The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.K.’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory is hosting a competition to identify new planning approaches for search and rescue missions with unmanned aircraft systems. Swarm and Search AI Challenge: 2019 Fire Hack will task participants to develop artificial intelligence applications to map wildfires, support mission planning and respond to dynamic changes, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Tuesday.

Teams will perform their work on an online collaboration platform and study various fire maps via USAF-approved software. Wright Brothers Institute and University of Dayton Research Institute will serve as academic partners for the program to take place in the U.S. and the U.K. and conclude by the end of March. The program will select 10 finalists to compete for cash prizes at the challenge’s culminating round.

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The entrants to receive the highest score will be featured at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s 2019 conference and the U.K. Embassy in Washington DC.

The U.S. Air Force’s 55th Comptroller Squadron Financial Management Flight has begun testing its new EPHESOFT scanning software designed to manage the service branch’s travel-related payment documentation, the Air Force said Tuesday.

The platform sends documentation to the Air Force Financial Services Center in South Dakota which handles payment procedures for temporary and permanent change-of-station travel outside the scope of the Defense Travel System. The new web-based system intends to be compatible with other platforms without requiring encryption or reliance on a virtual private network. Additionally, it enables travel vouchers to be transmitted to the AFFSC within minutes.

Master Sgt. Crystal Doepker, flight chief for the 55th Comptroller Squadron Financial Operations, said it takes about two hours to deliver the travel vouchers through the system prior to the upgrade.

“With the efficiencies that this system brings, it will reduce any work stoppage or delays in getting travel vouchers to the AFFSC,” he added.

The House plans to combine the subcommittees that handle information technology oversight and government operations to help in technology modernization across the government, FCW reported Tuesday.

The decision comes amid the growing number of government operations relying on IT, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said in a statement. 

“Federal IT is helping us deliver some of the most important functions and services our government provides to the public,” he said. 

The new panel will work under the House Oversight and Reform Committee. In an earlier interview with Government Matters, Connolly noted that the combined subcommittee will handle efforts modernizing how the government deals with IT and procurement of technologies.

The Directed Energy Combined Test Force of the U.S. Air Force‘s 704th Test Group plans to conduct experiments intending to inform the branch on the use and development of DE technologies. The plans support the Directed Energy Experimentation Campaign and follow the effort’s first experiment that concluded in October 2018 at White Sands Missile Range, USAF said Tuesday.

The 704th TG Directed Energy Combined Task Force, operating at Kirtland Air Force Base, will continue the campaign under orders from the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Office. The task force, a unit of Arnold AFB’s engineering development complex, is part of the service branch’s plan to transition directed energy weapons to airmen.

John Cao, director of the DE CTF, said the effort’s initial experiment aimed to understand capacities and limitations of existing high power microwave and high energy laser systems. He added that the experiment demonstrated DE weapons’ capacity to address threats, but transitioning the technology would be a different matter.

“We must also understand concept of operations, tactics, techniques and procedures along with the potential implications to doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities and policy,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security has released an emergency directive to guide federal agencies how to address Domain Name System tampering activities.

Attackers compromise DNS by targeting user credentials, altering DNS records and accessing valid encryption certificates that allow them to decrypt the redirected traffic, Christopher Krebs, director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, wrote in the directive released Tuesday.

To mitigate risks, CISA recommends that agencies audit DNS records, change account passwords, add multifactor authentication feature to DNS accounts and track certificate transparency logs within 10 business days.

Krebs, a 2019 Wash100 winner, wrote that CISA will offer technical support to agencies that report vulnerabilities in DNS records and evaluate submissions from organizations that cannot implement multifactor authentication on DNS accounts.

Agencies should submit status reports by Jan. 25 and completion reports for all actions by Feb. 5, according to the directive.

Starting Feb. 6, Krebs said he will work with agencies’ chief information officers and senior risk management officials that have not completed implementing the required measures to ensure the security of federal information systems.

He added that CISA will submit by Feb. 8 a report to the secretary of DHS and the director of the Office of Management and Budget about outstanding security issues at agencies.