Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, have introduced legislation authorizing the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to conduct research into disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 Disinformation Research and Reporting Act earmarks $1 million for NSF and NASEM to study the use of social media in spreading false information and manipulating public response to the global health crisis, Wexton’s office said Thursday. 

According to Hirono, the bill is meant to identify “where coronavirus disinformation came from, how it spread, and how to mitigate the impact of COVID-related misinformation and disinformation going forward".

“With this legislation, Senator Hirono and I are tasking the brightest scientific minds to examine this threat and provide lawmakers with the objective analysis we need to confront it,” said Wexton.

Research work will also cover financial incentives resulting from the spread of misinformation and potential strategies to mitigating such tactics. Wexton and Hironi will hold a virtual roundtable on Tuesday to discuss the legislation.

The U.S. Air Force has allocated $67 million in contracts to develop the service branch’s virtual training, FedScoop reported on Monday. The work under the contract will provide airmen with new training platforms that educate on aircraft and other systems, as the military continues to social distance during the ongoing pandemic.

“The system simulates real workspaces for occupational safety and health, educational and training purposes. It will be used to provide aircraft maintainers with a virtual environment where they can develop and improve their skills on various aircraft platforms,” the contract release states.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Mass Virtual two firm-fixed-price contracts, one for $60 million and one for $7 million, that will extend the company's efforts, leveraging its virtual reality training services. The service branch began working with Mass Virtual last fall, awarding the firm a small prototype contract at a pitch event focused on virtual reality training systems.

The contracts with Mass Virtual will promote aircraft familiarization and real-time task manual instruction. The U.S. Air Force has recently increased reliance on virtual reality training and augmented reality simulators as a means to give pilots hands-on, simulated virtual training. 

Integrating virtual and augmented reality systems has relied on large data sets of flight simulations and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide pilots with realistic training environments. The U.S. Air Force has started on a new virtual training system, Pilot Training Next, which is being incorporated into undergraduate pilot training. 

In July, the U.S. Air Force announced a new virtual reality trainer is one step closer to potentially transforming the way B-52 Stratofortress student-pilots train for combat, the Virtual Reality Procedures Trainer (VRPT).

The VRPT, developed by Maj. Mark Budgeon with the Air Force Global Strike Command, Maj. Brandon Wolf with the 307th Operations Support Squadron and Maj. Justin Stephenson with the 11th Bomb Squadron chief pilot and chief of innovations.

“Our adversaries are getting much better, much faster,” Budgeon said. “This system has the potential to revolutionize the entire training process and make our student graduates better.”

The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has passed 40 recommendations to help the legislative branch reform the appropriations process, improve congressional capacity and reclaim its responsibilities under Article One of the Constitution.

Some of the recommendations to improve the budgeting process are requiring a biennial budget resolution, ensuring that Congress adheres to a realistic budget timeline as well as establishing an annual fiscal state of the nation to inform the branch’s policymaking efforts, the committee said Thursday.

To help recruit and retain personnel on Capitol Hill, the committee has suggested a reassessment of the Members Representational Allowance, establishment of a voluntary, nonbinding pay band system and an increase in health insurance options for congressional staff.

The panel also suggested the creation of a community focused grant program, an increase in capacity for policy staff and congressional support organization and bipartisan oversight and trainings at the committee level to help Congress reclaim Article One responsibilities.

The vote on the fifth and final package brings the amount of approved recommendations by the committee to 90. 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has found that a cyber threat actor exploited compromised credentials to implant a multistage malware and launch a cyber attack on a federal agency’s network.

An analysis report published on Thursday stated that CISA carried out an incident response engagement after it found a malicious actor that compromised the agency’s enterprise network through its EINSTEIN intrusion detection tool.

The hacker secured persistent access using two reverse Socket Secure (SOCKS) proxies that exploited vulnerabilities in the agency’s firewall, according to the report.

The threat actor created a local account to collect data, browse directories on a victim file server and exfiltrate data from a file server directory and account directory.

CISA has recommended that agencies monitor network traffic for unusual open ports, large outbound files and other suspicious activities, deploy an enterprise firewall and block unused ports, among others.