The Department of Homeland Security has launched a new bug bounty program with the Office of Management and Budget to gather information on cyber vulnerabilities. DHS’ Office of the Chief Information Security Officer requests firms and other organizations to submit information on security weaknesses detected within the department’s information systems, DHS said Wednesday in a Federal Register notice.

Security vulnerabilities refer to any characteristic in hardware, software, process or procedure that serves as a factor or opening to cyber threats. DHS asks responders to report information on vulnerable hosts, reproduction of vulnerabilities, potential host impacts and ways to address vulnerabilities.

Interested parties may submit responses through Oct. 27, or 60 days after the request’s publication on the federal register.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions announced on Tuesday that the company has launched LexisNexis Recall Clarity, a solution that assists auto manufacturers in the owner identification process for safety-related recalls.

According to the NHTSA, over 1,000 recalls were issued in 2018 affecting more than 35 U.S. million motorists. In the event of a recall, customer outreach teams are tasked with getting vehicles repaired by finding recalled vehicle owners and leading them to the dealership for service.

This process has become more difficult because of recent changes in vehicle ownership in secondary markets. With more than 40 million used cars sold in the U.S. each year 45 million people moving to new homes each year, the need for an efficient way of notifying the owner of a recall, which in some cases can be life-threatening, is crucial.

“Identifying a driver with an outstanding recall is no longer a convoluted process where outreach teams have to combat data latency along with data decay among the older vehicles still out on the road,” said David Nemtuda, senior director of Connected Cars for LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

“Consumers who rely on their cars every day also rely on being properly notified in a timely manner if their vehicle has a component currently under recall,” Nemtuda added.

The solution aids in the reduction of organizational risk of non-compliance, while helping automakers increase efficiencies when analyzing campaign costs. Recall Clarity can meet the specific campaign outreach needs of an automaker by offering options around email addresses, mobile phone numbers and secondary home data.

Leveraging a high level of scalability over 280 million unique identities across all 50 states, Recall Clarity enables dealer-based campaigns to support automaker efforts regarding current safety and recall campaigns reinforcing a strong brand message of safety across the board.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government.

Department of Energy and Weill Family Foundation have initiated a public-private partnership to incorporate artificial intelligence into neurosience research. DOE said Monday that it will provide AI technologies to support scientific research on brain-related biomedical and public health topics such as neurological disorders.

“Today marks the beginning of a collaboration that will fuel the acceleration of utilizing artificial intelligence in neuroscience research to launch a new era in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease,” said Sandy Weill, founder of the Weill Family Foundation.

Rick Perry, secretary of Energy, signed a memorandum of understanding with Weill to mark the partnership’s initiation.

“This Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Energy and Weill Family Foundation will advance groundbreaking AI research and development in health sciences that will enhance our overall security and improve our quality of life,” Perry said.

A field activity of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command has partnered with Purdue University and U.K.-based Cranfield University to create a postgraduate educational program to help students learn defense engineering and technology skills. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, will offer the dual master’s degree program with a concentration in expeditionary warfare to address a workforce development requirement, NAVSEA said Monday.

Both universities collaborated to implement the program at NSWC Crane under a memorandum of agreement signed in October.

“When new engineers come to work at NSWC Crane, it could be their first time applying principles of heat transfer to ammunition or weapon design, or applying physics of semiconductors to night vision sensors,” said Adam Parsley, a division manager at the center. “With this dual master’s degree, that fundamental science and engineering knowledge is refined and sharpened in these highly relevant and applied courses,” Parsley added.

Located in Indiana, NSWC Crane employs more than 3,000 professionals and 73 percent of its total workforce are engineers, technicians and scientists. The center supports the service branch’s expeditionary warfare missions and works on technology such sensors, weapons and special munitions.

An expeditionary fast transport vessel Austal USA built for the U.S. Navy completed a series of builder’s and acceptance trials Thursday. The future USNS Puerto Rico, designated EPF 11, returned to the company’s shipyard after two days of integrated sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, the service branch said Monday.

Austal USA demonstrated the performance of the ship’s systems to the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey. The noncombatant vessel is designed to support various missions in shallow-draft waterways or ports. The christening ceremony for the 11th Spearhead-class EPF ship took place in November.

Construction of the future USNS Newport (EPF 12) is underway at Austal USA’s facility in Mobile, Ala. The company also received a contract to build two more EPF ships.

Steven Bradbury, general counsel of the Department of Transportation, said DoT has started organizing field demonstrations of technologies to serve as back-up systems in the event of an attack on the U.S. Air Force’s GPS, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

Bradbury said that DoT is working with the departments of Homeland Security and Defense and other federal agencies through the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee “to address policy and technical issues including the security and resilience of GPS receivers.” The move is a response to the rapid adoption of jamming systems by countries such as Russia and China.

According to the report, DoT received 21 responses from vendors in June a month after it issued a request for proposals to look for technologies that are ready for field demos and “are capable of providing backup positioning, navigation, and/or timing services to critical infrastructure (CI) in the event of a temporary disruption to GPS.”