Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has introduced proposed rules aimed at safeguarding U.S. communication networks from national security threats.

FCC said Monday the first of a two-part proposal is a draft order that would prohibit communications firms from using Universal Service Fund to buy services or equipment from ZTE, Huawei Technologies and other telecommunications companies that pose a risk to national security.

The other is a draft notice of proposed rulemaking that would direct certain telecom carriers that are USF recipients to remove from their networks existing services and equipment from designated firms. The proposed rule would also seek feedback on how to provide carriers with financial support to help them work with trusted suppliers.

“As the United States upgrades its networks to the next generation of wireless technologies—5G—we cannot ignore the risk that that the Chinese government will seek to exploit network vulnerabilities in order to engage in espionage, insert malware and viruses, and otherwise compromise our critical communications networks,” Pai said. “The FCC has a part to play in combatting this risk by ensuring that its $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund does not underwrite national security threats.”

The General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service has achieved approximately $2B in savings using an approach that involves elimination, optimization and automation, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Emily Murphy, administrator of GSA and a 2019 Wash100 awardee, told the publication in an interview how the use of granular data helped PBS modernize and generate savings.

“We are trying to take data in, look at problems, analyze those and see if we can do something first to eliminate the problem. Is it a process we need? If so, can we optimize the process, or can we automate it,” Murphy said during an interview at the 2019 ImagineNation ELC conference.

She added that PBS uses robotics process automation to perform bilateral modifications for over 8K leases in order to comply with a provision that bans the use of telecommunications equipment from Chinese telecom firms such as Huawei and ZTE.

“That means instead of leased contracting officers filling out forms and sending them out to everyone. We instead now have them press a button to send out the modified lease and then they can sign and ratify when it comes back,” Murphy said. “This is saving time and money.”

The General Services Administration has asked industry to provide information on capabilities that could help facilitate the delivery of human-centered design support and customer experience services to the federal government.

GSA said Monday industry feedback will inform a forthcoming market report, a federal procurement guide and other future acquisition actions.

The agency asks companies about their capabilities in various CX domains, including measurement, organization and culture, service design, customer research and governance.

The agency’s office of customer experience carried out an analysis of design best practices and CX to come up with the request for information.

Interested stakeholders have until Nov. 18 to respond to the RFI.

Personnel from the Federal Trade Commission released their recommendations on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s draft guidelines for helping organizations manage their privacy risks.

FTC said Thursday its staff are calling on NIST to put more focus on the need to address privacy breach risks at each step under the “Preliminary Draft for Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy through Enterprise Risk Management”.

Staff also request NIST to clarify procedures for privacy risk management based on data sensitivity and “consider including a more robust discussion” on companies’ efforts to ensure that their public-facing statements align with data privacy practices.

They also called on NIST to designate roles responsible for the development and execution of an entity’s privacy program and highlight the need to conduct comprehensive risk assessments before identifying privacy controls to be implemented.

According to FTC, its staff “commended NIST for proposing a voluntary tool aimed at helping organizations start a dialogue about managing privacy risks within their organizations.”

The Space Development Agency and U.S. Army are planning to integrate automatic target recognition and image formation capabilities into the proposed space-based sensor layer for situational awareness and missile defense, C4ISRnet reported Saturday.

In an email to the publication, SDA said that data from the sensing satellites will be transmitted to the “transport layer” where it will inform courses of action for targeting operations. SDA noted that the tracking and targeting features will support not only space situational awareness and missile defense but also the detection of beyond-line-of-sight ground threats in real-time.

Previously, acting SDA Director Derek Tournear said the agency is working with partners to develop sensing satellites that will “plug in seamlessly” to the transport layer.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking for input on ways to improve the security of managed service providers used by small and medium-sized businesses.

NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence said in a press release that the organization intends to develop a cybersecurity reference model for MSPs to ensure the security of information technology infrastructure from threats like ransomware.

The standards-based and modular NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide may cover areas like architectural model definition, security control mapping, logical design and test and evaluation.

Interested parties may submit feedback on the Improving Cybersecurity of Managed Service Providers project through Nov. 8.