Sehlke Consulting has been named to the annual Vet100 list, recognizing the company’s exponential growth as a veteran-owned business, the company announced on Wednesday. 

“We founded Sehlke Consulting to provide the government with Precision Inspired Performance. We are extremely proud of our team, achieving the Vet 100 List for two consecutive years. Their ability to deliver transformative solutions to our clients is truly impressive! We look forward to another great year and continued growth.” stated Chad Sehlke, Founder and CEO.

Originally established as the Vet50 list, this year’s list expanded to include 100 veteran-owned businesses in acknowledgement of the growing culture and success of veteran entrepreneurs. Sehlke has noted that business growth has continued to grow, which has been attributed to veteran entrepreneurs. 

Veteran businesses contribute more than 5.5 million employees to the business market. Military experience has enabled veteran entrepreneurs with skills and knowledge that has been extremely valuable in the business world. 

“The growth of this year’s list is a hopeful and inspiring indication of how important and valuable veteran entrepreneurs are to our society and economy. These businessmen and women not only served in defense of our collective freedom and security…We are proud to partner again with Inc. magazine and are grateful for their efforts to shine a spotlight on the success of veteran-owned businesses,” said Mike Haynie, Syracuse University Vice Chancellor and IVMF Founder and Executive Director. 

About Sehlke

Founded in 2011, Sehlke Consulting is a rapidly-growing Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) headquartered in Arlington, VA. Sehlke is a professional services and management consulting firm specializing in Financial Management, Acquisition Management, National Defense and Security Program, and Logistics & Supply Chain Management support services. 

Furthermore, Sehlke has earned the International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001:2015 certification by using proven and repeatable processes to capture, analyze and successfully implement our customers’ requirements and achieve high levels of cost and schedule predictability.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, has released a statement regarding the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the agency’s response to the crisis, Bridenstine reported on March 17, 2020.

“Agency leadership continues to monitor developments regarding coronavirus around the nation. We are closely following the advice of health professionals and the White House Coronavirus Task Force to keep our workforce safe. Implementing best practices early and quickly will increase likelihoods for better outcomes,” said Bridenstine.

In the statement, Bridenstine noted that NASA leadership has decided to elevate all centers and facilities to Stage 3 of NASA’s Response Framework, effective immediately. All employees and contractors will move to mandatory telework until further notice, but mission-essential personnel will continue to be granted access onsite.

There have been a small number of NASA employees that have tested positive for COVID-19. The administration plans to take preemptive steps to diminish the spread of the virus among the workforce and our communities.

“I strongly encourage you and your families to follow all local, state and federal guidelines to stay healthy and to help slow the spread of the virus,” noted Bridenstine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website has published many resources available. Additionally, Bridenstine encouraged all NASA employees to follow President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America.

“Agency leadership will continue to monitor the rapidly-evolving risks COVID-19 poses to our workforce. You should anticipate continued frequent communication from your center director, myself and others. Up-to-date agency announcements and guidelines are available on the NASA People website, please check it often.

About The Wash100

The Wash100 Award, now in its seventh year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has released the 2019 True Cost of Fraud report in Mexico that surveyed 90 Mexican executives in retail commerce, e-commerce and financial services to show the cost of fraud in Mexico, the company announced on Wednesday. 

“Advanced global solutions prevent fraud as it evolves, even when it crosses geographic borders and organizations. With tools like consortium-based data sharing and bot data management combined with automated alerts, organizations can employ necessary innovations to help them stay ahead of fraudsters," said Rafael Costa Abreu, director of fraud and identity for LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

LexisNexis’ survey revealed that the cost of fraud in Mexico has trended upward, amounting to 1.96 percent of annual revenues of Mexican companies overall, in retail, e-commerce and financial services, compared to 1.75 percent in 2018.

The LexisNexis Fraud Multiplier, which measures the cost organizations actually lose for each dollar of fraud lost, found Mexican merchants in 2019 paid 3.55 times the amount of each fraudulent action, up from 3.39 times in 2018, including losses related to the transaction face value, fees and interest incurred, fines and legal fees, labor and investigation costs and external recovery expenses. 

The report revealed that e-commerce on mobile phones increased to 3.87 times the amount of the lost transaction value, up from 3.75 times in 2018. The fraud growth in the mobile channel has been projected to continue, rising as the number of financial transactions on mobile devices continues to grow. 

The study also shows that many Mexican companies today are not fully equipped to address mobile fraud since they do not track, nor do not have the proper tools to track fraudulent transactions. This is key given that Mexico ranks second in LATAM, after Brazil, as the top cyber attacker in the region.

LexisNexis noted that Mexico’s primary challenge has been verifying identities when people use online channels or mobile phones to transact. Identity fraud accounts for more than one-third of fraud losses in Mexico. Third-party identity theft accounts for 25 percent and synthetic identity fraud accounts for 12 percent.

"Although fraud in Mexico continues to evolve – as seen within this shift towards mobile fraud – organizations can effectively combat fraud with a layered solution approach to not only slow fraud growth, but help stop fraud before it occurs.” 

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. 

We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers across industries. 

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees still hope to meet the deadline for the markup of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of HASC, plans to conduct the NDAA markup scheduled in April.

“Barring a material change, the Committee plans to proceed with the previously identified mark up date and deliver the NDAA for a vote on the House floor by mid-May,” Monica Matoush, a spokesperson for HASC’s Democratic majority, said in a statement. “While we are exploring other options to coordinate member involvement in the mark up process, no decisions have been made at this time.”

SASC Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) intends to hold a markup of the defense policy bill by the end of May.

The Senate panel “is continuing to take every step needed to meet this deadline, while also taking necessary precautions” as per the advice of the upper chamber’s attending physician and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said a spokeswoman for SASC.

The U.S. Air Force plans to stand up an information warfare operations center that will coordinate cyber, weather, electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities across 178 global units, C4ISRnet reported Monday.

The new center will combine the functions of the 616th, 624th and 625th Operations Centers and initially process data from units such as the 16th Air Force’s information warfare cell in Texas. The cell handles activities on behalf of the U.S. Cyber Command for European Command.

Col. James Weaver, commander of the 616th Operations Center, told C4ISRnet that the center will serve as a “focal point” for bringing key warfighting capabilities together.

“By working those multidomain operations and converging on problems identified by air components on behalf of combatant commanders, and/or both, we think that we will be able to provide capabilities, options and even maybe expose malign actors influence across the globe as we work,” said Weaver.

 “As we work problems that cross combatant commands, or whether it be Russia or even China in some cases where it crosses combatant commands, we will have a role in deconfliction,” he added.