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CISA, FBI Uncover North Korean Cyber Hacking Campaign
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CISA, FBI Uncover North Korean Cyber Hacking Campaign
CISA, FBI Uncover North Korean Cyber Hacking Campaign

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI have issued reports on a malicious cyber hacking campaign linked to the government of North Korea. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA released reports on seven malware variants related to North Korea’s cyber activity, called Hidden Cobra, CISA said Friday.

Those variants are Bistromath, Slickshoes, Crowdedflounder, Hotcroissant, Artfulpie, Buffetline and Hoplight. CISA and the bureau worked with the Department of Defense to conduct analytic efforts to offer technical information on the infrastructure and tools used by cyber threat actors that have ties to the North Korean government.

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Stratcom Head Charles Richard Seeks Investments in Hypersonic Weapons R&D Programs
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Stratcom Head Charles Richard Seeks Investments in Hypersonic Weapons R&D Programs
Charles Richard
Charles Richard

Adm. Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command and 2020 Wash100 winner, has called for support in hypersonics research and development to stay ahead of China and Russia, DoD News reported Thursday.

Richard told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing that the nuclear triad, which consists of submarines, strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, is “foundational to our survival as a nation” and a key priority of the U.S. defense strategy.

"Along with the weapons themselves, there needs to be a space-based sensor system and an over-the-horizon radar system for tracking and monitoring these and other weapons such as advanced cruise missiles," noted Gen.Terrence O'Shaughnessy, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, at the hearing.

According to Richard, the U.S. Air Force has extended the lifespan of the Minuteman III ICBMs but will need the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent as a successor by 2036.

The legacy B-52 bomber aircraft, which has also been modified to serve for another 30 years, will also be replaced by the B-21 bomber slated for fielding by the 2030s. Columbia-class submarines, which are included in the 2021 defense budget proposal, are also slated to succeed its Ohio-class predecessors.

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DoE to Provide $50M for Fusion Energy Research
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DoE to Provide $50M for Fusion Energy Research
DoE to Provide $50M for Fusion Energy Research

The Department of Energy will grant $50M for further investigation of fusion energy.

The Office of Science will award $20M to pursue studies regarding the everyday use of fusion energy, the DoE said Thursday. These studies will be based on using spherical tokamaks and will be conducted at both domestic and international facilities.

“In addition to having potential performance advantages, spherical tokamaks can serve as excellent research instruments to probe key physics problems prior to burning plasma operation in ITER,” said Paul Dabbar, undersecretary for science at the DoE.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy will work with the Office of Science’s Fusion Energy Sciences initiative to award the remaining $30M to the Galvanizing Advances in Market-aligned fusion for the Overabundance of Watts, or GAMOW, program that aims to develop enabling technologies for fusion energy.

“The successful development of fusion energy systems has the potential to create an abundant, safe, carbon-free power source for a wide range of uses,” said Lane Genatowski, director at ARPA-E.

GAMOW’s research and development goals include creating cost-effective measures for additive manufacturing, novel fusion materials and advanced production as well as make streamlined cycle driver technology and fusion power plant components.

The program will provide funding for projects that improve, simplify, or reduce development costs for fusion energy platforms. ARPA-E and FES will grant $15M each in funds over the GAMOW program’s three-year run.

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NASA Picks 4 Studies for Solar System Exploration Effort
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NASA Picks 4 Studies for Solar System Exploration Effort
NASA Picks 4 Studies for Solar System Exploration Effort

NASA has chosen four initial scientific studies for the agency’s Discovery Program focused on furthering human understanding of the solar system.

The agency said Friday it will allocate $3 million for each of the four studies that will run through a nine-month period and select a maximum of two concepts to become official missions in 2021.

The first study is called the “Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus” and will focus on exploring the origins of Venus’ atmosphere. The second study, led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, is called “Io Volcano Observer” and will revolve around phenomena on Jupiter's moon Io.

The third concept, TRIDENT, involves exploratory studies of Neptune’s icy moon Trident. The final study is named “Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy” and will revolve around mapping Venus’ surface to study its geologic history.

“These selected missions have the potential to transform our understanding of some of the solar system’s most active and complex worlds,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. “Exploring any one of these celestial bodies will help unlock the secrets of how it, and others like it, came to be in the cosmos.”

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Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman Joins Space Force as a Senior Adviser
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Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman Joins Space Force as a Senior Adviser
Roger Towberman
Roger Towberman

Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, command senior enlisted leader at the U.S. Space Command, has been named as a senior adviser at the U.S. Space Force.

Towberman will provide advice to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force and the chief of space operations in line with concerns that affect the morale, utilization and welfare of Space Force members, the military service said Thursday.

He joined the Air Force in 1990 and held various capacities under the service branch including the role of command chief master sergeant at the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing. He is also a career enlisted aviator having flown over 4.5K mission hours.

"I look forward to the challenges, the excitement, and most importantly, to serving the space professionals that protect our nation and our way of life every day,” said Towberman.

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DOL Joins GSA’s Centers of Excellence Program for RPA Deployment; Emily Murphy Quoted
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DOL Joins GSA’s Centers of Excellence Program for RPA Deployment; Emily Murphy Quoted
Emily Murphy
Emily Murphy

The General Services Administration has partnered with the Department of Labor to implement robotic process automation across the department through the former’s Centers of Excellence program.

GSA said Thursday that DOL’s RPA initiatives will fall under the agency’s new Artificial Intelligence CoE and support efforts to deploy RPA on a shared-service basis across the department.

GSA’s Technology Transformation Services office, which handles the CoE program, will coordinate with DOL business units to integrate the former’s AI CoE model with the department's procedures.

According to GSA Administrator and 2020 Wash100 winner Emily Murphy, the partnership serves as “an example of GSA playing a key role in governmentwide IT modernization.”

“Our main focus is on improving outcomes for our agency partners and we’re pleased to serve as a catalyst to help them develop a culture of innovation,” noted Anil Cheriyan, director of TTS. “[RPA] in combination with [AI] capabilities is gaining momentum in government, and is a strategic focus area for TTS this year.”

DOL is the sixth agency that joined GSA’s CoE effort to date.

Bipartisan Bill to Push Govt Adoption of Modern Tech; Mark Meadows Quoted
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Bipartisan Bill to Push Govt Adoption of Modern Tech; Mark Meadows Quoted
Bipartisan Bill to Push Govt Adoption of Modern Tech; Mark Meadows Quoted

Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., have unveiled a bill that seeks to help agencies adopt modern technologies.

The Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act aims to develop an initiative at the General Services Administration that will assist agencies in augmenting analysis, data management and reporting capacities, the office of Ro Khanna said Thursday.

The bill also seeks to foster partnerships between the government and commercial IT sectors and enable the dissemination of modernization practices.

“Congress should take every opportunity possible to make government more effective and efficient as we work to better serve Americans everywhere,” said Meadows.

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Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, Receives Sixth Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic
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Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, Receives Sixth Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic

Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, Receives Sixth Consecutive Wash100 Award From Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic

Jim Garrettson, founder and CEO of Executive Mosaic, presented Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, his sixth consecutive Wash100 Award as a part of the 2020 selection on Wednesday.

Executive Mosaic recognizes Desch for advancing new satellite capabilities, the internet of things (IoT) and cloud technologies while driving revenue for Iridium.

Under Desch’s leadership, Iridium recorded a 12 percent growth in revenue in the first quarter of 2019. Desch mentioned that the company’s L-band broadband service was a huge driving force along with the ongoing efforts to advance the IoT, cloud and satellite technology.

In the third quarter of 2019, Iridium’s commercial IoT data subscribers increased by 25 percent to 767,000. Iridium and Amazon Web Services partnered to develop a satellite cloud-based offering for internet-of-things users in September.

The service officially launched on Jan. 29 to showcase Iridium’s ability to assist its customers connect and manage assets anywhere with its Iridium satellite network.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Iridium Communications and Matt Desch on his 2020 Wash100 Award. Desch’s drive to advance satellite technology alongside the IoT and grow the company’s presence in the GovCon sector have made him one of the top contributors to the sector’s 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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USAF Awards Red River $95M BOA for LevelUP Cloud Services; Ross Woodley Quoted
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USAF Awards Red River $95M BOA for LevelUP Cloud Services; Ross Woodley Quoted
USAF Awards Red River $95M BOA for LevelUP Cloud Services; Ross Woodley Quoted

Red River has received two five-year, $95 million Basic Ordering Agreements (BOA) from the U.S. Air Force to support LevelUP Cloud Services, the company announced on Friday.

“Red River is proud to have yet another opportunity to serve our warfighters and support the U.S. Air Force as it reimagines technology’s role in achieving its mission,” said Ross Woodley, Chief Programs Officer for Red River. 

Under the first contract, Red River will provide cloud services to support the Air Force’s new LevelUP Unified Platform, a cyberspace operations system for future cyber mission force capabilities. The cloud services will be utilized to create a secure DevOps platform for engineers to build, test and deploy new products on a variety of systems and architectures. 

In addition, Red River will install LevelUp’s DevSecOps Tools, Pipeline and Platform Integration and Licensing under the second contract.  With the new capabilities, the Air Force will be able to provide access to the software titles, tools and other to meet their next-generation mission requirements.

“We look forward to partnering with the LevelUP teams to drive innovation with our cloud expertise and services,” Woodley added. 

Since the company’s certification by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Oct. 2019, Red River has continued to grow and make new partnerships within the private and public sectors. Recognized as a managed service provider after the completion of a third-party audit process, the company stated that the status validates its capacity to proactively automate, monitor and manage customers’ cloud environments.

In addition, the company has secured AWS Government Competency status and is eligible to offer the Amazon EC2 tool under the Microsoft Windows Server Partners program.

“We will continue to evolve and grow our managed services capabilities to better enable our customers to focus on accelerating the growth and transformation of their organizations,” said Dan McGee, chief operations officer at Red River.

About Red River

Red River brings together the ideal combination of talent, partners and products to disrupt the status quo in technology and drive success for business and government in ways previously unattainable. Red River serves organizations well beyond traditional technology integration, bringing 25 years of experience and mission-critical expertise in security, networking, analytics, collaboration, mobility and cloud solutions.

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AWS Provides Cloud, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Media Services to Second Spectrum; Mike Clayville, Rajiv Maheswaran Quoted
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AWS Provides Cloud, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Media Services to Second Spectrum; Mike Clayville, Rajiv Maheswaran Quoted
AWS Provides Cloud, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Media Services to Second Spectrum; Mike Clayville, Rajiv Maheswaran Quoted

Second Spectrum, the Official Optical Tracking and Analytics Provider of sports leagues such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the English Premier League, has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) provider, AWS reported on Friday. 

“Using AWS’s breadth and depth of services, Second Spectrum will elevate its analytics and video processing capabilities to provide deeper insights into on-field and on-court action. We look forward to leveraging AWS to continue to innovate new and compelling content,” said Rajiv Maheswaran, CEO of Second Spectrum.

AWS will help Second Spectrum deliver new kinds of live game-watching experiences to fans. Second Spectrum will use AWS’s services to provide enhanced analytics, visualizations and easily searchable video clips during games and matches. 

“AWS and Second Spectrum have a history of working together to deliver stats and visualizations that make the world’s most competitive sports even more engaging for fans, insightful for coaches and players, and profitable for media partners,” Mike Clayville, vice president, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS.

In addition, Second Spectrum will leverage AWS to produce and deliver Clippers CourtVision, an augmented reality, live streaming product for the Los Angeles Clippers that displays player tracking information, real-time stats and explanatory animations for fans watching from desktops and mobile devices.

“In expanding the relationship between AWS and Second Spectrum, bringing together a top provider of sports analytics with AWS’s unmatched portfolio of services, we are adding new layers of depth to the spectator experience and helping teams uncover new ways to understand, evaluate, and elevate their performance,” concluded Clayville. 

About Amazon Web Services

For almost 14 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. 

AWS offers over 175 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 69 Availability Zones (AZs) within 22 geographic regions, with announced plans for 16 more Availability Zones and five more AWS Regions in Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, and Spain.

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