The Department of Homeland Security will host an exercise in spring 2020 to test the incident response plans of critical infrastructure owners and operators to a hypothetical cyber attack, CyberScoop reported Monday.

Brian Harrell, assistant director for infrastructure security at DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said event planners intend to integrate insider threats into the Cyber Storm 2020 exercise, which will focus more on the collaboration of critical infrastructure firms with local and state officials.

Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for cybersecurity and communications at CISA, said Cyber Storm participants will need to respond to multiple “injects” or sudden alterations to the threat environment.

“In 2020, we will be integrating new partners and testing and evaluating the National Cyber Incident Response Plan in a simulated multi-sector cyberattack targeting critical functions,” Manfra said. “Cyber Storm 2020 is open to all critical infrastructure sectors that will enable us to look more broadly at cross-sector issues.”

The office of inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services has used data analytics tools to identify fraudulent medical schemes and make decisions on resource allocation, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“If there’s a hotline complaint that comes in, if there’s suspicion of fraud … what we’re trying to do is use the data proactively to both identify potential targets, and also then triage those cases very rapidly,” Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, assistant inspector general, said at a conference in Washington.

The department’s OIG has leveraged analytics to perform “reasonableness tests” on spending data to determine excessive billing practices among health professionals. The office also uses its Payment by Geographic Area platform to identify areas where health care spending is higher than the national average.

“If I’m looking at hospitals, providers, prescription drugs, whatever area I want to look at, I can zoom into a particular area in the country, and then I can get more information about the trends [and] the top providers,” Brzymialkiewicz said of the PAYGAR tool.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks industry help for an effort to address a network processing bottleneck that hinders the data performance of distributed applications.

DARPA said Thursday the Fast Network Interface Cards program aims to boost the performance of network stacks and have NIC technologies keep up pace with other computing applications, DARPA. Networks rely on NICs to bridge boundaries.

NIC hardware is unable to keep up with newer server technologies, and the FastNICs program seeks to address that gap. FastNICs will require a full refinement of the network stack that consists of application, software and hardware layers.

“The true bottleneck for processor throughput is the network interface used to connect a machine to an external network, such as an Ethernet, therefore severely limiting a processor’s data ingest capability,” said Jonathan Smith, a program manager at DARPA’s Information Innovation Office.

First, the program will focus on the development of hardware that boosts the datapath speeds of raw servers. The effort’s second focus will cover the creation of software designed to manage FastNICs hardware.

In addition, FastNICs will include studies on applications of sensor-based imagery data in change detection, an approach that requires both rapid data access and sensor input.

DARPA posted a presolicitation notice for the effort on FedBizOpps. Interested parties may submit responses through Oct. 8.

U.S. Special Operations Command has opened a Data Engineering Lab in Tampa, Fla. for the command’s artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation projects, Military Times reported Saturday. The lab is located within the SOFWERX complex in Tampa, which houses activities aimed at addressing current warfighter requirements.

Maj. Jennifer Bocanegra, a spokeswoman for USSOCOM, told Military Times that DEL was launched to allow defense entities, private sector partners and the academe to “develop, test and employ new technical approaches to modernize warfighting decision making.”

DEL is working with the Joint AI Center to develop predictive maintenance technology driven by AI and machine learning to support the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment in Kentucky. According to Bocanegra, initial data and program results show a “significant increase in readiness” for the defense component.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has accepted delivery of hardware that would help personnel prepare for the Space Launch System’s first Moon mission with the Orion spacecraft.

The space agency said Saturday it will use the core stage pathfinder to train lift crews in handling hardware of the SLS rocket. Pathfinders are full-scale mock-up models that have the shape and size of their corresponding SLS components.

The core stage pathfinder arrived in a package from NASA’s Pegasus barge, a vessel tasked to ship components and test articles of the SLS rocket. NASA will employ a total of three SLS pathfinders, including those for the launch vehicle’s solid rocket booster and RS-25 engine.

Personnel at NASA’s Stennis Space Center completed lift and handling exercises with the core stage pathfinder in August in preparation for green run tests with the actual core stage.

“Among other things, the exercise helped us identify minor facility modifications early enough to provide the time needed to make the corrections prior to the arrival of the core stage flight hardware,” said Barry Robinson, B-2 Test Stand core stage test project manager at Stennis.

“Practicing operations with pathfinders offers teams hands-on experience for managing and handling the immense structures before this one-of-a-kind flight hardware arrives,” Robinson added.

The pathfinders will help NASA prepare SLS for Artemis I, a mission that aims to send astronauts to the moon and revive manned lunar exploration.

Gen. John Raymond, commander of the U.S. Space Command, said at a Mitchell Institute event in Washington, D.C. that he is hopeful that Congress will pass legislation to create a Space Force “in the coming months.”

The Air Force said Friday that Spacecom is launching training initiatives focused on space operations as well as efforts to collaborate with industry to rapidly deploy new space capabilities.

The command also conducted the Coalition Space Flag exercise focused on fostering space preparedness for U.S. and allied forces including Canada, Australia and the U.K, according to Raymond. In addition, Spacecom is studying information-sharing efforts with industry and the general public to help improve deterrence.

Spaceom is planning to hold its second air chiefs meeting on space-related issues as well as another Coalition Space Flag exercise next year.

Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Initiative on the Digital Economy, said at a House hearing that stakeholders should work on correcting biases in artificial intelligence technology, Nextgov reported Friday.

Brynjolfsson told lawmakers during a hearing with the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that systems driven by machine learning have a tendency to replicate human decisions based on a set of biases. He said that stakeholders must invest in efforts to discover new ways of detecting prejudices which may impact activities such as hiring and credit loan applications.

Rebekah Kowalski, vice president of manufacturing services at ManpowerGroup, suggested enlisting a “digital era enterprise ethicist” to help entities eliminate bias. Sue Ellspermann, president of Ivy Tech Community College, recommended that the National Science Foundation support efforts to provide education on emerging technology to academic institutions beyond known research institutes.

“Understanding the human-robot interaction is really critical to all of the progress we want from manufactacturing, and farms and offices of the future,” added Arthur Lupia, assistant director of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.