Anne Neuberger, who directs the National Security Agency’s new Cybersecurity Directorate, spoke about the upcoming elections’ vulnerability to ransomware attacks, The Hill reported Wednesday.

The newly formed directorate will focus efforts on ransomware in general, Neuberger said at Billington CyberSecurity’s 10th annual summit that takes place from Wednesday to Thursday. NSA will formally launch the new directorate this October.

Ransomware blocks users from computer access via encryption until a certain amount of money is paid. Recent cases of ransomware have been occurring in cities across the country.

Neuberger also talked about the directorate’s efforts to protect the nation from cyber threats led by adversaries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Bobby Duffy, special IT advisor to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, said that the department seeks to address cost, billing and security issues related to commercial cloud implementation, FCW reported Wednesday.

Duffy told attendees at the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center’s meeting for the new Federal Cloud and Infrastructure Working Group in Washington, D.C. that billing has become a challenge as DHS plans to transition more operations to the cloud by the end of fiscal year 2019. The department has already migrated 10 percent of its applications so far, according to Duffy.

Gerald Caron, director of enterprise network management at the Department of State, added that he wants to implement action plans on addressing matters such as international data centers, internet connection regulations and telecommunications requirements as the department continues to work on its cloud issues.

Duffy and Caron’s comments come as the new ATARC working group begins its efforts to address a range of cloud implementation challenges.

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, has said that creating a Space Force may lead to reorganization issues at the service branch, Space News reported Wednesday. The Senate’s 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which mandates the establishment of a Space Force, also directs the appointment of a standalone acquisition executive for space programs to ensure that proper attention is given to space programs.

Roper, a 2019 Wash100 winner, told the publication at a Defense News conference in Arlington, Va. that the reorganization of the Air Force acquisition office may create cost and inefficiency issues.

“I try to provide useful advice and let Congress make its choice,” he said. “Whatever the choice is, we’re ready to fully support.”

According to Roper, having separate offices and leaders for air and space programs would result in management difficulties and “end up making space a second class citizen.” He added that the move would significantly impact multidomain programs that require interoperability between air and space capabilities.

The National Security Agency has chosen University of Hawai’i at Manoa as a featured school to help NSA build train future professionals and develop tools to counter cybersecurity threats.

NSA said Wednesday it will highlight the partnership on the agency’s official website, IntelligenceCareers portal and social media networks as part of the Featured School Series.

“In addition to helping military and civilian employees improve their language skills, UH MaÌ„noa is collaborating with us on cutting edge research, and they are training the next generation of cybersecurity experts,” said Capt. Kurtis Mole, commander of NSA in Hawai’i.

The agency began to collaborate with the university when the latter introduced a specialized course to the agency’s employees, which include military members in 2007.

“This not only prepares Hawai’i students for great jobs with NSA, one of our major employers, but also helps strengthen HawaiÊ»i’s overall cybersecurity across the public and private sectors,” said David Lassner, president of UH System.

A graduate student from UH Manoa’s Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications envisions the technologies to use visualization approaches that will assist research teams in studying large volumes of information.

UH Manoa received designation as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research in 2014.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees expressing concern on a provision in the Senate’s defense policy measure that would limit the Pentagon’s ability to develop a space-based missile defense architecture, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

According to the report, the Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 would designate the Missile Defense Agency to oversee the development and deployment of the architecture designed to detect and track hypersonic weapons.

OMB said the Department of Defense should wait for the MDA to complete its analysis of alternatives and the Space Development Agency to finish its prototyping efforts before designating a lead agency and establishing design requirements.

Other issues raised by the Trump administration in the letter are the need to have a legislative authority to establish the Space Force; oversight of DoD execute orders; military operations in the information environment; authorized budget for unmanned surface vessels; and reprioritization of military construction funds to unrequested projects.

Russell Vought, acting OMB director, wrote in the letter that the administration commends the Senate’s support for the nuclear deterrent enterprise and supports the extension of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

Ashley Mahan, acting director of the General Services Administration’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, said FedRAMP is moving toward a threat-based approach to risk monitoring and authorization, Federal Times reported Wednesday.

“Right now, we’re working with various government agencies in obtaining that threat intelligence information, what kinds of threats are posed to our IT, and we’re literally mapping that to the suite of controls and security requirements that our cloud service providers meet,” Mahan said Wednesday at the Billington CyberSecurity conference in Washington, D.C.

She said adjusting the security requirements based on threat information would help agencies prepare for such vulnerabilities once they field their cloud platforms.

“It gives the agency the ability to start using the product faster … and not only that, we’re going to take that information and also apply it to continuous monitoring,” Mahan added.