SteelCloud has partnered with DLT Solutions under a distribution agreement to expand the company’s  portfolio, and gain additional access to customers and solutions, SteelCloud reported on Friday. 

"Adding SteelCloud and ConfigOS to our cybersecurity portfolio broadens DLT's channel partner and government customer access to leading security compliance automation software," said Chris Wilkinson, president, DLT Solutions, a Tech Data company. "ConfigOS saves federal agencies time, cost and labor by rapidly scanning endpoint systems and remediating STIG controls, which helps accelerate the ATO process."   

SteelCloud's ConfigOS is currently implemented in classified and unclassified environments, tactical and weapon system programs, disconnected labs, and the commercial cloud. ConfigOS will scan endpoint systems and solve STIG controls. 

The company’s solution will also provide automated remediation rollback and comprehensive compliance reporting, as well as STIG Viewer Checklist integration. ConfigOS was designed to strengthen CAT 1/2/3 STIG control. 

ConfigOS will address Microsoft Windows workstation and server operating systems, SQL Server, IIS, IE, Chrome, Microsoft Office component,  Red Hat 5/6/7, SUSE, CENTOS, Ubuntu, and Oracle Linux. 

"DLT has a great reputation for understanding complex government acquisition challenges," said Brian Hajost, SteelCloud president and CEO. "They will provide our customers with the widest range of acquisition vehicles available. DLT has strong relationships with government clients as well as the contractor community, both of which SteelCloud serves to simplify the cyber compliance process and while speeding up the need for continuous ATOs."

About DLT Solutions

DLT Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tech Data, the world's leading end-to-end distributor of technology products, services and solutions. DLT is the premier government solutions aggregator that specializes in understanding the IT needs of the federal, state, local and education markets. 

We help simplify the process for independent software vendors, federal systems integrators and value-added resellers doing business in the public sector. Leveraging Tech Data's end-to-end portfolio, an extensive array of public sector contract vehicles, and dedicated channel and enablement services, DLT provides government agencies and channel partners with the means to rapidly and cost effectively transform technology to achieve mission success.

Maxar Technologies has commended NASA on the administration’s launch of Perseverance Rover, which began its journey to Mars on an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 30th. 

“Congratulations on the successful launch to our friends and colleagues at NASA and its mission partners,” Megan Fitzgerald, Maxar’s senior vice president and general manager of Space Infrastructure said on Thursday.

Maxar built Perseverance’s Sample Handling Assembly (SHA) robotic arm and camera focus system for NASA’s mission. The company’s other Mars missions include the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, Phoenix and InSight landers.

The Perseverance mission will for signs of livable conditions and microbial life from the ancient past. Maxar’s SHA will manipulate, assess, encapsulate, store and release collected Martian soil and rock samples. 

“We're looking forward to the exciting science that Perseverance will conduct with the help of the robotic arm we built," Fitzgerald added. 

Maxar’s camera focus system will enable Perseverance to identify promising samples on the surface of Mars. Robotics will provide extreme accuracy under severe temperature variations and within dusty and dirty environments. 

The company will also provide robotics to lunar missions. Maxar will work on the power and propulsion element and human landing system for NASA’s Artemis program. The company has initiated the build of a robotic arm called Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering and Probing of Lunar Regolith (SAMPLR) to acquire samples and determine the geotechnical properties of lunar regolith.

In addition, Maxar has begun to develop a spacecraft with three robotic arms for NASA called OSAM-1, which will demonstrate on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing to enable spacecrafts to build and reconfigure themselves on-orbit and advance space telescopes. 

About Maxar

Maxar is a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure. We deliver disruptive value to government and commercial customers to help them monitor, understand and navigate our changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. 

Our unique approach combines decades of deep mission understanding and a proven commercial and defense foundation to deploy solutions and deliver insights with unrivaled speed, scale and cost effectiveness. Maxar’s 4,000 team members in 20 global locations are inspired to harness the potential of space to help our customers create a better world.

An office within the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) plans to implement a new web conferencing service in a defense protocol router network in the coming weeks.

The Defense Collaboration Services Program Management Office will apply the Web Conference 2.2 service to  DISA's non-secure IP router network this August, the agency said Wednesday.

WC 2.2 will offer video quality enhancements, faster communications and a screen sharing option that does not require an external application. The updated service will also use HTML5 to fully replace Flash that Adobe plans to retire later this year.

“Flash will be completely removed from all browsers by the end of next year, so DISA wanted to get ahead of the curve,” said Derek Westray, lead engineer for DCS.

The DCS program office will apply WC 2.2 to DISA's secret IP router network in September 2020.

The U.S. Army is planning to transition battalion-level communications to a secure yet unclassified network as part of an effort to implement new set of technologies in fiscal year 2021, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday.

Garth Winterle, project manager for tactical radios at the Army Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, told the publication that the network is meant to improve collaboration with coalition partners.

“We’re moving off of an all-secret network to one that’s a lot more flexible and actually encourages coalition interoperability,” he noted.

Previously, the Army concluded critical design review activities for the Capability Set ‘21 technology portfolio and began initial acquisition activities for the tactical network.

The service branch is conducting validation and communications exercises using several CS21 assets along with Army computing infrastructure.

Other assessments the Army plans to conduct for the new technology set include the Defender Europe 2020 exercise with NATO allies and Warfighter 21-4 with French and U.K. forces.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has said the federal government needs to reinvent its telework policies and ensure that emerging cybersecurity threats are “seriously considered” in policy dialogues, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Lankford, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Financial Management, testified at a recent hearing that Congress must modify the Telework Enhancement Act, which hasn’t been updated in a decade.

He noted that federal agencies must also assess telework best practices in the private sector “to see what is working, what is not working for the federal workforce”.

“How do we best prepare employees so that during a future disaster or pandemic, we can seamlessly transition to a federal [remote] workforce posture?” added Lankford. “How do we effectively train managers to stay engaged and monitor the performance of a remote workforce?”

“We have a responsibility to ensure federal workforce strategies are relevant, cost effective and well thought out,” he added. 

Companies like Deloitte, which is implementing a community-based approach to remote work, also testified during the hearing.