The U.S. Navy is set to christen the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson destroyer ship (DDG 1002) in a ceremony at General Dynamics‘ Bath Iron Works shipyard on April 27. Luci Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb, daughters of Lyndon Johnson, will perform the christening as sponsors of the Zumwalt-class vessel, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

The service branch deployed the ship from a land-level platform to a dry dock facility in 2018. Zumwalt-class ships are designed to carry out power projection, sea control, deterrence, command and control missions and travel at a speed of 30 knots.

The Department of Defense has opened a new website to inform citizens and partners on the latest U.S. military research, development and technology updates. The new chief technologist website intends to extend DoD technology awareness across a wider range of communities, Lisa Porter, deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a statement posted Wednesday.

“Our goal is to increase awareness of our efforts, and to utilize these platforms to engage with the broader research and development community, as we endeavor to develop innovative solutions that bring new capabilities and technology to the warfighter,” she said.

The website’s launch preceded DoD Lab Day, an event that exhibited technologies in multiple innovation areas including artificial intelligence, robotics, directed energy, hypersonics and big data analytics.

The National Security Agency recommends that the White House end a surveillance program that gathers data on U.S. phone calls and text messages to detect and disrupt any terrorist plot against the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Sources said the recommendation stems from concerns that the program’s intelligence benefits have been outweighed by legal compliance and logistical issues. The legal authority of the phone records program, which was established after the 9/11 attacks, is set to expire in December.

The program works to collect metadata such as numbers and time stamps of a domestic call to identify any possible links to terrorist suspects. Sources added the White House hasn’t made a decision whether to advance a measure to reauthorize the phone-surveillance effort.

The Defense Information Systems Agency issued over-the-air derived credentials to the 100,000th device through the Department of Defense’s Purebred mobile certification system last month, DISA said Wednesday. 

Purebred is designed to handle encrypted communications and secure web browsing for certified DoD mobile devices without constantly requiring a common access card and smart card reader. The device management server also enables public key infrastructure issuance and recovery for all CAC holders via an initial device enrollment done by a Purebred agent. DoD entities can handle their own enrollments via local service desks as part of Purebred’s mobile support services. 

Brandon Iske, DISA’s program manager for Purebred, said the centralized credential issuance system acts as a registration authority to support and further develop the DoD’s enterprise-wide Identity Credential Access Management.

“This time last year, we’d credentialed about 20,000 devices with around 1,200 certified Purebred agents. Today we’re over 100,000 devices with more than 3,500 agents, and the way we’ve structured the solution, we can continue to scale to support mission partner demand,” he noted. Iske’s office seeks to process credential operations for up to 1,000 devices per day.

The Office of Management and Budget is coordinating cybersecurity efforts with the Department of Homeland Security to enhance protection of the federal supply chain, FCW reported Wednesday.

OMB’s new Federal Acquisition Security Council launched efforts to support the DHS Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Task Force manage security risks in acquisition and purchasing. DHS established the ICT Supply Chain Task Force last fall that gathers 60 government and industry partners, followed by OMB’s supply chain security council in December. Both groups intend to promote cybersecurity resilience and enhance federal procurement and acquisition policies. 

Bob Kolasky, co-chairman of the ICT Supply Chain Task Force, said his team plans to issue the first analysis of its work streams this summer, which would include threat information sharing between government and private sectors, its threat evaluation criteria and procurement rules. The Federal Acquisition Security Council will hold its first meeting next week.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released the findings from its final “green paper” showing how the government could bring federally funded inventions from laboratories to markets faster. The report contains 15 key findings focusing on streamlined federal regulations, public-private partnerships, building an entrepreneurial workforce and support for innovation, NIST said Wednesday. 

“Removing roadblocks, enabling entrepreneurs, attracting private investment and getting inventions from the laboratory into the marketplace faster are essential to unleash American innovation and to strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and national security,” said Walter Copan, director of NIST and under secretary of commerce for standards and technology.

The green paper is based on industry, academic and government stakeholders feedback gathered through NIST’s Return on Investment Initiative for Unleashing American Innovation. NIST intends to use the report to guide agencies in policy decisions to increase returns from the government’s over $150 billion annual investment in research and development.

U.S. Cyber Command is focusing on how to help other federal government components address cyber threats from foreign adversaries, Fedscoop reported Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Timothy Haugh, leader of USCYBERCOM’s Cyber National Mission Force, said that mission outcomes depend on how the country aids foreign and domestic industry partners in protecting national assets during a recent Atlantic Council event. He added that the command must provide information that helps federal agencies do their respective jobs.

The change to a more collaborative focus stems from the Department of Defense’s new strategy and boosted authority in line with the White House’s refined cyber policy and the National Defense Authorization Act.