Mark Munsell, chief technology officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told FCW in an interview published Tuesday NGA is looking to commercial businesses as it works to declassify images to collect data and support its intelligence mission.

“Taking advantage of all the new commercial businesses out there today that are either launching satellites and collecting unclassified information or taking advantage of open source information that has a geospatial tag of space and time associated with it so we can aggregate that information with it and then correlate it with other information other intelligence information that we have,” he said.

When asked about the challenges facing NGA when it comes to data aggregation, Munsell cited the problem of identifying the right environment to converge the information.

He also mentioned the policy aspect with regard to classification levels, interoperability challenges, the agency’s effort to employ more digital practitioners and initiatives to build a secure environment for data scientists and software engineers.

Richard Driggers, a cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security, said the challenge facing the U.S. government when it comes to hiring cybersecurity professionals is a “national security issue,” The Hill reported Tuesday.

“We have a major deficit across the nation with regards to our cybersecurity workforce, and we need to figure out how we can build and sustain a cybersecurity workforce as a national asset for America,” he said Tuesday at CyberCon event.

Driggers, who serves as deputy assistant director for cybersecurity at DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said he believes having a “steady stream of qualified cybersecurity professionals” is a “national imperative” amid evolving cyber threats.

Michele Iversen, deputy chief CIO at the Department of Defense, said she is working on illumination tools aimed at protecting the Pentagon’s supply chain, Fifth Domain reported Tuesday.

Iversen said Tuesday at the annual CyberCon conference that she is developing a decision support platform designed to reveal a “bare minimum set of publicly available supply chain information” and wants the CIO office to field the tool as a service.

She also noted that the Pentagon is teaming up with a company to address a cyber vulnerability identified in the department’s technology platform.

“And we have seen bad things coming from those products, so we are looking at how to use our authorities … [to] block those products or companies for national security systems,” she added.

The U.S. Marine Corps is planning to build robotic systems that would scout sea floors for possible mine threats and other man-made traps. The service branch’s Crawling Remotely Operated Amphibious Breacher or CRAB would clear amphibious areas to provide a safe landing spot for troops, USMC said Thursday.

These unmanned robots would deploy from a littoral craft and neutralize obstacle threats both explosive and nonexplosive. In theory, the CRAB system will breach through man-made obstacles in the surf zone,” said Capt. Anthony Molnar, MK154 and MK155 project officer at Marine Corps Systems Command.

The command awaits the Office of Naval Research’s approval to rapidly prototype CRAB with fiscal 2020 funds over a two-year period. Molnar said MCSC would collaborate with the service branch’s Combat Development Command to develop CRAB.

“The CRAB will support combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal Marines by providing a remote or autonomous explosive and nonexplosive obstacle reduction capability within the very shallow water, surf zone and the beach,” said Michael Poe, who leads MCSC’s Mobility and Counter Mobility program.

The Department of Energy will host the fourth iteration of an annual contest that would allow cybersecurity college students to access national laboratories. The CyberForce Competition will take place Nov. 15 to 16 across 10 national laboratories within the country, Argonne National Laboratory said Friday.

The competition aims to bolster the U.S. cybersecurity workforce by extending skill-building opportunities.

Teams of students will work to protect a simulated infrastructure from an opposing group of cybersecurity professionals. The student teams will aim to secure systems while still providing services for a group representing customers. A total of 105 student teams will participate in this year’s students.

​“The idea behind the competition is to build a strong workforce to defend this infrastructure from cyberattacks,” said Amanda Joyce, the competition’s director and cybersecurity analysis group lead at Argonne National Laboratory.

Multiple DOE offices, including the National Nuclear Security Administration, are co-funding CyberForce.

A NASA-operated space observatory has passed the preliminary design review phase, marking a major milestone for the spacecraft’s development, Space News reported Monday.

Michael New, deputy associate administrator for science at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope passed the PDR phase with successful results.

Work to convert WFIRST’s primary mirror also exceeded performance expectations, New told the National Academies’ Space Studies Board during a meeting last Wednesday.

The space agency announced the telescope’s PDR completion in a tweet posted Nov. 1. WFIRST passed the PDR despite a lack of funds, with Congress allotting more budget for the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA plans to launch WFIRST within the 2020s.

NASA, along with teams from Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne, completed integration of RS-25 engines with the core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System ahead of the Artemis I mission to the moon.

The agency said Saturday that it connected all four engines with the SLS core stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Boeing serves as the prime contractor for the core stage, while Aerojet Rocketdyne is the lead contractor for the RS-25 engines.

The teams connected the first RS-25 engine to the rocket’s core stage in May and are slated to begin integration activities for propulsion and electrical systems. A functional test of avionics, computers and electrical systems will then commence ahead of the rocket’s expected completion by the year’s end.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s  Office of Inspector General released a report stating that the agency “did not fully implement its cloud strategy” and failed to execute an enterprise information technology approach to cloud migration.

According to the report, SEC lacked progress in its 2017 cloud strategy and launched only two pilot programs slated for implementation across an enterprise network. The IG also found that SEC’s contracts didn’t include security requirements and that there were incomplete or missing security assessment reports as well as Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program baseline controls.

“The conditions we observed occurred because the Office of IT  had not developed policies and procedures specific to cloud system security, or adequate processes to ensure compliance with FedRAMP baseline controls and enhancements for which the agency is responsible,” the report noted.

“As a result, the SEC has not yet fully realized the potential performance and economic benefits attributed to cloud computing services.”

Roberto Guerrero, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for operational energy, has said that the service must put focus on addressing fuel challenges and invest in technologies that optimize fuel demand.

In a Defense News piece published Monday, Guerrero wrote that the Air Force, which is largely dependent on fuel, must keep up with adversaries’ developments in fuel logistics and address risks that come with transporting fuel.

According to Guerrero, the Air Force must integrate operational and maintenance data to help inform decisions regarding fuel consumption. The service should also invest in drag-reduction technologies, energy-efficient engines and predictive maintenance capabilities to improve fuel optimization and aerial refueling operations.

In addition, Guerrero recommended the use of modeling and simulation to help airmen better understand challenges in energy and fuel logistics.

“When we use our assets more efficiently in peacetime, we build a more energy-aware culture that will better prepare our airmen for tomorrow’s fight, if and when it happens,” he said. “Smarter use of fuel means more funds available to invest in our airmen and weapon systems; and when we employ our assets optimally, we reduce stress on airframes and crews.”