Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security calling for the potential ban of foreign-made virtual private networks for use by government employees.

Wyden and Rubio are urging Christoper Krebs, director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to conduct a threat assessment on the national security risks that come with government employees using browsers that run on VPNs created by foreign companies. The senators noted that millions have downloaded foreign-made VPN apps, including those from countries that don’t “share American interests or values.”

“Because these foreign apps transmit users’ web-browsing data to servers located in or controlled by countries that have an interest in targeting U.S. government employees, their use raises the risk that user data will be surveilled by those foreign governments,” they added.

Wyden and Rubio noted that the U.S. government is taking steps addressing the potential risks of foreign-made technology by conducting investigations on Chinese telecommunications equipment and Russian products such as those from Kaspersky Labs. Both senators called on Krebs to issue a binding operational directive to prohibit foreign-made VPNs on federal systems and devices if it’s found they “pose a threat to national security.”

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., reintroduced a bill aiming to boost the versatility of the federal government’s cyber workforce. The Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act would establish a program for cybersecurity professionals to rotate across the federal government addressing the needs of various agencies, the office of Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said Thursday. 

The program intends to develop and widen the experience coverage of federal cybersecurity workers, allowing them to witness the cyber operations of different agencies.

“As our country continues to face ever-evolving cybersecurity threats, it’s critical that we have a strong workforce in the federal government that can help combat those threats and prevent cyberattacks from occurring,” said Hassan who is among the bill’s original sponsors.

Lisa Hershman, acting chief management officer of the Department of Defense, told Defense News in an interview published Friday that DoD is focusing on five key initiatives to find greater savings in fiscal year 2019.

Those programs are category management; information technology and business systems; procurement of goods and services in a different manner; health care management; and logistics and supply chain acquisition.

“Those are our big ones. Now, what we’re looking at is not only how we do things, but we’re looking at those processes, we’re looking at policies, systems and then resource alignment,” she noted.

One of the lessons she has learned during her first year within the CMO office is ensuring cost savings without hampering customer experience. She said her office also looks at quality levels, cycle times and ways to reduce duplication.

Hershman said the CMO office found $4.7B in combined savings for FY 2017 and FY 2018 and has teamed up with the comptroller to come up with a process to validate the savings from working capital funds.

When asked about the department’s annual audit, she noted that the CMO office has been conducting biweekly meetings in order to keep up with corrective action systems.

“We’ve actually created for the audit a common database of corrective action plans in order to track the execution of the corrective actions,” she added.
 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched the Bioelectronics for Tissue Regeneration program to deploy emerging technology into treating combat wounds, DARPA said Wednesday. The four-year effort seeks researchers capable of using artificial intelligence, biosensors and actuators to develop a solution for stimulating real-time healing processes, accelerate tissue repair and regeneration.

DARPA expects to produce a closed-loop and adaptive system using sensors that analyze the wound’s healing state, biological actuators that transmit signals to catalyze healing and adaptive learning methods that can process information and determine the proper course of action. Additionally, the agency encourages researchers to develop a way of influencing healing after osseointegration surgery, which is often done to support the installment of prosthetics into wounded servicemen. 

DARPA will hold a Proposer’s Day to discuss the program on March 1 in Arlington, Va.