The Australian government will help the U.S. Department of Defense develop and eventually demonstrate hypersonic cruise missiles under a new partnership, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

The Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment or SCIFiRE aims to prototype cost-effective, air-breathing hypersonic missiles that can fly at speeds over Mach 5. Michael Kratsios and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, the acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said the joint effort would allow the U.S. and its allies to maintain leadership in hypersonics technology.

“Working with our defense scientists here in Australia and our partners in the U.S. Air Force and across the U.S. Department of Defense … we are maximizing our learning during development to better define the capabilities and needs as the system matures,” said Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, chief of Australia's air force.

Jim Faist, director of defense research and engineering for advanced capabilities at the Pentagon, said the effort will use digital twins to test proposed systems. Digital twins virtually represent a system and allow for simulation-based testing. He added that Pentagon considers getting multiple contractors for SCIFiRE.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has been awarded best in class for Fraud Protection and Threat Intelligence during Security Today’s 2020 CyberSecured Awards, the company reported on Wednesday. The company received recognition for its LexisNexis ThreatMetrix product, an enterprise solution for digital identity intelligence and digital authentication to inform risk decisions.

“By combining digital identity insights with leading analytic technology and embedded machine learning, LexisNexis Risk Solutions fraud prevention tools unify decision analytics across the citizen and employee journey,” said Monty Faidley, vice president of products and analytics for the Government group of LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

LexisNexis ThreatMetrix, a dynamic, end-to-end decision platform, has connected businesses and government agencies to machine learning threat intelligence. The company’s solution has enabled its customers to understand the digital identity of users to better recognize suspicious behavior in near real time.

Additionally, ThreatMetrix’s findings have enabled informed trust and identity decisions. The solution also has also increased transaction efficiency, while maximizing critical fraud defenses and cybersecurity risk management processes.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions acquired ThreatMetrix in 2018. The company launched LexisNexis ThreatMetrix in 2019, leveraging digital identity insights from ThreatMetrix and analytic technology as well as embedded machine learning from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

LexisNexis ThreatMetrix was developed to create a fraud prevention solution that increases conversions, maximizes revenue, improves transaction security, refines personalization, minimizes friction and reduces false positives.

“Today’s fraudsters are experts at avoiding detection,” added Faidley. “The lack of threat detection today is slowing the distribution of critical benefit payments to the appropriate people in need and exposing an agency to increased fraud. Adding real-time, seamless security doesn’t have to produce unwanted friction for users.”

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government.

Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), head of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, wrote a letter to House leadership, requesting a $9 billion emergency injection into the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), under the next COVID-19 relief package.

“Without modern and nimble IT systems, the federal government cannot deliver critical payments and services to individuals, families, and businesses who rely on them,” the letter stated. The letter was also signed by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-D.C.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), John Sarbanes (D-Md.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.)

The letter noted that government networks will remain vulnerable if legacy systems continue to be neglected. It also stated that antiquated IT networks have contributed to the slow pandemic response, such as dispersing stimulus benefits and COVID-19 data tracking.

“We must begin to address IT investments now, or we will continue down the same path as before unable to deliver critical services to the public at a time when our country needs it the most,” the letter added.

Previous COVID-19 relief packages initially included billions of dollars in funding for the TMF; however, it was later cut from the final bill. The fund was created in 2017 for high-priority modernization projects across federal agencies. The TMF had $150 million appropriated to it to date. 

President Biden recently announced his support of the TMF, prior to taking office. Biden’s transition team called for giving the TMF $9 billion to launch shared IT and cybersecurity services across the government. 

Biden’s plan has also budgeted for $200 million to increase the hiring of cybersecurity experts “to support the federal Chief Information Security Officer and U.S. Digital Service” and $300 million for “no-year funding” to support the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) team.

He projected an additional $690 million to help the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) “bolster cybersecurity across federal civilian networks, and support the piloting of new shared security and cloud computing services.”

Avaya has made its OneCloud CCaaS and OneCloud CPaaS portfolios available with Avaya AI Virtual Agent Enhanced, the company reported on Wednesday. The company’s AI Virtual Agent will deliver human-like automation features that will work to improve customer experience and contact center efficiency.

The company’s new AI capability will leverage Google Cloud Dialogflow CX, and is part of Avaya’s ongoing integration of Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI (CCAI). The combination of Avaya AI innovation and Google Cloud CCAI will deliver enhanced experience for users by uniting automated and assisted experiences throughout a customer’s interaction with the contact center.

“Avaya and Google Cloud are delivering AI innovation that is making organizations more agile, more responsive and more capable of meeting the needs of today’s ‘everything customer’,” said Eric Rossman, Avaya VP of Technology Partners and Alliances.

Avaya Virtual Agent Enhanced will improve customer experience through more natural and context-driven interactions. The adoption of enhanced virtual agents, delivered by Avaya and Google Cloud, will also drive more effective customer interaction.

Avaya OneCloud CCaaS contact center solutions will support customer experience centers to better connect and support touch points across the customers’ missions, including voice, video, chat, messaging, and social. The company will leverage AI, insights, knowledge and resources to improve customer and employee experience.

Avaya OneCloud CPaaS will enable organizations to build the experiences and communications-enable apps by delivering workflow integration. The company will support these apps with integration to Google Cloud Dialogflow CX. Avaya OneCloud CPaaS will help build applications faster, supporting SMS, MMS, voice, messaging, and digital channels.

“Our strength in delivering AI continues to drive growth in our cloud solutions, and is making a real difference for our customers,” Rossman added.

The Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled an enterprise strategy to advance the development and application of artificial intelligence across common mission areas in an effort to meet the evolving needs of U.S. citizens.

The HHS AI Strategy calls for the department to establish an AI council to help communicate the department’s AI vision and ambition and implement the enterprise strategy and strategic priorities with regard to the technology.

The HHS AI Council will specifically set and carry out priorities, cultivate partnerships with public and private entities, provide governance support and sponsor a community of practice comprised of AI practitioners.

Nextgov reported a chair and co-chair will lead the AI Council as it implements the strategic priorities in the document. Oki Mek, recently named chief AI officer at HHS, said he will serve as the council’s co-chair and the chair will be a senior official who will report directly to the HHS secretary.

Operating and staff division leaders across the department will comprise the rest of the council.

“AI Council members should be deeply familiar with the mission and operations of their respective Op/StaffDiv and have demonstrated experience with or interest in artificial intelligence,” Mek said. “The composition of the AI Council should include a variety of both technical and non-technical perspectives.” 

The council will identify and back priority initiatives within four key focus areas: develop an AI-ready workforce and strengthen AI culture; encourage health AI innovation and research and development; democratize foundational AI tools and resources; and promote ethical, trustworthy AI use and development.

“This strategy lays the foundation upon which the AI Council can use to drive change across the Department by encouraging the application of AI to promote advances in the sciences, public health, and social services—improving the quality of life for all Americans,” the document reads.

Army Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM), said he supports a plan for the Department of Commerce (DOC) to take over space traffic management responsibilities to enable Space Command to focus on monitoring space activities that have an impact on national security, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Dickinson said his command and the department have been collaborating in the past two years to come up with a plan for the transition. He also cited the country’s need for an equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would be responsible for ensuring safety in the space domain.

Dickinson said he supports the transfer of space traffic control to the Department of Commerce “where it can be better managed,” he said.  That would allow Space Command to focus on tracking space activities that affect national security.

“Our orbital regimes are becoming much more congested,” he said Tuesday during a Mitchell Institute virtual event. “Most of it is either space debris or commercial activity. And as we look to the future that’s only going to get more congested.”