An Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report says the Joint Authorization Board and the program management office for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) should require agencies to designate a FedRAMP liaison and conduct pilot programs to identify ways how to streamline the program to facilitate reviews and authorization of cloud services.

Congress should also pass a bill that would provide FedRAMP with needed funds to employ more professionals to help accelerate assessments of cloud offerings, ITIF said in the report published Monday.

“Without the necessary changes and funding, the program risks helping, but also hindering, federal agencies to adopt cloud services,” Michael McLaughlin, a research analyst at Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank ITIF, wrote in the report.

The House passed in February a bill that would codify FedRAMP. ITIF called on Congress to make some changes to the proposed FedRAMP Authorization Act to increase the security and availability of cloud platforms for use by federal agencies.

These are expanding the JAB, hiring technical professionals within the PMO to develop automation tools and other platforms, broadening the number of authorization metrics tracked, requiring the JAB and agencies to offer authorization packages to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and increasing reuse of authorizations by requiring agencies to secure exemptions.

The 910th Maintenance Group, operating at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, has received funds worth $72K to purchase a new 3D printer and further implement the use of additive manufacturing.

The group will procure an AON3D printer to advance additive manufacturing work done in collaboration with Air Force Research Laboratory, Youngstown State University, AF Life Cycle Management Center and other partnered entities, the Defense Logistics Agency said Tuesday.

USAF provided the budget for the printer through the AFWERX Squadron Innovation Fund. The printer's purchase will help the group expand its partnerships towards the development of advanced manufacturing in the Air Force.

“This printer has the capability to print the world’s strongest polymers, such as PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone), which is widely regarded as the world’s strongest thermoplastic, along with Ultem, which is what the Air Force has certified to be approved for the production of non-structural aircraft components,” said Chief Master Sgt. Darin Wesoloski, fabrication flight chief at the 910th Maintenance Squadron and a 3D printing advocate.

YARS has so far used 3D printing to maintain C-130H Hercules airlift aircraft. The station will make efforts to certify its upcoming AON3D printer for USAF use.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued an updated version of its Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) milestone that includes guidelines for control baselines and system security plans (SSP) for various hardware and software.

NIST said Tuesday the OSCAL Milestone 3 serves as an official prerelease of the full OSCAL v1 and includes additional draft models for machine-readable formats such as XML, JSON and YAML.

OSCAL serves as a collaborative effort between NIST and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) intended to help speed up the latter's authorization process.

According to NIST, the OSCAL team will continue collecting feedback on Milestone 3 to inform the development of more tutorials, layers and models. The agency added that it also seeks developers and offerors to support OSCAL implementation for commercial as well as open-source applications.

OSCAL Milestone 3’s release comes after FedRAMP issued its OSCAL SSP Template and Guidance.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing forecast models to help the government carry out reopening decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The models will employ information from open data sources to simulate events within counties and military installations in the U.S., the U.S. Air Force said Wednesday.

Ryan Kramer, explainable artificial intelligence lead at AFRL's 711th Human Performance Wing, said the team built a SIR model that identifies asymptomatic carriers, hospitalized individuals and people who are in self-isolation. Kramer added that AFRL helmed a simulation library that covers various ranges within every transition parameter and presents potential outcomes in each model.

AFRL plans to release the forecast models in publicly-accessible dashboards. The team has tapped KBR to provide support services for the project.

Omar Baez and Matt Wallace, NASA officials, said online that the space agency has more than enough time to address potential problems that may affect the Mars 2020 launch schedule, Space News reported Wednesday.

The two said processing activities are running on schedule toward the launch set for July 20. NASA moved the launch date from July 17 due to a technical issue but Baez and Wallace said that current processes are proceeding on time.

The space agency implemented a work safety program, titled Mars 2020 Safe at Work, to have preparation activities continue running and reduce personnel risks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The objective was to keep the team as safe, or safer, than they would be if they were not working,” said Wallace, a deputy project manager of the Mars 2020 effort. Baez, meanwhile, serves as the mission's launch director under NASA's Launch Services Program.

NASA will launch the Mars 2020 rover, named Perseverance, on United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket from Florida-based Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The mission will deploy Perseverance on the red planet to collect rock samples and explore for signs of life.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has agreed to fund Lingming Zhang, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, with $520,000 for a project on automated debugging. Zhang, a computer science academic, will use the five-year Faculty Early Career Development or CAREER grant for his project titled “Maximal and Scalable Unified Debugging for the JVM Ecosystem," UT Dallas said Thursday.

He said the project's goal is to simplify the debugging process for software developers. The project will aim to collectively localize bugs and repair software automatically with no need for manned operation. Zhang's proposed approach is designed to identify all bugs potentially present in a software, rather than only the bugs automatically fixable.

“Dr. Zhang has made significant contributions toward building systems that can predict, detect, localize and fix software bugs automatically,” said Gopal Gupta, a computer science professor at UT Dallas.

Team Telecom has recommended that the Federal Communications Commission deny Pacific Light Cable Network’s (PLCN) application to establish direct undersea cable connection between the U.S. and Hong Kong citing national security risks.

Team Telecom, also known as the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, suggested that FCC approve PLCN’s request to install subsea cable systems to connect the U.S. to Taiwan and the Philippines on the condition that the subsidiaries of Google and Facebook sign mitigation agreements with the U.S. government, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said Wednesday.

The committee’s recommendation was based on concerns about PLCN’s connection to Hong Kong-based Pacific Light Data subsidiary of Dr. Peng Group, which has ties to China’s intelligence and security services. The committee also cited the Chinese government’s efforts to gain access to sensitive data of U.S. citizens.

“PLCN’s high capacity and low latency would encourage U.S. communications traffic crossing the Pacific to detour through Hong Kong before reaching intended destinations in other parts of the Asia Pacific region,” DOJ said in the report.

The committee was created through an executive order signed in April to evaluate foreign entities operating in the U.S. telecommunications sector. The committee is led by the foreign investment review section at DOJ’s national security division and includes the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.