The Department of Energy has awarded $25M in federal funds to 16 projects that aim to increase the efficiency and safety of the country's natural gas infrastructure.

DOE said Friday awardees will develop methods and platforms to facilitate collection, storage and production of natural gas products through the cost-shared efforts.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory will oversee the projects aimed at creating systems to detect methane, cut emissions from the transportation sector and convert flare gas into various products.

“This Administration is committed to providing cost-effective, responsible technologies to advance natural gas operations across the United States,” said Dan Brouillette, secretary at DOE.

The full list of projects can be accessed here.

Cyber terrorists used a certain type of ransomware to hack networks linked to a U.S. Coast Guard transport facility, Cyberscoop reported Monday.

The Ryuk ransomware disrupted the marine transport facility's information technology network and caused distortions across industrial control systems, the report noted.

Affected systems include those related to the security of cargo transfer activities.

Ryuk embeds dangerous links in emails. These links would allow malicious actors to access and encrypt IT files once clicked by Coast Guard personnel.

The disruption resulted in a 30-hour outage that affected primary operations, according to a U.S. Coast Guard advisory.

The U.S. Navy is looking to integrate the operations of its unmanned surface vehicles with carrier strike groups and afloat units, Defense News reported Friday.

The service branch’s Fleet Forces Command said in a message obtained by the publication that it plans to deploy medium USVs that will carry electronic warfare as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads.

The Navy will also deploy large USVs fitted with vertical launch system capabilities for strike missions and surface warfare activities.

As part of the initiative, the Surface Development Squadron will develop a concept for coordinating manned and unmanned system operations to help inform future acquisition requirements. The squadron, which was created in May 2019, will also assess the potential integration of communications and command-and-control technologies as well as personnel training efforts for unmanned systems.

SURFDEVRON will submit a first draft of its plans by February ahead of a final draft by September.

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and Office of Space Commerce are working to establish a framework of the U.S. space industry, Space News reported Thursday.

BEA said in an article published on the Survey of Current Business journal that the initiative seeks to create a Space Economy Satellite Account that will provide insight into “the space economy’s contribution to current-dollar gross domestic product” as well as employment.

The department plans to prepare a prototype of the account by late 2020.

“We are working really closely with a number of bureaus about really analyzing what the value is,” said Patrick Sullivan, deputy director of the Office of Space Commerce, during a prior industry event. “If it’s going to help advance a policy perspective, we’d love to either develop or get the data from the private sector.”

The Satellite Industry Association said in its May 2019 report that it estimates the global space economy to reach $360 billion, while The Space Foundation stated in its July 2019 report that the industry has accounted for $415 billion in 2018.

The Central Intelligence Agency has developed a technology that would disable U.S.-made anti-air missiles given to foreign allies if needed, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Jos Wetzels, a Dutch researcher, said at a conference in Germany that the technology is designed to activate foreign user restrictions on Man-Portable Air-Defense System missiles.

The technology, known as geofencing, would disable MANPADS from use based on the weapon's location. A MANPADS missile beyond a certain geographic range would cease from functioning if geofencing is applied.

The security provided by geofencing technology may convince the U.S. to distribute powerful weapons more often, experts said.

Geofencing may address cases in which lost missiles are sold or fallen into wrong hands.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law legislation that requires the Office of Management and Budget to establish a governmentwide system for reporting data on grant awards and recipients, Federal Times reported Thursday.

The Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act also calls for agencies to make information submitted by grantees publicly available through a single website.

Reps. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., sponsored the GREAT Act in a push to increase transparency in the federal grantmaking process and congressional oversight of awards from the executive branch.

Data Coalition CEO Nick Hart said the new law encourages the use of data standards and quality improvements  to address reporting burdens on grant awardees.

Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 award winner Mark Esper said approximately 4K U.S. troops have been placed on alert in response to recent actions by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

“If we get word of attacks, or some kind of indication, we will take pre-emptive action as well to protect American forces, protect American lives,” Esper told reporters Thursday. “So the game has changed, and we are prepared to do what is necessary to defend our personnel or our interests and our partners in the region.”

Four U.S. warfighters were wounded and a U.S. contractor was killed after the militia Kataib Hezbollah launched an attack against a military installation near Kirkuk, Iraq. That attack was followed with an attempt to make a foray against a U.S. embassy in Baghdad Tuesday.

The U.S. responded with airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, resulting in the death of more than 24 militia members. U.S. troops also flew Apache helicopters in response to the embassy siege.

The U.S. has already fielded about 750 troops to Kuwait and Esper said the soldiers would be on standby should the security situation in Baghdad worsen.