Glenn Gerstell, the National Security Agency’s chief counsel, said that the agency’s new cybersecurity directorate will centralize efforts to address cyber threats and simplify information sharing between the agency and its partners, FCW reported Thursday.

Gerstell told reporters at this year’s Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland that the directorate will serve as an integrated focal point for U.S. government and industry entities as well as foreign allies seeking to prevent cyberattacks. The directorate, which will be led by Anne Neuberger, is slated to begin operations in October.

Speaking on the courses of action an organization must take during a cyberattack, Gerstell noted that it should call on the Department of Homeland Security or FBI who are both “in a position through their interagency task force to summon whatever resources of government are appropriate at that time.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee is slated to conduct a joint confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominees for the Army and Air Force secretary posts on Sept. 12, Military.com reported Thursday. Lawmakers will hear from acting Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Barbara Barrett, previously the chairwoman of nonprofit organization The Aerospace Corp. 

McCarthy assumed the role of acting Army secretary following 2019 Wash100 Award recipient Mark Esper’s confirmation as defense secretary in July. 

The Department of Defense first announced that Matthew Donovan, former undersecretary of the Air Force, will succeed 2019 Wash100 winner Heather Wilson as Air Force secretary on an interim basis in May. The same month, Trump nominated Barrett to permanently fill the secretary role.

The Government Accountability Office has assessed and recommended on the Department of Defense’s procurement activities that also consist of non-acquisition workers.

GAO said Thursday it found that DoD has not made much effort to identify non-procurement personnel who are handling purchases of services.

DoD, for example, would sometimes task pilots to manage contracts regarding aircraft. The department, however, does not comprehensively address the procurement training needs of non-acquisition workers.

The Defense Acquisition University offers online courses to all non-procurement personnel; however, it only provides the more advanced courses via classroom sessions.

The lack of training for non-procurement personnel makes it difficult for DoD to measure how much the department in meeting requirements, GAO noted.

The accountability office recommends DoD to better identify job descriptions of non-procurement personnel handling service purchases, and address training needs.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy is slated to hold a meeting to discuss the implementation of artificial intelligence technology in government applications, Fedscoop reported Thursday.

According to Lynne Parker, assistant director for AI at OSTP, the meeting will address gaps in research and development efforts and emphasize the usage of AI in updating government services.

Parker added that the government has applied AI approaches in various functions including humanitarian efforts and business processes.

Attendees at the summit will include Michael Kratsios, deputy U.S. chief technology oficer and a 2019 Wash100 winner and Kelvin K. Droegemeier, director at OSTP. The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense are expected to join the meeting.

The Department of Homeland Security is slated to deploy a Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation dashboard that will help agencies visualize data on their cybersecuirity risks and vulnerabilities, Fifth Domain reported Friday. DHS previously issued a $276M contract to ECS Federal to develop the dashboard and is slated to launch the platform in the coming months.

Kevin Cox, CDM manager for DHS, told attendees at the Billington Cybersecurity conference in Washington, D.C., that the department already has a proof-of-concept in place for the dashboard tool. He noted that his team intends to incorporate data analytics, business intelligence and machine learning to ensure that agencies are “getting maximum benefit from their cybersecurity data.”

The CDM program’s key areas of focus for the next fiscal year include high-value assets, enterprise mobility management, cloud security and machine learning, according to Cox.

The U.S. Navy has named its next expeditionary fast transport ship after a city in the state of Wyoming.

The future USNS Cody or T-EPF 14 follows at least 28 other vessels that have been named after places or people associated with Wyoming, the Navy said Thursday.

“The people of Cody are staunch supporters of a strong Navy and Marine Corps team and it is fitting to name a ship in honor of this great city,” said Richard Spencer, secretary of the Navy.

EPFs are designed to transport 600 tons of cargo, a 26-person civilian mariner crew, 312 travelling troops on airline-style seating and 104 personnel in a fixed wing berthing.

These ships also feature a helicopter flight deck and a ramp for unloading vehicles.

Katie Arrington of the Department of Defense said DoD’s move to come up with a new cybersecurity certification model seeks to get a better oversight of the defense supply chain, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

DoD issued on Wednesday a draft version of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, which establishes cyber standards and practices meant to help the defense industrial base reduce exfiltration of controlled unclassified information.

“Every company within the DoD supply chain — not just the defense industrial base, but the 300,000 contractors — are going to have to get certified to do work with the Department of Defense,” Arrington, chief information security officer for DoD’s office of the assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, said at the Intelligence and National Security Summit.

Arrington cited the Pentagon’s use of the cybersecurity framework to facilitate discussions about the defense supply chain.

“We get everyone on a level-set playing field for cybersecurity, and then we can really start looking at our supply chain, where our most and greatest vulnerabilities lie and how we can work together in a collaborative event with industry,” she said.

Arrington said she sees the model as a way to shift from disparate requirements toward a framework focused on securing the defense supply chain.

The draft CMMC v0.4 has five levels ranging from basic cyber hygiene to highly advanced practices and consists of 18 domains, including access control, asset management and incident response.

Public comments on the draft model are due Sept. 25.