Jothi Dugar, chief information security officer of the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Information Technology, said the NIH’s Optimize IT Security program reflects the “people-centric approach” the agency is taking to address cybersecurity concerns, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

“We’re looking at people through the Optimize program as our biggest assets,” Dugar told the network in an interview. “Because why are we focused on cybersecurity anyway? It’s to protect our people, our science and the data.”

The Optimize IT Security program is one of the eight initiatives introduced throughout the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations. It seeks to empower staff to identify phishing emails and other malicious behavior and report such activities to cyber officials.

The initiative also aims to reassess cybersecurity training from the perspective of employees. “We’re trying to change the culture to engage our employees [and] all of these different stakeholder groups, not just our IT department, and really communicate with them,” Dugar added.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has provided security measures that organizations may use when conducting virtual meetings.

NIST advises organizations to frequently change access codes, use one-time passwords or multifactor authentication and monitor attendees for virtual meetings, Jeff Greene, National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence director, said in a blog post published Wednesday.

The agency also recommends hosts to not record meetings unless necessary and disable unneeded features. Hosts may also seek input from security information for virtual meetings that involve sensitive content.

Meetings that require recordings may use encryption as an added layer of protection, Greene noted.

Organizations are adopting telework and virtual business approaches amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Sean Connelly, program manager for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Trusted Internet Connection initiative, said the agency has conducted pilot projects ahead of the TIC 3.0 policy’s rollout, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Connelly told the publication that CISA collaborated with working groups, vendors and cloud service providers to help inform the agency's plans to establish “trust zones” in government network infrastructures.

He noted that the TIC 3.0 pilot efforts are currently focused on infrastructure-based services and potential alternatives that support the zero-trust concept.

“Ideally we want to shrink that trust zone down to be as small as possible to focus on the application, to focus on identity user,” said Connelly. “But with the pilots we have right now is more focused on a larger spectrum of networks and systems.”

CISA’s TIC subcommittee plans to launch more pilots and seek proposals from agencies focused on the development of architecture risk strategies.

The Department of Energy eyes to allot $60M in funds to build computational tools and techniques that will work to speed up scientific discovery initiatives.

DOE said Tuesday it seeks to form teams that are composed of experts and researchers in applied mathematics, computer science and various scientific disciplines to develop computing methods that will address scientific questions through the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing program.

The program aims to cover various areas such as condensed matter physics, materials science, fusion energy sciences and nuclear physics. DOE expects the teams to utilize DOE Office of Science supercomputing facilities at Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge National Laboratories in line with the program.

Universities, businesses, national laboratories and nonprofit organizations with multi-institutional partnerships are eligible to apply for the program. DOE's Office of Science will provide funding for five-year projects, while out-year funds are subject to Congressional appropriations.

Applicants have until April 14 to submit letters of intent, while full applications are due May 12.

Adm. Charles Richard, who leads U.S. Strategic Command and received a 2020 Wash100 Award, said his group is pursuing efforts to ensure the readiness of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched warheads and bomber aircraft that compose the nuclear triad, DoD News reported Tuesday.

He told reporters that USSTRATCOM aims to make sure that these nuclear assets are effective, secure and safe to use.

The command's efforts to achieve its nuclear readiness goals include taking care of involved personnel. Richard said they are reducing activity in areas that may have been contaminated by a pandemic.

USSTRATCOM will also continue to explore more ways to leverage modern communications technologies for strategic operations, the commander.