The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is seeking concepts to explore new technology in the areas of analytic workflow modernization, data access and integrity, accelerated tasking orchestration and assured positioning, navigation, timing and targeting.

NGA said Wednesday that its four mission imperatives fall under a newly published topic in the agency's Boosting Innovative GEOINT Research broad agency announcement (BIG-R BAA).

Interested parties can submit classified abstracts and proposals on the intelligence community's Acquisition Research Center website or provide unclassified input through the official online portals for federal contracting and grant opportunities.

The agency launched its BIG-R BAA effort last year in a push to transform research contracting approaches for disruptive technology projects.

"The BIG-R BAA helps us connect with researchers in industry and academia and apply their work to our national security mission," said John Main, chief scientist for research at NGA.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Department of the Treasury (DOT) and the FBI have released a joint advisory about the AppleJeus malware and other indicators of compromise that North Korea-backed threat actors use to perform cryptocurrency theft.

The joint advisory released Wednesday provides technical details about seven versions of AppleJeus malware that Hidden Cobra actors have been using since 2018: Celas Trade Pro; JMT Trading; Union Crypto; Kupay Wallet; CoinGoTrade; Dorusio; and Ants2Whale.

“Initially, HIDDEN COBRA actors used websites that appeared to host legitimate cryptocurrency trading platforms to infect victims with AppleJeus; however, these actors are now also using other initial infection vectors, such as phishing, social networking, and social engineering techniques, to get users to download the malware,” the notice reads.

Threat actors are using AppleJeus to infect networks of institutions within government, energy, technology, finance and telecommunications sectors, according to the advisory.

CISA, Treasury and the FBI have called on organizations infected with the malware to initiate an incident response plan, implement two-factor authentication, use hardware wallets, eliminate impacted hosts from networks and install a host based intrusion detection-based software, among other mitigation measures.

The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched an updated version of Regulations.gov, a federal shared service that allows the public to gain access to regulatory and deregulatory actions and submit comments on rulemakings.

“The new Regulations.gov re-envisions the public site, with enhanced search capabilities, a simplified commenting process, and mobile-friendly interface,” Krystal Brumfield, associate administrator of the office of government-wide policy, said in a statement published Wednesday.

The updated site, which has been in the testing phase since July 2019, comes with reCAPTCHA and a new comment application programming interface.

“The new commenting API coupled with reCAPTCHA will help the federal government to not only reduce fraudulent comments but also introduce transparency into the organizations who are submitting bulk automated comments,” said Virginia Huth, deputy associate administrator for regulation management at the office of government-wide policy. 

“GSA is providing a more secure, reliable, and stable way for submitting large volumes of comments while deterring real or perceived threats to the integrity of the rulemaking process,” Huth added.

The Department of Homeland Security and New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority have teamed up to explore how COVID-19 aerosol agents travel through public transit systems.

DHS said Tuesday its science and technology directorate freed an airborne coronavirus simulant into train cars and buses operated by MTA to examine how COVID-19 spreads through coughs and sneezes.

The team will incorporate airflow and dispersion models into a software tool to forecast the simulant's spread and determine where MTA can install sensor systems. DHS will also implement environmental data into the models to validate response efforts in the event of an airborne health hazard.

The partnership seeks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 as well as other potential terrorist threats as part of DHS S&T's Urban Security Initiative.

"We are developing capabilities, tools and resources in New York City that other states, cities and localities can use to better prepare for, respond to and recover from the pandemic or other emergency," said Don Bansleben, a program manager at DHS S&T.

DHS plans to conduct a large-scale iteration of the study in various areas within New York to trace and observe the movement of a simulated coronavirus agent. 

NASA's Perseverance rover is on the way to Mars, as the space agency expects the vehicle to land on martian ground this Thursday, Space News reported Tuesday. NASA reported that the Mars 2020 spacecraft, which contains Perseverance, is operating as expected in transit to the Jezero Crater, SpaceNews reported on Tuesday. 

“Perseverance is operating perfectly right now, and all systems are go for landing,” Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager for the mission, said at the briefing. 

Perseverance is designed to collect rock samples and data on possible signs of life on the crater. The rover will utilize a landing system based on the one used by its predecessor, 2012's Curiosity rover.

“The targeting is on the bull’s-eye, and we are headed exactly where we want to be for Mars,” added Trosper. “If all goes well, we could potentially see some images by the end of the day. If not, it’s possible that something happened that maybe caused the vehicle to go into a safing mode after landing.”

Lt. Gen. James Slife, who leads Air Force Special Operations Command, said his group may push through with its planned purchase of a new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in fiscal year 2022. 

The new Armed Overwatch aircraft would replace the existing U-28A Draco in FY 2022 if tests this 2021 go as planned, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

The command initially wanted to commence purchases of Armed Overwatch in the current fiscal year, but pushed the plan to a later date as a result of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

Slife said at a virtual event hosted by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that FY 2021 funds allow for the aircraft's continued research, development, test and evaluation, prior to the final procurement decision.