The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have issued a joint statement saying they found no evidence that a foreign government compromised election infrastructure to manipulate the 2020 U.S. federal elections.

DOJ and DHS investigated public claims, including allegations that foreign governments controlled systems used in the elections and carried out a scheme to manipulate those systems, and determined that they were not credible, according to the joint statement released on Tuesday.

The findings are part of a classified report the departments submitted to the president in February in compliance with the executive order Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Influence in a United States Election.

The joint document released on Tuesday includes key findings and recommendations from the classified report. 

DHS and DOJ have recommended that the U.S. government continue to help election officials and political campaigns implement best practices for election security; assist political organizations with establishing supply chain risk management procedures; foster collaboration with federal, local and state government agencies and private sector partners; and improve the quality and quantity of public messaging and education.

Researchers at University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a new type of quantum error correction that could help advance the development of a fault-tolerant quantum computer, which could provide the military with data processing capabilities needed to fight in multidomain operations, the Army reported Tuesday.

The Army Research Office (ARO) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded the research work, which tailored the friction experienced by quantum bits or qubits to achieve a passive QEC where the quantum errors are rectified spontaneously.

“This is a very exciting accomplishment not only because of the fundamental error correction concept the team was able to demonstrate, but also because the results suggest this overall approach may amenable to implementations with high resource efficiency,” said Sara Gamble, quantum information science program manager at the Army Research Office.

“Efficiency is increasingly important as quantum computation systems grow in size to the scales we’ll need for Army relevant applications,” Gamble added.

The Potomac Officers Club will hold the 2021 JADO Forum on April 15 to feature discussions on initiatives, priorities and challenges related to joint all domain operations. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeks the public's input on a strategy that aims to address climate change through efforts in forestry and agriculture. USDA said Monday that it needs information on climate-smart agriculture and forestry approaches, bioproducts, renewable energy and wildfire.

The department also seeks insight into how the climate strategy can benefit disadvantaged communities. The strategy will support President Biden’s executive order that aims to address the climate crisis in the U.S. and overseas. 

The order emphasized the significant role of farmers and forest landowners in pursuit of the strategy's goal, with regard to carbon isolation and greenhouse gas reduction.

Interested parties may submit responses through April 30 via the Federal Register.

The National Security Agency’s (NSA) Central Security Service will hold a research event focused on the implementation of principles to address fundamental issues in cybersecurity.

NSA said Monday that  the Hot Topics on Science of Security (HotSoS) event will take place from April 13th to 15th and include virtual plenary presentations and poster sessions through the Hopin and Gather.town platforms, respectively.

The eight HotSoS symposium focuses on cybersecurity and will enable researchers to submit progress papers on relevant topics. The event will also include a breakout session that covers “hard problems” on national security based on proposals from the community.

CSS will accept registrations for HotSoS through April 11th. The call for security hard problems will run through March 21st.

The U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) has concluded a 13-day exercise to assess the capacity of 15 technologies for applications such as offensive cyber, electronic warfare and tactical electromagnetic-spectrum operations, FedScoop reported on Monday.

Cyber Quest 2021 saw assessments of cyber technologies such as an Accenture-developed pattern recognition concept for manipulating digital signatures.

“This is unique because of the dialog it allows,” noted Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, the Army Cyber Center of Excellence's commanding general. AFC also simulated an airbase attack to test radios with anti-jamming elements as well as features for tracking adversary actions through electromagnetic signatures.

The Army expects the larger-scale tests that took place during the exercise to help inform the service branch’s requirements for future contracts.

Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) is slated to implement a consolidated service desk and catalog system that will support more than 700,000 users worldwide.

The first wave of the Enterprise IT-as-a-Service (EITaaS) platform features integrated security management capabilities, automated compliance checks and regular hardware and refresh updates, the U.S. Air Force said Monday. USAF aims to augment devices and speed up login times across U.S. Space Force and Air Force installations through the Wave 1 update.

The Department of the Air Force launched the EITaaS program in a move to deliver a standardized and agile information technology service to USSF and USAF. The team intends to work with industry and offer a contract in 2022 to deliver enhanced network performance to airmen.

“The partnership between EITaaS and the private sector on Wave 1 will set the foundation for delivering enterprise services across the Air and Space Forces,” said Col. Justin Collins, senior materiel leader at USAF’s enterprise information technology and cloud capabilities division, command, control, communications, intelligence and networks directorate.

The Wave 1 update is a part of the EITaaS Risk Reduction Effort, a feasibility assessment program that seeks to study security, operational, organizational and technical standards for enterprise IT systems.