The National Security Agency’s office of inspector general has released a semi-annual report to Congress of its independent oversight work carried out from April 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2018.

NSA Inspector General Robert Storch wrote in the report that his office issued 21 oversight memoranda and reports during the six-month period and offered 620 recommendations to help the agency address the identified deficiencies.

Storch said his office’s work to probe claims of fraud, waste, misconduct and abuse resulted in 118 inquiries and 30 investigations and disciplinary action imposed on 24 agency employees.

During the period, the OIG closed 88 inquiries and 30 investigations, leading to the potential recovery of $261K from employees and contractors.

The OIG’s technology and cybersecurity branch conducted an assessment to determine whether NSA assigns individuals to fill System Security Plan-related roles for 10 operational systems and found that several of the examined platforms run without one or more required security personnel.

“As a result, the agency does not have reasonable assurance that some systems have requisite security oversight,” according to the report.

President Donald Trump and the Department of Defense plan to release on Thursday a document that lays out the administration’s missile defense strategy, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Missile Defense Review comes as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pursue development work on ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles that could pose a threat to U.S. forces and allies in Asia and Europe.

“We are expanding the scope of what we’re postured to defend against,” a senior administration official told reporters in a call Wednesday.

Sources told the publication the review aims to encourage the development of technology prototypes that could be assessed beyond the standard procurement process to accelerate deployment and set up a third U.S. site to counter possible attacks with ground-based missile interceptors.

The document will recommend ways on how the U.S. could help forces and allies protect themselves from regional missile threats, according to the report.

John Rood, defense undersecretary for policy; Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency; will hold a press briefing on the review on Thursday at the Pentagon.
 

The U.S. Navy is awarding a contract for the construction of a large surface combat ship as part of a plan to complete a 355-ship fleet, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.

Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has proposed the contract be awarded in fiscal year 2023. At the Surface Navy Association’s annual conference, Boxall revealed he’s unsure about the probability of reaching Richardson’s goal, but the service branch has also been “aggressively” on schedule.

The future large ship would possess a commonality-oriented, integrated combat system as part of a new generation of combatant vessels. The plan comes as the Department of Defense addresses competitor adversaries including China and Russia, the report noted.

The U.S. Air Force invites airmen to take part in a competition seeking innovative concepts addressing the military’s multi-domain challenges. The Vice Chief’s Challenge, announced at an Air Force Association convention, will provide specific topic areas for which participants develop new applications allowing users to clearly visualize the operational environment, USAF said Tuesday.

“We want to harness the human-machine teaming technology found in the myriad of apps on portable devices and deliver a similar situational awareness capability for the Joint Force,” said Gen. Stephen Wilson, Air Force vice chief of staff.

The competition will task participants to design an app, an algorithm or a different approach to integrate and display data for use in multi-domain operations.

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Aspiring participants must submit applications by Feb. 28. The competition will run through September with a culmination ceremony at AFA’s next Air, Space and Cyber Conference.

The House of Representatives voted to pass a bill to reauthorize the role of the federal chief information officer and appoint a complementary support executive. The Federal CIO Authorization Act of 2018 aims to further secure the nation’s digital infrastructure and streamline information technology reporting, the office of Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said Tuesday. 

Reps. Hurd and Robin Kelly, D-Ill., are the sponsors of the legislation that passed the House following the bill’s reintroduction earlier this month. The bill directs the federal CIO to serve as a presidential appointee who would report to the Office of Management and Budget’s director. The legislation would also appoint a federal chief information security officer who would report directly under the federal CIO. 

“This bill helps keep the vast information stored by the federal government secure from hackers by making clear that the federal CIO is in charge of the security of our data across the government,” Hurd said.

The Government Accountability Office released a new report detailing the growing challenges in electronically sharing and matching patient records. In interviews with healthcare experts, providers and other stakeholders, accurately matching patient health records represents “a barrier to health information exchange,” GAO said in the report published Tuesday.

“Records don’t always contain correct information and that health information technology systems and providers use different formats for key information such as names that contain hyphens,” the report stated. 

The respondents suggested the government improve how it manages data and the methods used to match health information. For consistency on electronic health records, they said healthcare providers should also implement common standards for recording demographic data, share best practices, other resources and launch a public-private collaboration to improve matching. 

GAO interviewed representatives from physician practices, hospitals, health systems, health information exchange organizations as well as health IT vendors and researchers for the report. The agency also reviewed reports from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and other sources about patient record matching. ONC leads the coordination of nationwide efforts of the government to implement and use health IT.