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GSA AI Center of Excellence Highlights Adoption to Address Challenges
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GSA AI Center of Excellence Highlights Adoption to Address Challenges
GSA AI Center of Excellence Highlights Adoption to Address Challenges

The General Services Administration's Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence works to help agencies leverage AI technologies. AI CoE adapts through obstacles and allows agencies to accelerate service deliveries, bolster workforce ability and cut down errors, GSA's Technology Transformation Services said in a blog post published Thursday.

GSA emphasizes the need to adapt through time and reach speeds necessary to thrive in a competitive environment. The AI-driven center uses machine learning, automation and other new technologies to keep pace with the evolving landscape of challenges.

Agencies receive AI CoE's help to tackle specific issues and improve public services via modernization.

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Trump Selects Richard Grenell for Acting DNI Post
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Trump Selects Richard Grenell for Acting DNI Post
Richard Grenell
Richard Grenell

Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, has been selected to serve as director of national intelligence on an acting basis.

President Trump announced Grenell’s selection in a Twitter post dated Feb. 20 and said that he has represented the U.S. “exceedingly well” in his current role. In August 2019, Trump picked Joseph Maguire, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to take on the acting DNI role.

Prior to his most recent position, Grenell served as a partner at Los Angeles-based consulting firm Capitol Media Partners. He also served as a national security and foreign affairs spokesman for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.

Throughout his federal career, Grenell led communication strategy development and held spokesman roles for government leaders including former president George W. Bush.  He was also the longest-serving political appointee and U.S. spokesman at the U.N. with a tenure that lasted from 2001 to 2008.

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MITRE Evaluates Cybersecurity Products Based on Carbanak, FIN7 Groups to Address Threats to Financial Systems; Frank Duff, Quoted
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MITRE Evaluates Cybersecurity Products Based on Carbanak, FIN7 Groups to Address Threats to Financial Systems; Frank Duff, Quoted
MITRE Evaluates Cybersecurity Products Based on Carbanak, FIN7 Groups to Address Threats to Financial Systems; Frank Duff, Quoted

MITRE has announced new assessments of commercial cybersecurity products to protect software and technology against the threat posed by the hack groups commonly known as Carbanak and FIN7, the company reported on Friday. 

“During the previous evaluations, vendors would note when they believed a protection would have prevented the execution of specific evaluated behaviors. By extending the offering to include protections, the evaluations will be able to definitively say whether this was the case,” said Frank Duff, the ATT&CK Evaluations lead. 

The hacking groups, Carbanak and FIN7, have compromised financial service and hospitality organizations through the use of sophisticated malware and techniques. Over the past five years,  the groups have stolen more than $1 billion across hundreds of businesses.

MITRE’s ATT&CK, a knowledge base of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures that is based on published threat reporting, has been used by cybersecurity experts within the finance, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, retail, and government sectors to detail adversary behavior and tradecraft.

The company’s current evaluation set will assess products’ detection rate of tactics and techniques used by the adversary groups. It will utilize curated methodology and output data to inform organizations as well as provide individual analysis and interpretation to prevent attacks. 

“We’ve heard from companies that have incorporated data from the first evaluations into their purchasing decisions that doing so has enabled them to make better informed decisions faster and at a far lower cost – up to 10 times less than they would have spent evaluating the products entirely on their own,” Duff said. “We’ve worked to make our results more self-explanatory, so that consumers can make decisions even more easily and effectively.”

The detection evaluations will be publicly released, giving the users and potential users of these tools clear insights into performance. This evaluation will also mark the first time that vendors can sign up for an optional extension to their detection evaluation that will exercise their protections related to ATT&CK techniques.

About MITRE

MITRE’s mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. Through our public-private partnerships and federally funded R&D centers, we work across government and in partnership with industry to tackle challenges to the safety, stability, and well-being of our nation.

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CyberX, Microsoft Azure Collaborate to Enhance Cybersecurity’ Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Nir Giller Quoted 
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CyberX, Microsoft Azure Collaborate to Enhance Cybersecurity’ Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Nir Giller Quoted 
CyberX, Microsoft Azure Collaborate to Enhance Cybersecurity’ Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Nir Giller Quoted 

CyberX, an IoT security company, has collaborated with Microsoft Azure Security Center for IoT to develop a unified view of security across managed and unmanaged IoT devices, Microsoft announced on Friday. 

“CyberX’s IoT security platform and integration with the Microsoft Azure Security Center for IoT enables customers to go further and faster with IoT innovations that drive new revenue streams and operational efficiencies — without compromising on security,” said Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, chief technology officer (CTO) and general manager (GM) of Cloud and AI Security Division at Microsoft.

The companies will utilize the combination of CyberX’s agentless security platform and Microsoft Azure’s Security Center for IoT comprehensive IoT device protection and zero trust security to reduce risks, including enterprise IoT threats IoT, Smart Buildings and Smart Retail.

To reduce IoT security threats, the companies collaborative effort will discover and profile all IoT assets and communication to provide asset visibility as well as enable micro-segmentation policies. The technology will also detail a risk score with risk-based mitigation recommendations based on vulnerabilities detected.

In addition, CybeX and Microsoft will continuously monitor network traffic and generate real-time alerts when devices present unauthorized behavior. The companies have also integrated single pane-of-glass visibility of cyber risk for all managed and unmanaged IoT devices.

“IoT and cloud are driving the shift towards zero trust strategies that require a holistic understanding of what devices are connected and how they’re communicating, rather than on protecting a perimeter which no longer exists, so you can quickly detect and mitigate attacks before they impact your organization,” added Nir Giller, CyberX co-founder, chief technology officer and general manager of international operations.

About Microsoft 

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.

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Raytheon Completes U.S. Army Air, Missile Defense Sensor to Defeat Advanced Threats; Tom Laliberty Quoted
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Raytheon Completes U.S. Army Air, Missile Defense Sensor to Defeat Advanced Threats; Tom Laliberty Quoted
Raytheon Completes U.S. Army Air, Missile Defense Sensor to Defeat Advanced Threats; Tom Laliberty Quoted

Raytheon has completed construction of the first radar antenna array for the U.S. Army’s  Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS), the company announced on Friday. The LTAMDS will help the service branch defeat advanced threats, including hypersonic weapons. 

"Raytheon's employees and partners are focused on delivering the first LTAMDS by the Army's Urgent Material Release date because we know how important expanded battlespace coverage and other capabilities are to the men and women in uniform," said Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business.

The LTAMDS are comparable to Raytheon’s Patriot radar array. The company will advance the missile to double its performance. After Raytheon tests the radar array, it will be mounted on a precision-machined enclosure for integration and further evaluation. 

The enclosure will utilize its advanced design to accelerate the manufacturing and to support the U.S. Army's Urgent Materiel Release program.

"Because we invested in cutting-edge radar technology and advanced manufacturing capability, we will meet the customer's critical milestones and get LTAMDS in the field rapidly," continued Laliberty.

Raytheon completed the work less than 120 days after securing the $384 million, firm-fixed price contract in Oct. 2019.  The Army used an “other transaction authority” procedure for the award covering delivery and test of six Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor prototypes over a three-year period.

The company submitted its LTAMDS proposal in July and said its proposed system employs a gallium nitride-based active electronically scanned array radar.

Raytheon worked with six technology suppliers as part of its contract pursuit, including Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Cummings Aerospace, IERUS Technologies, Kord Technologies, Mercury Systems and nLogic.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2019 sales of $29 billion and 70,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 98 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I® products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

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Inpixon Partners with Mist Systems, Subsidiary of Jupiter Networks, to Expand IT Strategy; Bob Friday, Adam Benson Quoted
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Inpixon Partners with Mist Systems, Subsidiary of Jupiter Networks, to Expand IT Strategy; Bob Friday, Adam Benson Quoted
Inpixon Partners with Mist Systems, Subsidiary of Jupiter Networks, to Expand IT Strategy; Bob Friday, Adam Benson Quoted

Inpixon, a leading indoor data company that specializes in delivering indoor intelligence, has continued its collaboration and product integration activities with Mist Systems, a Juniper Networks company, to integrate Inpixon's new Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology into Mist's enterprise wireless infrastructure solutions, Inpixon announced on Friday.

"Mist's location-enabled wireless LAN infrastructure and Inpixon's advanced mapping platform. The combination provides a comprehensive and robust solution while delivering customization based on customer needs and preferences. We are delighted to work with Inpixon and look forward to broadening our relationship with them on the UWB and indoor mapping fronts," said Bob Friday, chief technology officer of Mist Systems. 

Inpixon and Mist have worked together on a number of indoor mapping and mobile applications development projects. The companies have merged their technologies to support a variety of use cases including indoor navigation and resource availability for hot-desking and room booking. 

In addition, the companies have collaborated to integrate Inpixon's UWB technologies within the Mist AI-driven enterprise solution. The companies will utilize the precision of UWB to address specified use cases, including high-value asset tracking, persons with disabilities assistance, location-aware entertainment or promotional content, sensitive document traceability, pallet and goods tracking, staff management, fulfillment, logistics and inventory management. 

The companies will target their new technology to industrial IoT (IIoT), healthcare, government, enterprise, logistics, hospitality and retail environments. 

“We're looking forward to even more mutual success, because we anticipate our UWB technologies and capabilities will be of substantial interest to our joint customers and prospects in current and new market segments," Adam Benson, Chief Technology Officer at Inpixon, stated.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks challenges the inherent complexity that comes with networking in the multicloud era. The company does this with products, solutions and services that transform the way people connect, work and live. Juniper simplifies the process of transitioning to a secure and automated multicloud environment to enable secure, AI-driven networks that connect the world. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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John Goodman, Chief Executive of Accenture Federal Services, Receives Third Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic
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John Goodman, Chief Executive of Accenture Federal Services, Receives Third Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic
John Goodman, Chief Executive of Accenture Federal Services, Receives Third Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic

Jim Garrettson, founder and CEO of Executive Mosaic, presented John Goodman, chief executive of Accenture Federal Services, his third consecutive Wash100 Award as part of the 2020 selection on Tuesday. 

Executive Mosaic recognizes Goodman for driving information technology efforts within federal agencies, innovation for emerging technology and excellent customer satisfaction.

During an interview with ExecutiveBiz in January 2018, Goodman stressed the importance of technology being used to drive the mission of the agency rather than technology having the opposite effect.

“It’s not just about specific technologies…it’s about how you marshal those technologies to directly improve the mission of the agency and the experiences of those whom we serve,” said Goodman.

Goodman showed his support for the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act in March. He argued that the act has helped federal chief information officers become innovation partners and that federal agencies are more focused on information technology modernization and efforts to improve government services, which includes the need to innovate using a clear vision and goals to determine the customer engagement and understand the technological changes being made.

“Those are the two key challenges, I think, for our clients. It is first helping their workers and their employees understand how to use artificial intelligence. And second is providing their employees with the skills and training to be able to engage effectively,” Goodman illustrated.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Accenture Federal Services and John Goodman on his third consecutive Wash100 Award. Goodman’s push for information technology modernization within federal agencies and emerging technologies showcases his contributions to the GovCon sector and its future.

About 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.
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ViON Earns Position on CRN’s MSP500 List; Tom Frana, Bob Skelley Quoted
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ViON Earns Position on CRN’s MSP500 List; Tom Frana, Bob Skelley Quoted

ViON Earns Position on CRN’s MSP500 List; Tom Frana, Bob Skelley Quoted

ViON has been recognized on CRN’s 2020 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the MSP Elite 150 category, the company announced on Friday.

“We are honored to be recognized once again by The Channel Company for our continued work in cloud, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, IT infrastructure and services,” said Tom Frana, Chairman and CEO of ViON Corporation and two-time Wash100 Award recipient. “Our team is committed to providing customers with the expert insight and next generation technology that will support modernization in the most complex environments.”

ViON’s notable delivery of operational efficiencies, IT system improvements, and higher rates of return on investments for their customers has made them an integral figure in the GovCon sector. The company has led its customers and created solutions for complex IT issues throughout the year.

“MSPs are the critical bridge for customers looking to assess, implement and migrate their IT and cloud solutions to drive efficiencies, lower costs and secure your environment,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “On behalf of our team at The Channel Company, I want to congratulate the accomplished companies on CRN’s 2020 MSP 500 list and thank them for their commitment to finding innovative solutions that move the IT channel forward.”

In Oct. 2019, ViON detailed how purpose-built infrastructure will help agencies accommodate larger datasets and reduce downtime throughout the training and integration stages of AI and machine learning development.

Rob Davies, executive vice president of ViON and former Wash100 Award recipient, explained how information technology environments should be hosted on-premises and have a high GPU capacity to help agencies quickly leverage data for AI training and deployment.

“When developing AI/ML, agencies must ensure that the IT infrastructure is purpose-built, AI ready and can scale on demand,” he said. “When those concerns are addressed, it frees the AI development teams from constricted, disorganized or unsecure systems and allows them to do what they do best.”

According to Davies, agencies should team up with an AI data management providers with the capacity for automated incident alerts, productivity monitoring, metadata extraction, virtual customer service, predictive analysis, DevOps procedures, data security and intellectual property protection.

“This not only offers requisite security for live, sensitive data, but it reduces the burden of managing infrastructure, offering workload scaleup that can be achieved in a matter of hours, not weeks,” he noted.

About ViON Corporation

ViON Corporation is a cloud service provider with over 39 years’ experience designing and delivering enterprise data center solutions for government agencies and commercial businesses. The company provides a large portfolio of IT as-a-Service, including infrastructure, multi-cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Focused on supporting the customer’s IT modernization requirements, ViON’s Enterprise Cloud is changing cloud management for the market, providing a streamlined platform to audit and control technology in an evolving multi-cloud world.

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Rimini Street Establishes Whole-of-Government Agreement with Australia to Support Enterprise Software; Randall Brugeaud, Emmanuelle Hose Quoted
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Rimini Street Establishes Whole-of-Government Agreement with Australia to Support Enterprise Software; Randall Brugeaud, Emmanuelle Hose Quoted

Rimini Street Establishes Whole-of-Government Agreement with Australia to Support Enterprise Software; Randall Brugeaud, Emmanuelle Hose Quoted

Rimini Street, Inc. has established a new whole-of-government volume sourcing agreement with the Australian Government to generate significant savings on enterprise software support for the government, the company announced on Friday.

“The Digital Transformation Agency continues to expand whole-of-government volume sourcing agreements to ensure that agencies have ready access to the best pricing, terms and conditions that leverage the buying power of government,” said chief executive officer of the Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency, Randall Brugeaud.

Rimini Street will provide technology services to government agencies, enabling easier and more cost effective access third-party software support for major software products. The agreement has been incorporated into the government’s agenda to transform ICT procurement,  creating simpler, clearer and faster transaction services.

“Government agencies of all sizes now have easier access to an affordable alternative for their enterprise software maintenance and more options to consider in support of the GovERP Initiative,” said Emmanuelle Hose, regional general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Rimini Street. “This agreement provides an opportunity for government organizations to take back control of their IT roadmaps and drive innovation while lowering costs,” he added.

Rimini Street has previously completed work for  numerous government agencies in Australia, including the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, and the Victorian Government Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, among others.

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI) is a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner. The Company offers premium, ultra-responsive and integrated application management and support services that enable enterprise software licensees to save significant costs, free up resources for innovation and achieve better business outcomes.

More than 2,000 global Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range of industries rely on Rimini Street as their trusted application enterprise software products and services provider.

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NASA Hosts Media at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium on Feb. 28th
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NASA Hosts Media at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium on Feb. 28th

NASA Hosts Media at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium on Feb. 28th

NASA has announced that the agency will host media teams at its Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium, a workshop held by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, on Feb. 28th, NASA reported on Friday.

APL operates the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium in collaboration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative. The initiative complements NASA science and technology payloads being developed to fly aboard commercial lunar landers.

At the consortium, experts from academia, industry and government will discuss how technologies and systems are necessary to further explore the Moon’s surface in innovative ways.

Universities and businesses will collaborate with NASA to make recommendations for a cohesive, executable strategy to efficiently develop and deploy technologies required for successful lunar surface exploration.

The workshop opens with an address by NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk at 9:15 a.m. The event will also feature discussions among NASA leaders and the university, laboratory and commercial space communities on the path ahead for technologies for long-term exploration of the Moon.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight will utilize the information from the consortium to manage lunar missions, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the longest running lunar mission, and the Artemis Program, which is the agency’s next step in human exploration: sending astronauts to Mars.

The agency has also opened its doors to the media in early Feb. 2020 at the Johnson Space Center to promote upcoming missions.  Johnson director, Mark Geyer, and NASA associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Doug Loverro served as speakers at the event.

Johnson will continue to transform human exploration of the solar system with new initiatives that include managing development and operation of key components in the agency’s Artemis program. The program expects to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024.

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