The National Reconnaissance Office and U.S. Space Command participated in an exercise to demonstrate space defense collaboration. NRO said Friday that it joined USSPACECOM and other members of the space community to exhibit cooperative space asset protection during the 13th Air Force Space Command Schriever Wargame.

“Space Command’s mission to protect and defend all U.S. satellites will enhance the survivability of NRO intelligence collection satellites and enable continuation of the national intelligence mission deep into conflict,” said Christopher Scolese, NRO director.

The two-week exercise took place at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., from Sept. 12 to 13. Gen. Jay Raymond, commander of USSPACECOM and Air Force Space Command, said the wargame allowed participants to practice a jointly created concept of operations.

“Recently we’ve reached an agreement with the NRO that, when a threat is imminent, the NRO will execute direction from U.S. Space Command to take protective and defensive actions to safeguard their space assets,” Raymond added.

The Department of the Treasury has issued sanctions against North Korean cyber terrorists who have targeted critical infrastructure. These state-sponsored hacking groups, known as Lazarus Group, Andariel and Bluenoroff, have been working with the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a North Korean intelligence agency, the department said Friday.

Treasury announced these sanctions in accordance to Executive Order 13722 that former President Obama issued to address North Korea’s nuclear weapons activities.

“Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyber attacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs,” said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Lazarus Group uses espionage, data theft, malware and other tactics to attack critical infrastructure as part of RGB’s third bureau. Bluenoroff and Andariel are sub-groups that stemmed from Lazarus. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command have also attributed several uncovered malware samples to North Korea.

Some federal agencies are seeing changes in job functions and starting to recognize the need for its workforce to acquire new skill sets as the government advances the use of data to support missions, Federal Times reported Monday. 

Kris Rowley, chief data officer at the General Services Administration, said sharing data analysis on a common platform by GSA’s data professionals is a “good disruptive mentality,” which could cause agencies to reassess the role of managers and need for data literacy among staff.

“What we really need them to do now is look at what are the types of algorithms and methodologies being applied to this data … what types of prediction is it showing, and with your years of experience, is there anything missing from this type of analysis and recommendation? This is a different work stream for the manager level and we’re starting to see this evolve now,” he said Monday at the Professional Services Council Tech Trends conference.

Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, discussed the need for training and reskilling programs to advance the government’s digital modernization effort.

The U.S. Army invites university students to submit concepts on unmanned aerial vehicles for a chance to win up to $35K, Army Times reported Friday.

Wichita State University organizes the C3 Converge/Collaborate/Create Challenge that allows college and graduate students to pitch Army UAV ideas to defense and industry experts.

Steve Cyrus, manager of technology collaborations at the university’s FirePoint Innovations Center, said the C3 program aims to build the next generation of technology makers for the Army, and to foster collaboration between the service branch and universities.

Interested students from any U.S. university may submit applications through Oct. 18.