The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called on the federal government to accelerate efforts to carry out critical actions to address major cybersecurity challenges.

There are four major cyber challenges the government should address and these are establishing comprehensive cybersecurity strategy and performing effective oversight, securing federal systems and information, protecting cyber critical infrastructure and safeguarding privacy and sensitive data, according to a GAO report published Wednesday.

The GAO report listed 10 critical actions to help the country deal with cyber threats, including mitigation of global supply chain risks, the need to address cyber workforce management challenges and improvements in the government's response to cyber incidents.

For instance, the congressional watchdog cited the need to define and establish a central role to oversee the implementation of a national cyber strategy and recommended that Congress propose a measure to create a position within the executive office of the president to lead the effort.

In January 2021, Congress responded to GAO’s recommendation with the creation of the office of the national cyber director within the White House.

“Once the position is filled, the federal government will be better situated to direct activities to overcome the nation’s cyber threats and challenges, and to perform effective oversight,” the GAO report reads.

According to the report, GAO has made approximately 3,300 recommendations to help agencies address lapses in cybersecurity since 2010. Of those recommendations, over 750 are not yet implemented as of Dec. 2020.

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is exploring advances in non-linear optics and integrated photonics in support of the development of microwave oscillators that potentially meet the compact-size, tuning and robustness requirements while staying in ultra-low-noise level. 

DARPA said Tuesday that the Generating RF with Photonic Oscillators for Low Noise research program will be two-pronged, with the first area of focus being the prototyping, testing and maturation of a compact microwave oscillator capability with low phase noise.

The fundamental limits of photonic microwave generation will be the focus of the second research area. An order of magnitude leap in size, phase noise or frequency span will be sought from research teams.

“By implementing advances in photonic microwave generation with integrated photonics, we see a pathway to create a significant leap in microwave oscillator capability, while simultaneously realizing characteristics not found in today’s products: very low phase noise, compact form factor, ultra-wideband tuning, and environmental robustness,” said Gordon Keeler, program manager at DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office.

The agency will hold a virtual proposers day on April 8 to answer questions from potential offerors and provide them with more information about the GRYPHON initiative. Proposers will also be given an opportunity to highlight their capabilities and form potential partnerships.

DARPA is expected to release a broad agency announcement on the Beta SAM website before the proposers day.

Alma Cole, chief information security officer of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said migrating network user identities to the cloud from legacy systems is key to enabling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to have a zero-trust security, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

He pointed out during a virtual cybersecurity event that DHS agencies have disconnected services for usernames and passwords. However, Cole added that having “cloud-first” identities could allow for more secure connections with other agencies and DHS’ external partners.

The official said the department would then be able to control which network portions can be accessed by on-premise and external users.

DHS is considering secure access service edge cloud services as a replacement of its virtual private network used by remote workers and other offsite users. A comply-to-connect framework, a network access control system and a software-defined network are also planned for on-premise user access.

“That is probably the first real, meaningful way to start implementing some hard, zero-trust access control policies and really lock down your agency,” said Cole. He also called for expanded guidance on zero-trust security at the federal level.

NASA plans to enter into two to four Space Act Agreements with companies to support the initial design of their proposed commercial space stations in low Earth orbit as part of the Commercial LEO Development (CLD) program, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

The agency intends to award Space Act Agreements worth approximately $300 million to $400 million combined by the fourth quarter of 2021 to help companies transition the design of their proposed orbital facilities to the preliminary design review phase from fiscal years 2022 through 2025.

The CLD program’s second phase is expected to kick off in 2026 and would include the certification of commercial space stations by NASA and procurement of services.

NASA is expected to release a draft announcement of proposals in April and the final version in May 2021.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has revealed a strategy to bolster the agency's financial and service performance over the next 10 years.

USPS said Tuesday its “Delivering for America” plan aims to achieve performance progress while keeping the six-day mail delivery system and augmenting the seven-day package delivery service.

This effort seeks to generate $24 billion in net revenue from delivery services and enable a $40 billion investment in vehicle, facility and workforce improvements.

Louis DeJoy, postmaster general and CEO at USPS, said the plan will require investments, cost reduction efforts and various strategies that would help the service keep up with future challenges.

The plan would also involve regulatory and legislative changes related to USPS' pricing, health benefits and self-help initiatives.

“The Board challenged Postal management to devise a plan that was firmly rooted in our public service mission to bind the nation together,” said Ron Bloom, chairman of USPS' board of governors. 

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is slated to conduct a two-day virtual event from April 13th to 14th to discuss a new rapid and agile procurement vehicle to industry and academia. 

Marcella Cantu, Directed Energy Technology Experimentation Research program manager at AFRL, said in a statement published Tuesday DETER is a new contracting vehicle that will allow organizations to work with the laboratory's energy directorate in nine topic areas.

Cantu added the event is a part of AFRL's efforts to implement directed energy concepts and weapon system options into various operational domains.

AFRL will accommodate industry partners on the first day while academic institutions are free to join the following day. Interested attendees have until April 7 to register for the virtual event.