The National Governors Association picked six states to help in the development of strategies to enhance interagency operations and communications ahead of the 2020 election. Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada and Virginia will work with NGA’s Homeland Security and Public Safety division to boost cybersecurity, promote cooperation and create statewide response plans for attacks on election systems, the organization said Wednesday. 

State cabinet agencies, election officials and governors’ offices will also join the initiative. The plan comes after National Summit on State Cybersecurity in Louisiana, where NGA and representatives from 50 states discussed efforts to address common cybersecurity challenges.

Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, said cyber attacks during the 2016 election served as the “wake-up call” across the federal government. He added the incident changed how the public look at threats to elections.

The Department of Homeland Security admitted that President Trump’s plan to ban products from Huawei will be costly and complicated to implement, Politico reported Friday.

One official said U.S. companies may also face challenges to comply. Robert Kolasky, head of DHS National Risk Management Center, discussed Trump’s supply chain executive order during a webinar hosted by the USTelecom and Inside Cybersecurity. “Security can cost money,” he said. “And costs can sometimes be prohibitive to do things that might be optimal levels of security.”

Meanwhile, the supply chain task force at DHS plans to expand initiatives in the information and communications technology sector to further secure the U.S. industry.

Rick Driggers, deputy assistant director for cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity and infrastructure agency, said state and local governments should establish information sharing functions with federal cybersecurity agencies, FedScoop reported Thursday.

Driggers said at FedScoop’s FedTalks event the government does not have sufficient visibility on potential threats that may affect the local level. He also noted that local and state governments are being targeted by hackers backed by foreign entities.

“We’ve seen in the last couple years more focused attention from nation-state adversaries, particularly with ransomware to attack or cause disruption at the state and local level,” said Driggers. “At the end of the day, the state and local governments provide a lot of very valuable critical services to their populations. Those services going down causes a lot of disruption,” Driggers added.

The U.S. Navy has decided to name an upcoming Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer after a Coast Guard captain who served in the second World War. Richard Spencer, secretary of the Navy and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, announced the naming of the future USS Quentin Walsh or DDG 132 during a ceremony in Cherbourg, France, where the captain once deployed, the service branch said Thursday.

General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works subsidiary will construct the ship to measure 509 feet in length and traverse seas at speeds over 30 knots. Capt. Walsh served within U.S. Naval Forces’ Logistics and Planning Division during World War II and received a Navy Cross award for his contributions.

“Capt. Walsh was a hero whose efforts during World War II continue to inspire, and his leadership in securing the French port of Cherbourg had a profound effect on the success of the amphibious operations associated with Operation Overlord,” Spencer said.

The fourth missile warning satellite that Lockheed Martin built for the U.S. Air Force has reached operational acceptance designation from Space Command. The service said Thursday that the Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit 4 satellite transmits data to the 460th space wing-run mission control station at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado.

SBIRS GEO-4, which launched in January 2018, fielded its solar array, light shade antenna wing assemblies upon reaching its intended orbit through a series of transfer orbit maneuvers. The satellite is designed to provide infrared coverage and support the service branch’s efforts to replace missile warning and detection satellites that have been in operation for over four decades.

Lockheed’s space business is the prime contractor on the SBIRS program and Northrop Grumman’s electronic systems segment serves as the payload integrator.