The Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate met with the First Responder Resource Group to discuss public safety gaps, priorities and potential projects. FRRG reviewed initiatives under the directorate’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, Small Business Innovation Research effort and Next Generation First Responder Apex Program, DHS said Tuesday.

DHS S&T demonstrated some of its technologies during the meeting, including a GPS tracking tool and a virtual training system. In addition, the two entities discussed the expansion and commercialization of DHS S&T technologies and opened new solicitations for various topics.

“Thanks to strong relationships with our industry partners and their ongoing hard work and innovation, we are able to create technological solutions and apply them to the emergency response environment,” said Milt Nenneman, a program manager at DHS S&T.

Suzanne Spaulding, a member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, said the group will release cybersecurity recommendations in early 2020, The Hill reported Tuesday. A strategic cyber approach will require all available tools, resources and connections from both public and private sectors, she said at the Digital Government Institute’s 930gov conference.

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act required the creation of the commission that must work to report on cyber space. The House’s proposal for the bill’s 2020 version tasks the commission to submit the report by Sept. 1 next year, and the Senate’s version calls for a Feb. 2 submission date. Spaulding formerly served as an undersecretary for a specific directorate within the Department of Homeland Security. This former directorate now operates as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Small Business Administration conducted a pilot project focusing on using artificial intelligence and cloud technology to improve agencies’ cybersecurity posture, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Guy Cavallo, deputy chief information officer of SBA, told attendees at a Nextgov event that the agency conducted 90-day sprint pilots using cloud infrastructure and iterative procedures that helped simplify development operations. He added that SBA’s pilot efforts helped establish cloud cyber tools as viable cybersecurity capabilities for the agency that meet the goals under the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any data scientists or any AI experts on staff at SBA, so it is something we are going to have to work through, most likely through contractors with government leadership,” Cavallo noted.

SBA and other agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs are working on addressing bias issues in datasets and AI algorithms. 

Ron Ross, a National Institute of Standards and Technology fellow, said the agency integrated more privacy controls for Revision 5 of Special Publication 800-53 focused on cybersecurity and supply chain matters, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday.

Ross, who leads the Federal Information Security Modernization Act Implementation Project at NIST, told the publication that the Office of Management and Budget’s delayed review of SP 800-53 has also pushed back the relase date of related guidelines.

“That document, as long as it’s being held up for its final public draft, that’s kind of put a hold on six other publications,” he said. “We’ve got things in the queue.”

According to Ross, the fifth revision covers security controls spanning program management, privacy and supply chain security. He added that he anticipates the final draft of NIST’s 800-160 Vol. 2, which covers cyber resiliency in system development, to be released on Sept. 5.

Ross’ comments come after NIST delayed its release of SP 800-171 Revision 2, which is used by Department of Defense contractors as cybersecurity guidelines for handling unclassified information.

Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said artificial intelligence tools are still in the learning phase and requires human help, Defense One reported Tuesday. 

“[W]e’re still in the process of teaching the algorithms to be able to predict what’s there from the data and be as reliable as we would like it to be or as reliable as our teams of people [who] are doing that,” Holmes said Tuesday during a Defense Writers Group breakfast. 

“Those tools are there. We’re starting to use them and experiment with them,” he said. “I don’t think, in general, they’re at the point yet where we’re confident in them operating without having a person following through on it, but I absolutely think that’s where we’re going.” 

In addition, Holmes said AI is improving in regards to identifying objects in drone video and could be used to predict failure in aircraft parts and components.

John Sherman, chief information officer for the intelligence community, said the IC plans to establish a new program executive office to advance the development of new information technology capabilities, FCW reported Tuesday. Sherman said Tuesday that the community wants the new PEO to have in-person access to subject matter experts during the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System Worldwide Conference in Tampa, Fla.

The proposed office would also continue work on chat and secure file transfer capabilities. In addition to the release of a cloud strategy and work on a new data strategy, Sherman also announced that the IC finalized its cybersecurity implementation plan.

“Using a new approach that we call the cybersecurity performance evaluation model, we started just this last month to receive our first tranche of [critical infrastructure protection]-related asset inventory data into our IC security coordination center,” he said.

Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said the Department of Defense plans to unveil the Trusted Capital Marketplace program to strengthen the industrial base against China and other potential adversaries in late October or early November, National Defense reported Tuesday.

“The idea here is that we don’t often look down into the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh layer of our supply chain to understand where we’re sole source or where we’re dependent on a foreign entity that might not be a trusted source,” Lord said at the Defense-Protection-Security Conference in Washington, D.C on Tuesday.

“Our objective is to get secure sources of capital together with typically small, innovative companies that have technology and early-stage products in the sectors that we identified in this [Executive Order] 13806, … to try to get investment in areas that the Department of Defense thinks are critical,” she added.

In addition, Lord said at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International-hosted event that small drones and rare earth elements are focus areas for the Pentagon.

Vice President Mike Pence said during a National Space Council meeting that NASA is on track towards Artemis, the space agency’s upcoming Moon exploration mission, Space News reported Tuesday. 

Pence, who chaired the council’s recent meeting, talked about NASA’s progress on Artemis’ key components such as Lockheed Martin’s Orion spacecraft and the Boeing-contracted Space Launch System rocket. He also noted that NASA will use the Moon mission to develop technologies that would allow humans to survive multi-month expeditions at places like the lunar south pole.

“We’re well on our way to making NASA’s moon-to-Mars mission a reality,” he said during the meeting at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. “Using what we learn on the moon will bring us closer to the day, as the president said, that American astronauts will plant the Stars and Stripes on the surface of Mars,” Pence said, referencing President Trump’s emphasis on Mars exploration.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, also said the space agency’s lunar gateway would serve as the country’s passage to reach Mars.