Congress directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)to create approaches that may mitigate the potential effects of major earthquakes. 

The partnership formed a group of over 30 building owners, social scientists, building owners, architects and engineers to explore various options and address concerns in standards, practices and policies, NIST said Wednesday.

The committee urged the government as well as codes and standards organizations to build a national framework that will devise objectives based on buildings' recovery time. The group also recommended an education campaign on earthquake risks as well as the creation of a recovery-based design criteria for lifelines and buildings in a bid to set design parameters.

"The immediate aim of the report is to spark a national conversation about developing a consensus for recovery goals and timelines," said Siamak Sattar, a structural engineer at NIST. "This approach may eventually be reflected in building codes, but first, a considerable amount of research must be tackled," added Sattar.

NIST and FEMA are member agencies under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) has deployed teams of cyber professionals to assess military networks following a recent attack attributed to SolarWinds software, C4ISRnet reported Saturday. USCYBERCOM’s 68 cyber protection teams comprise a major part of the Department of Defense's cyber troops and serve as a response force in the event of a network breach by adversaries.

Each team is comprised of 39 cyber professionals that will first handle attack vectors, detect anomalous behavior and identify impacted network segments and machines. Capt. Katrina Cheesman, spokesperson for USCYBERCOM, said there is no indication that DOD networks have been breached following the recent attack.

Andrew Hall, former director of the U.S. Army Cyber Institute, noted that the DOD must think of the cyber attack from both defensive and offensive positions.

“The time that you spent trying to work on a network as an offensive person is going to help you understand where you might want to look defensively,” he said.

Experts have noted that assessing the extent of damages form any cyber attack could span months, according to the report.

A new playbook developed by the General Services Administration (GSA) provides guidance for government information technology departments to monitor automated tools that perform business processes similar to a human worker.

The Digital Worker Identity Playbook outlines a process for determining potential security risks from software-based platforms and agents, Daria Medved, deputy director of emerging technologies at GSA, wrote in a joint blog post with information technology specialist Ken Myers.

The guidance document also outlines risk-based identity governance requirements and accountability metrics for automated systems. Medved and Myers noted the interaction between digital worker technology and sensitive data in high-risk work may affect missions.

They said agency IT teams can manage security practices, audits and incident response approaches through the enforcement of least privilege and user access recertification for digital agents.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the departments of the Navy and Education awarded $31.6 million in obligations to nontraditional companies in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.

GAO said Friday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) component accounted for the most awards to companies backed by private equity firms, venture capitalists and hedge funds during that time period as part of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

The three agencies issued a total of 45 SBIR awards in a push to drive innovation and research in topic areas that have seen limited private funding, the watchdog noted.

According to GAO’s report, the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy was able to open applications to small businesses but did not award contracts in FY 2019 and 2020. NASA and the Department of Homeland Security have reported lack of interest from qualified small businesses as a reason for not pursuing SBIR projects in FY 19 and 20.

The Department of the Air Force said it seeks to use SBIR funding for dual-use technology development while the Department of the Army is considering issuing awards to qualified small businesses.