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Former NIST Exec Donna Dodson Honored for Federal Cybersecurity Accomplishments
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Former NIST Exec Donna Dodson Honored for Federal Cybersecurity Accomplishments

Donna Dodson, a 33-year veteran of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been selected for the Partnership for Public Service's Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal in recognition of her efforts to help public and private sector organizations address cyber threats.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit named Dodson among the 11 medalists and recognized her in the safety, security and international affairs category, the agency said Thursday.

She served as chief cybersecurity adviser to the NIST Information Technology Laboratory and founding director of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) from 2012 until her retirement on May 8, the agency said Thursday.

Dodson helped develop the agency's framework for protecting critical infrastructure assets from cyber threats and worked on a team that implemented national encryption standards.

As the NCCoE's leader, she drove the adoption of business security platforms across sectors such as the financial, manufacturing, health care and energy industries.

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Sen. Charles Grassley Asks DoD to Respond to Questions About JEDI Cloud Program
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Sen. Charles Grassley Asks DoD to Respond to Questions About JEDI Cloud Program

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked the Department of Defense (DoD) to respond by Oct. 19th to several questions in relation to the findings and recommendations by DoD’s office of the inspector general about the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing program.

Grassley wrote Monday to DoD Secretary and 2020 Wash100 Award winner Mark Esper asking the latter’s office to address alleged conflicts of interest and other issues in the JEDI cloud procurement process.

The letter contains 14 questions about DoD’s spending on acquisition personnel, administrative support and technical expertise with regard to the JEDI program, debriefing process for vendors and the department’s comment on the OIG report.

Grassley also asked about the measures the Pentagon has initiated to address OIG’s recommendations, such as the development and implementation of policies to require analysis and documentation backing acquisition decisions and administrative actions against individuals for failure to review redacted reports and disclosure of source selection, proposal and proprietary information.

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Pentagon Releases Data Strategy; Dana Deasy Quoted
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Pentagon Releases Data Strategy; Dana Deasy Quoted

The Department of Defense (DoD) has unveiled a new strategy to help DoD transform into a data-centric organization that considers data as a strategic resource critical to maintaining operational advantage on the battlefield.

DoD said Thursday that the Data Strategy will help advance the National Defense Strategy and initially focus on the areas of business analytics, senior leader decision support and joint all domain operations. 

The strategy has eight guiding principles, including data ethics, collective data stewardship, data for artificial intelligence training and data as a strategic asset. 

“Data is the ammunition in the Digital Modernization Strategy and is increasingly central to warfighter advantage on and off the battlefield. … This strategy is our first step to making that ammo persistently available to the men and women of the DOD regardless of echelon or geographic location,” said Dana Deasy, chief information officer at DoD and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner.

Dave Spirk, chief data officer at the Pentagon, will work with Joint Staff and service department CDOs to operationalize the strategy’s seven goals such as making data interoperable, secure and visible.

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DHS Gets DOI’s Help to Assess P25 Public Safety Equipment; Sridhar Kowdley Quoted
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DHS Gets DOI’s Help to Assess P25 Public Safety Equipment; Sridhar Kowdley Quoted

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology (DHS S&T) Directorate has authorized the Department of the Interior to assess first responder technologies under a DHS-led effort. DHS said Wednesday that its Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program independently evaluates first responder equipment for compliance with P25 requirements.

A Colorado-based laboratory within DOI has demonstrated subsystem interface testing to support P25 CAP. The laboratory attained the necessary certification requirements to help S&T test inter-radio frequency and console subsystem interfaces.

“This DHS-DOI partnership created significant cost savings by leveraging resources and capabilities of DOI laboratories," said Sridhar Kowdley, S&T's program manager for P25 CAP.

Inter-radio frequency subsystems or ISSIs support the interconnection between P25 and LTE networks, and CSSIs links public safety dispatchers to P25 systems. The P25 program assesses whether the equipment is eligible to become part of S&T’s Approved Equipment list.

“DHS S&T’s partnership with DOI addressed a critical lack of testing laboratories to conduct the ISSI and CSSI conformance testing,” Kowdley also noted.

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U-2 Federal Lab Uses Kubernetes to Boost Dragon Lady; Nicolas Chaillan Quoted
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U-2 Federal Lab Uses Kubernetes to Boost Dragon Lady; Nicolas Chaillan Quoted

U-2 Federal Laboratory, assigned to integrate software in a bounded environment, has used the Kubernetes automation tool in a recent aircraft exercise. 

The laboratory used Kubernetes during a training sortie with a U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft, marking the automation tool's first flight with a major, operational Department of Defense system, USAF said Wednesday.

Kubernetes facilitates computing and other functions to fully automate complex applications. The tool would allow the U.S. military to meet weapon system requirements by maximizing available computing power.

During the training flight, Kubernetes allowed the U-2 aircraft to leverage the combined performance of four onboard computers for advanced machine learning algorithms.

“The successful combination of the U-2’s legacy computer system with the modern Kubernetes software was a critical milestone for the development of software containerization on existing Air Force weapon systems,” said Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer at USAF.

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NSWC Crane Brings AI-Ready Infrastructure to US Navy
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NSWC Crane Brings AI-Ready Infrastructure to US Navy

Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane fielded a high-performance computing technology as part of efforts to implement deep learning, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into the U.S. Navy.

NSWC Crane incorporated the Artificial Intelligence Ready Infrastructure into the center's Research, Development, Test, and Engineering Network and is now available on the Navy High Performance Computing Catalog, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Wednesday.

John Strange, a computer scientist at NSWC Crane, said AIRI serves as a hardware configuration that aims to help scientists and data architects process critical training workloads and lower compute times.

"We leveraged an existing contract to procure all of the required materials and services, as well as coordinate the integration of the new AIRI with NSWC Crane and our vendors," Strange added.

The center procured AIRI and installed it on NSWC Crane's open environment in 2018

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Ryan McCarthy: Army Eyes Budget Realignment Following COVID-19 Efforts
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Ryan McCarthy: Army Eyes Budget Realignment Following COVID-19 Efforts

Ryan McCarthy, secretary of the U.S. Army and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, has said the service branch is working to realign its budget priorities to relieve debt related to COVID-19 response.

McCarthy told attendees at a Hudson Institute event that the Army intends to make internal funding cuts after accumulating debt from COVID-related efforts such as the Operation Warp Speed vaccine production program, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.

He said that future budget requests will cover reappropriated funds for the Army’s modernization programs including long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles, air-and-missile defense and future vertical lift.

“It’s [a] tremendous amount of debt that we've incurred to deal with COVID and it was necessary, but how do we deal with this going forward?” noted McCarthy. “We're looking very hard at that and we're talking to economists,” he added.

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Trump Eyes Nomination of Sean Plankey as DHS Asst Director
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Trump Eyes Nomination of Sean Plankey as DHS Asst Director

President Trump plans to nominate Sean Plankey to serve as assistant director for infrastructure security at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the White House said Wednesday.

Plankey currently serves as principal deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response at the Department of Energy (DOE).

Before DOE, he held the role of director for cyber policy at the National Security Council (NSC) and worked at the Bureau of Budget and Planning as global cyber intelligence adviser.

The U.S. Coast Guard veteran also led the U.S. Navy’s naval intelligence mission systems as deputy chief information officer for naval intelligence.

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Ellen Lord on DoD’s Updated Defense Acquisition Directive
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Ellen Lord on DoD’s Updated Defense Acquisition Directive

Hon. Ellen Lord, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) acquisition head and a 2020 Wash100 Award recipient, has said the Pentagon’s release of a new directive to transform its acquisition procedures.

Lord, who serves as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said at a recent briefing that updates to the DoD Directive 5000.01 represent a “comprehensive redesign” of the defense acquisition system.

She noted that the “streamlined and modernized” revisions will help empower program managers while promoting flexibility and delivering at the speed of relevance. 

The new Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF), which took effect in January, has already resulted in improvements for the service branches, said Lord.

"As with the AAF's existing pathways, our intent is to ensure we have a process that is designed around the characteristics of the capability in development, rather than forcing them through a business model that just doesn't fit,” she added.

According to Lord, the DoD’s acquisition system needed to keep up with the private sector and incorporate a culture that fosters creative compliance and critical thinking.

A hybrid approach to acquisition can also help program managers and decision-makers mitigate risk, speed up programs, establish requirements and solidify engineering approaches while ensuring proper oversight, she noted.

Ellen Lord on DoD's Updated Defense Acquisition Directive

Join Potomac Officers Club for its 5G Summit on Oct. 27, 2020 to learn about the impact that innovative technologies and 5G integration have on the private and public sectors, the steps the federal agencies have taken to remain up to speed with the rapid advancement of technology, and the future programs, plans and priorities as the nation aligns with emerging technology.

Hon. Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense (DoD) and four-time Wash100 Award recipient, will be featured as the keynote speaker.

Don’t miss out on this must see event! Register here for the 5G Summit on October 27th.

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NASA SEWP Contract Orders Reach $9B in FY 2020; Joanne Woytek Quoted
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NASA SEWP Contract Orders Reach $9B in FY 2020; Joanne Woytek Quoted

NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) governmentwide acquisition program has increased its spending in fiscal year 2020 and saw over 47,000 orders totaling $9 billion from 90 federal entities.

The figure represents a 40 percent increase from FY 2019, where the SEWP program saw 36,000 orders worth $6.5 billion combined, FCW reported Wednesday.

Joanne Woytek, manager for SEWP, said in an email to the publication that the program cut usage fees and created an online customer service portal for agencies' chief information officers in response to seasonal demands and COVID-19 impacts.

She added that SEWP also established customer liaison teams to streamline procurement.

"We had also noticed six months ago an uptick in orders for IT security software, web cameras, virtualization software, laptops and monitors and other technology related to telework," noted Woytek. "However, with nearly 47,000 orders from over 1,300 sites and 25,000 customers, it is hard to categorize how much of the purchasing was COVID related." 

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