Renata Spinks, cyber technology officer of the U.S. Marine Corps, said the Defense Information Systems Agency is working with the corps on improving the security of its mobile devices, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Spinks told attendees at an Advanced Technology Academic Research Center event that the Marine Corps intends to increase visibility in its networks to identify all of its connected devices and implement automation. She added that consolidating data centers and networks will help the corps better visualize its digital ecosystem.

Gema Howell, an information technology security engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said the agency released a draft cybersecurity guide titled “1800-21 Mobile Device Security: Corporate-Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE)” that integrates the best practices of government and industry.

“We worked with industry to get some commercially available tools in-house to put the standards to work,” she noted.

Hannibal Ware, the Small Business Administration’s inspector general, has reported progress in addressing significant issues faced by the agency across operations. The agency has implemented past recommendations and has made progress in multiple areas of management, SBA Office of the Inspector General said Friday.

The report shows the agency has either fully implemented or made substantial progress on 23 of 25 issues across eight areas including small business contracting, information technology leadership and human capital.

Other areas are: grant management oversight, SBA loan program risk management, business development program, disaster assistance and reduction of improper payments for quality assurance.

SBA exhibited limited progress in only two issues related to the agency’s business development program. The agency’s OIG delivered the report in accordance with the Reports Consolidation Act.

The Robins Air Force Base and Mercer University have partnered to build a software development center that will develop applications for the U.S. Air Force.

Mercer said Monday the facility is slated to inaugurate in 2020 and is designed after the service branch’s Kessel Run experimentation laboratory at Hanscom Air Force Base.

The center will also serve as a collaborative space between Mercer’s computer science and engineering departments and the 402nd Software Maintenance Group from Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex.

“I think it’s going to be a great recruitment tool for Robins, and I think it’s going to be great for our students to see the opportunities available through the Air Force,” said William Underwood, president at Mercer.

The Kessen Run laboratory is established in 2018 to support the Air Force’s maintenance schedules, F-35 flights, battle management efforts and air refueling logistics.

Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Mark Esper said the U.S. government is “preparing to evacuate” approximately 1K U.S. service personnel from northern Syria amid Turkey’s impending offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces, CBS News reported Sunday. SDF served as the U.S. allies as part of the campaign against the Islamic State militant organization.

“In the last 24 hours, we learned that [the Turks] likely intend to extend their attack further south than originally planned, and to the west,” Esper said. “We also have learned in the last 24 hours that the … SDF are looking to cut a deal, if you will, with the Syrians and the Russians to counterattack against the Turks in the north.”

Esper told the network’s Face the Nation program that President Donald Trump ordered a “deliberate withdrawal of forces” from the region citing the security of U.S. troops caught between SDF and Turkish forces in Syria.

Trump said Monday that he will issue an executive order that would impose sanctions against Turkey’s government officials and other personnel involved in destabilizing activities in northeast Syria. The president said the U.S. government will cease negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal with Turkey and increase the steel tariffs by up to 50 percent.

He noted that the EO will authorize additional sanctions on individuals involved in human rights abuses, ceasefire obstruction, forced repatriation of refugees and security threats in Syria. “The order will authorize a broad range of consequences, including financial sanctions, the blocking of property, and barring entry into the United States,” Trump added.