The departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security as well as the Small Business Administration are expanding their use of enterprise mobility ­management to provide federal workers better security and mobility with their smartphones, FedTech reported Monday. 

Recently, DHS launched a pilot program to integrate the Lookout Mobile Security with EMM technology, AirWatch, to detect and blacklist potentially malicious third-party apps on employee phones. The agency uses EMM tools to handle and secure ­credentials for more than 100,000 mobile devices.

Several agencies and offices within DHS use different EMMs, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard that rely on MobileIron, while the Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement use BlackBerry’s Enterprise Mobility Suite. 

Meanwhile, SBA utilizes the technology to provide mobile security for over 2,000 dispersed workforce across 128 locations. In 2018, the agency expanded its mobile network with iOS and Samsung Galaxy devices. The move allowed SBA to maximize coverage in remote areas and increase its internal apps for employees.  

USDA also made some updates in its EMM use to secure its mixed mobile environment that includes 32,000 government-issued mobile devices that use iOS. The effort focused on blocking application-based threats, such as malware and vulnerabilities. The agency is blacklisting and whitelisting capabilities to maintain third-party apps approved for business use.

La’Naia Jones, deputy chief information officer of the Intelligence Community, discussed how the Security Coordination Center facilitates the sharing of cyber threat intelligence and information on malware among IC agencies, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“So they work with all of the agencies to coordinate threats to work on malware signatures to prevent attacks and threats, to ensure that everyone has the same information from a threat posturing, and the security perspective,” Jones said of the SCC on Federal Monthly Insights — Strategic Threat Intelligence.

“They coordinate, whether it be general information or upcoming or anything that came out, they really are charged with ensuring that everyone is aware and tracking the most current status information mitigation techniques, and everything that’s included with that,” she added.

Jones said the SCC is directly linked to the community and other sensitive government agencies and was formed following the expansion of the Intelligence Community Incident Response Center five years ago. She added that her office plans to advance the use of cloud and automation in threat information sharing.
 

Lawmakers denied a proposal to move nearly $90M in funding for cybersecurity research to the newly established Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency within the Department of Homeland Security, FCW reported Tuesday. Congress passed a new funding bill that would retain the budget at the Science and Technology Directorate at DHS. 

With the funding, lawmakers tasked S&T to launch a new test bed examining new cybersecurity technologies and to begin the Next Generation Cyber Infrastructure Apex project to support the financial services sector in protecting their systems and networks.

S&T also received $5.2M to continue its Data Analytics Engine to help DHS analyze big data for law enforcement, fraud detection, risk-based screening and other applications.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 has adopted use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing for service branch’s 5th, 6th and 7th fleets. The battalion leverages tactical fabrication tools such as 3D scanners and printers as the group seeks to implement the manufacturing approach across naval sites in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, the U.S. Navy said Friday. The group is working to produce Class IX repair parts and Class IV materials via 3D printing to meet critical mission demands.

“The upside to this process is with the proper database they can print repair parts instead to waiting 30 to 90 days for new parts to come in,” said Lt. Michael Lundy, who supports the chief of naval operations’ fleet readiness and logistics staff as a reservist. He added that the only possible hindrance would be the limit of imagination. Lundy also noted that the battalion has already printed over 30 various parts, and identified 50 more designs that still require computerized models.

Cmdr. Joe Symmes, supply officer at the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment, said that naval construction personnel could potentially use 3D printing for repairs on the battlefield in the near future.

The Department of Energy established a facility at the Argonne National Laboratory to reuse cobalt and lithium materials from discarded lithium-ion battery products. DOE said Friday that it opened the Battery Recycling Center hoping to recover at least 90 percent of usable battery components and develop new technology out of the materials.

“These efforts will reduce our dependence on foreign sources of critical materials, strengthening America’s economic growth and energy security,” said Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at DOE.

The department also announced a three-phase battery recycling contest to drive investment in technological platforms intended to collect, store and transport discarded batteries. A lithium-ion battery can power multiple defense systems, laptop computers, electric vehicles, mobile phones and energy storage devices, DOE noted.