’m giving it enough time to grow to the point where it can comply with the minimum amount of bureaucracy that it has to comply with.”

Vertosoft announced Wednesday a partnership with Digital.ai to sell, market and distribute the Digital.ai platform to the U.S. government. Digital.ai will combine software orchestration and agile planning with application quality, security and AI/ML in an integrated platform that enables agencies to transform their digital initiatives and drive outcomes.

Vertosoft’s role in the partnership will be to provide government agencies with streamlined access to Digital.ai technology through their network of both federal, state and local government contract vehicles.

“Value stream management (VSM) should be the foundation of any organization’s digital transformation strategy. Digital.ai will help agencies make technology changes that have an enduring and meaningful impact on their mission,” added Chet Hayes, Vertosoft’s chief technology officer.

Digital.ai will assist government agencies in redefining how they create and deliver software in a deliberate manner. The company’s innovative analytics capabilities will provide agencies with a more detailed understanding of what is happening in their organizations. This technology will allow agencies to make better informed, data-driven choices that will help achieve their goals.

David Terry, vice president of Federal at Digital.ai, commented that “We are excited to be teaming with Vertosoft to increase our coverage within the public sector. We look forward to working with Vertosoft as a key force multiplier for us in the Federal space to provide our industry-leading value stream, analytic and orchestration solutions to the government.”

About Vertosoft

Vertosoft accelerates the adoption of innovative and emerging technology within the government. The company brings the flexibility, agility, and responsiveness of a small company with the experience of a large organization. Vertosoft focuses on emerging technology growth in government and it is uniquely positioned to reduce complexity and provide scalable, cloud-ready technology solutions that enable government agencies to deliver smarter, client-centric digital transformations.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has established and launched a new collaborative facility to support quantum science research focused on qubits. 

NSA said Tuesday that its Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) stood up the LPS Qubit Collaboratory, where academia, industry and government entities can pursue collaborative qubit-focused research.

Qubits or quantum bits are the smallest units of quantum information. LQC will aim to develop quantum computing and other qubit-based applications, bolster a research-driven quantum workforce and foster partnerships that address complex problems in quantum information science.

Army Research Office (ARO) invites external organizations to propose projects that would be done in partnership with LQC. 

The broad agency announcement for this solicitation can be found here. To express interest in partnering with LQC, contact the laboratory at qubitcollaboratory.org.

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is looking for public input on its plans to automate validation procedures for cryptographic modules. 

NCCoE intends to conduct first-party and independent testing of automated processes for the Cryptographic Module Validation Program, including the relay of data to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the latter said Monday.

The center seeks to identify the scope and requirements of the demonstration effort as well as the potential laboratory-use hardware and software needed for the program.

“Increased automation is necessary because a number of elements of the current validation processes are manual in nature, making third-party testing and government validation of cryptographic modules often incompatible with industry requirements,” according to NIST. 

Interested parties must submit feedback through May 12th.

GovConWire Events will host its Defense Cybersecurity Forum to explore the progress that NSA and other federal agencies have made to protect U.S. national security and enhance its capabilities in threat intelligence, vulnerability assessments and cyber defense to stay ahead of the nation’s adversaries in cyberspace. 

Morgan Adamski, chief of NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, will serve as a keynote speaker. She will address the Cybersecurity Directorate’s mission, accomplishments in protecting U.S. assets, the role of commercial partnerships and the challenges still to come in cyber.

Check out GovConWire Events' Defense Cybersecurity Forum on May 12. Visit GovConWire.com to learn more and register for this can't miss event.