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FCC to Support NSF Spectrum Innovation Initiative; Sean Jones Quoted
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FCC to Support NSF Spectrum Innovation Initiative; Sean Jones Quoted

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has agreed to support the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Initiative by signing a memorandum of agreement with NSF and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Under the agreement, FCC personnel will provide its subject matter expertise to help NSF align the initiative’s investments in spectrum research, workforce development and infrastructure with U.S. spectrum policy and regulatory objectives and strategies, FCC said Monday.

FCC will also work with NSF and NTIA to establish the country’s first National Center for Wireless Spectrum Research through the initiative.

NSF introduced the program in 2020 to advance spectrum research and development efforts with a focus on key research areas, including real-time spectrum awareness, spectrum agility and flexibility and spectrum efficiency through autonomous and secure decision-making.

Sean Jones, assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences at NSF, said the Spectrum Innovation Initiative seeks to identify ways to maximize the country’s limited radio spectrum resources.

“This agreement will provide enhanced access to NTIA and FCC expertise, helping us focus spectrum research and develop a technologically sophisticated workforce at the speed this nation requires to stay at the forefront of innovation,” Jones added.

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Navy Eyes February Release of ‘Unmanned Campaign Plan’
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Navy Eyes February Release of ‘Unmanned Campaign Plan’

The U.S. Navy is expected to release its plan for its fleet of unmanned ships later this month, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

The upcoming Unmanned Campaign Plan will provide information on how the Navy will combine into a coherent whole its future unmanned surface, aerial and subsurface weapons and outline the operations and missions of those new platforms.

The 30-year shipbuilding plan issued in December proposed a fleet of 119 to 166 unmanned ships by 2045. The Navy plans to procure large unmanned surface vehicles, extra-large unmanned undersea vehicles and medium unmanned surface vehicles, according to the report.

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Space Force Eyes Government-Owned Open Platform for Data From Missile Warning Satellites; Lt. Col. Kellie Brownlee Quoted
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Space Force Eyes Government-Owned Open Platform for Data From Missile Warning Satellites; Lt. Col. Kellie Brownlee Quoted

The U.S. Space Force is advancing the development of a government-owned open system to process and share data derived from existing and future missile warning satellites, SpaceNews reported Monday.

In January 2020, the Space and Missile Systems Center awarded a five-year, $197 million contract to Raytheon, which merged with United Technologies Corp. to form Raytheon Technologies in April of last year, to come up with an open-architecture system for Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution or Forge. 

Col. Rhet Turnbull, director of the cross mission ground and communications enterprise at SMC, said Forge would be a “government-owned baseline, with the government owning the design and the data and the software.”

Lt. Col. Kellie Brownlee, materiel leader for future ground integration at SMC, said the service is working to transfer Lockheed Martin’s proprietary technology and data to a government-owned open architecture.

“As we migrate our legacy assets to the new system, data rights is one of our biggest concerns and risk areas,” Brownlee said. “We need to understand how the older systems are going to operate on our new system.” 

The service is projected to spend $2 billion on the Forge platform and is working on another open system – Enterprise Ground Services – that will use common standards to operate future satellites by 2028.

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GDIT Announces AWS Availability on milCloud 2.0 Contract; Dave Levy Quoted
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GDIT Announces AWS Availability on milCloud 2.0 Contract; Dave Levy Quoted

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has announced the availability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) under the milCloud 2.0 contract, GDIT reported on Monday. AWS availability will provide the Department of Defense (DoD) access to an expanded portfolio of secure cloud services.

"Through this collaboration between AWS and GDIT, DoD customers can access leading cloud services from AWS in areas such as compute, storage, database, networking, analytics, machine learning, migration, security, and more," said Dave Levy, vice president of U.S. Government, Nonprofit and Healthcare at AWS and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient. 

milCloud 2.0 will enable the DoD and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to accelerate cloud adoption, simplify acquisition, save costs and improve mission effectiveness. 

With AWS, GDIT will be able to deliver advanced technology and innovate faster with artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber sensing and other emerging capabilities to defense customers under the contract. 

Users will be able to leverage the milCloud 2.0 contract for migrations, application modernization and new application development. The GDIT-AWS partnership will enable mission partners to utilize cloud services from AWS across analytics, edge computing, end user computing and security.

"We're pleased to announce milCloud 2.0 capabilities are now expanded to also provide mission partners leading cloud services from AWS," said Leigh Palmer, senior vice president of GDIT's defense division. "This aligns precisely with the DoD Hybrid Cloud Strategy and actually simplifies acquisition and choice for the DoD and DISA mission partners."

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Paul Leslie to Retire as Dovel Technologies Executive Chairman; Sudhakar Kesavan to Join Board of Directors
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Paul Leslie to Retire as Dovel Technologies Executive Chairman; Sudhakar Kesavan to Join Board of Directors

Dovel Technologies has announced that Paul Leslie will retire as the company’s executive chairman and Sudhakar Kesavan will join Dovel as chairman of the Board in March 2021, the company reported on Monday.

“It has been an honor to have led Dovel through its entrepreneurial growth stage. I will forever be grateful to the management team and all our wonderful employees for their dedication to our customers’ success and their enduring support of our growth strategy,” said Leslie.

Before his position as executive chairman, Leslie served as the chief executive officer of Dovel for more than eight years. With the company, Leslie drove growth, expanding Dovel into a midsize company in the federal government space. After retirement, Leslie will remain active with Dovel’s leadership team and serve as an advisor to the company.

Leslie has served as chairman of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and continues to provide guidance as an advisor to the Children Science Center and George Mason University’s Innovation Advisory Council.

“I am deeply grateful for Paul’s time at Dovel. He has been a great mentor and has had an enormous impact on the Company’s success throughout the last decade. The transformative success he created is the foundation that propels Dovel as we continue to support missions that truly make a difference in the world,” said Damon Griggs, CEO of Dovel. 

Kesavan will bring more than three decades of experience to Dovel. With more than three decades of experience, he will advise Dovel on its vision and strategic goals throughout its growth strategy. Kesavan has experience in building and scaling high performance companies, which will enable Dovel to grow in current and new markets.

“I am excited to welcome Sudhakar to Dovel. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience leading and scaling a mission-driven business and I look forward to the ideas and value he will add to our team,” Griggs added. 

Kesavan previously served as ICF’s chairman and chief executive officer. With ICF, he  led the company through an IPO, expanded operations globally, and completed more than 20 acquisitions. Kesavan also serves as the chairman of the Board of Directors at ABM. 

“I am impressed with the quality of the management team at Dovel as well as their ambition,” said Kesavan. “I look forward to working with them to support their vision to scale the business and deliver solutions that have a positive impact across the federal government.”

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CyberCore Analyzes Supply Chain Risk Reduction; William Von Hagel Quoted
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CyberCore Analyzes Supply Chain Risk Reduction; William Von Hagel Quoted

CyberCore recently highlighted the ways organizations can mitigate supply chain risk, which has significantly increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government has significantly relied on global sourcing and manufacturing of critical infrastructure products, which has resulted in supply chain threats, including counterfeit products, hacks, trade wars and supply disruption. 

“It is critical to vet your vendors and third-party suppliers to reduce the risk of threats internal to the supply chain,” recommends Dr. William Von Hagel, Jr., CyberCore’s vice president of Solutions and Marketing. 

CyberCore reported that a supply chain can incorporate hundreds of vendors and business partners from dozens of countries. The data flow within the supply chain has contributed to sharing of confidential information with suppliers and third parties, which has exposed organizations to security risks and data breaches. 

These threats have led to the increase of data loss and compromise. The company reported that unprotected supply chains face a rising number of threats, such as theft of proprietary information, attacks on critical infrastructure and purchasing counterfeit, defective or grey market medical products. 

CyberCore noted that traditional supply chain security measures have focused on protecting supply chains from outside threats. Because of this, organizations could be exposed to other threat vectors. The company also reported that poor process management could affect response and delivery times, leading to vulnerabilities in the supply chain.  

To keep organizations safe and competitive, CyberCore has recommended a multilayered security approach to ensure a secure and well-managed supply chain. Additionally, the company reported that a comprehensive risk assessment is critical to ensure that potential threats to the supply chain are discovered in advance and avoided. 

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IRS Uses Bots to Simplify Contracting Work; Andrea Kadish Quoted
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IRS Uses Bots to Simplify Contracting Work; Andrea Kadish Quoted

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employed bots to quickly implement telecommunications security language across all of the agency's contracts, GCN reported Friday. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 prompted IRS to adopt the DATA Act Bot that works to increase the Federal Procurement Data System's accuracy and transparency.

IRS used bot to meet contracting requirements imposed by the National Defense Authorization Act. The DATA Act Bot was originally designed to support compliance with its namesake.

Shanna Webbers, chief procurement officer at IRS, said the agency had to apply the telecommunications security language on 1,466 active contracts. The bot streamlined a process that would've taken nearly a year if done traditionally.

“The overall goal as we’re looking at this is to strengthen our agility by incorporating automated processes that are also streamlined,” said Andrea Kadish, director of the data analytics and technology division within IRS' procurement office.

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NIST, FEMA Devise Earthquake Recovery Roadmap; Siamak Sattar Quoted
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NIST, FEMA Devise Earthquake Recovery Roadmap; Siamak Sattar Quoted

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.

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Cybercom Deploys Cyber Defense Teams After SolarWinds Attack
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Cybercom Deploys Cyber Defense Teams After SolarWinds Attack

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.

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GSA Creates Digital Worker Identity Mgmt Guide
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GSA Creates Digital Worker Identity Mgmt Guide

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.

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