William Burns, President Biden’s nominee to lead the CIA, said in his opening statement during his Senate confirmation hearing that politics should not interfere with intelligence work, CNN reported Wednesday.

"I learned that good intelligence, delivered with honesty and integrity, is America's first line of defense. I learned that intelligence professionals have to tell policymakers what they need to hear, even if they don't want to hear it," Burns told Senate Intelligence Committee members Wednesday. "And I learned that politics must stop where intelligence work begins." 

Burns told lawmakers how he would deal with China if confirmed as CIA director.

"For CIA, that will mean intensified focus and urgency — continually strengthening its already-impressive cadre of China specialists, expanding its language skills, aligning personnel and resource allocation for the long-haul, and employing a whole-of-agency approach to the operational and analytical challenges of this crucial threat," he said. 

He cited the importance of “firmness and consistency” in responding to Russian aggression.

Burns is president of the international affairs think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served during the Obama administration as deputy secretary of state. His more than 30-year career in foreign service included time as ambassador to Jordan and Russia.

Information technology security company Lookout released a report stating that over 70 percent of phishing-based threats to agencies last year used tactics to obtain sensitive information through login credentials, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

The figure represents a 67 percent increase from 2019 levels and was collated from approximately 200 million government devices and 135 million related apps. Potential risks from using such apps include microphone and camera access, malicious data handling and exposure to foreign-based servers, according to Lookout.

The report also found that credential harvesting techniques significantly increased for federal agencies compared to state and local entities. Credential theft tactics that impacted federal agencies rose by 90 percent while malware attacks saw a decrease of 47 percent.

Lookout noted that pandemic-driven decisions such as the increased implementation of “bring your own device” approaches for remote work could be a contributing factor to hacker exploitation. One in 30 personnel across the government workforce was at risk of phishing attacks in 2020, the report states.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, is directing the Pentagon to reassess the Trump administration's budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, USNI News reported Wednesday.

Hicks is calling on the DOD’s director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) to study line items in the FY 2022 budget including U.S. Navy shipbuilding efforts and aircraft modernization programs. Other items up for assessment include long-range fires and nuclear weapons.

During her confirmation hearing, Hicks told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Trump administration's FY22 blueprint includes items that “require further analysis to validate the numbers."

There were also items in the blueprint such as autonomy, force dispersal and small surface combatant fleet expansion that caught her interest, she noted. “I think the biggest challenge that I will face, if confirmed, because of this is around budget transparency,” said Hicks.

CAPE’s assessment will revolve around the identified programs’ potential involvement in deterrence efforts in the Pacific region, as well as the acceleration of autonomous systems development and the transition away from legacy systems, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The group will also evaluate potential funding for the Biden administration's climate programs and other Build Back Better initiatives for FY 2023 through 2027, according to USNI News.

Cloud Lake Technology, a subsidiary of Akima, announced on Thursday that the company has received its ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 certification, which certifies the company’s best-in-class approach for delivering complex  IT service management to customers.

“This certification validates our capability to deliver a consistent approach to the service lifecycle,  ensuring our federal customers receive the integrated services they need to meet mission objectives,”  said Barry Smallwood, President of Akima’s Emerging Markets Group. “I am extremely proud of our  team and their commitment to meeting our customers critical needs and requirements.”

Cloud Lake Technology was one of the first in the U.S. to achieve CMMI maturity level 3 for development  and services under the new assessment method, version 2.0. This ISO/IEC certification further demonstrates the company’s commitment to continuous improvement and delivering high quality of  service to customers efficiently and effectively.

About Akima 

Akima is a global enterprise with more than 7,500 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal  government in the core areas of aviation, construction, facilities and logistics, IT and mission support,  protective services and detention management, and systems engineering.

Akima’s core mission is to  enable superior outcomes for our customers’ missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset  for NANA consistent with our Iñupiat values.