The White House has issued a draft policy that would require the Department of Homeland Security to come up with use cases for how federal agencies can ensure the security of internet connections, Nextgov reported Friday.

The updated Trusted Internet Connections policy seeks to build up network security across the government and eliminate barriers to adoption of cloud and other modern technology platforms.

“The TIC use case documentation will outline which alternative security controls, such as endpoint and user-based protections, must be in place for specific instances where traffic is not required to flow through a physical TIC access point,” according to the draft policy.

The policy would direct DHS to work with the General Services Administration to develop a process to collect comments from agencies and industry on TIC use cases and other related reference architecture documentation.

DHS and GSA will also work together to update acquisition vehicles within six months of the approval of new use case requirements related to TIC.

The updated policy aims to help “streamline agency efforts to move to multicloud environments where we need to look at a different approach to security and storage,” Suzette Kent, federal chief information officer, said Thursday at a Center for Strategy and International Studies-hosted event.
 

St. Louis transferred 97 acres to the federal government to build a new headquarters worth $1.75B for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, STLToday reported Thursday. City representatives expect the construction of the campus in the St. Louis Place area to create 1,500 additional jobs and establish over 3,100 permanent employees within six years.

The acquisition and preparation of the land has cost the city $114M. The debt will be repaid through state and local incomes taxes from NGA employees. Otis Williams, Executive Director of the St. Louis Development Corporation, said the campus is a “transformative project” to establish St. Louis as a “hub for geospatial excellence.”

During Thursday’s transfer ceremony in the St. Louis Public Library auditorium, officials declared the project to be the largest investment the city has ever made, reports STL Public Radio. NGA director, Robert Cardillo affirmed the new campus ensures the NGA’s future success.

“The nation made a bet on this city and this region. We’re making the next installment on that. You’ve already returned on that investment through the talented employees, teammates, that we have today,” said Cardillo. “We couldn’t be prouder that we’re going to reinvest now in the community.”

On July 8, 2014, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the NGA selected six possible sites in the St. Louis area to replace its downtown headquarters. In 2016, the Obama administration’s push for urban renewal and the NGA’s desire to be near universities and employment hubs gave northern St. Louis the advantage over the other locations. It still took another two years of negotiations with landowners and countless hours of labor before the deal could be finalized, reports STLToday.

“Otis’ expertise and his prepared, tenacious and professional leadership have led us to today,” Lyda Krewson, the Mayor of St. Louis, said. “Without them and the hard work they put in throughout the process, this project would not have come together.”

Federal officials said the White House is likely to establish its proposed government modernization research center in 2019, with funding to be released in the current fiscal year to support the project, Nextgov reported Thursday.

The Trump administration aims for the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center to increase partnerships between the government, the industry and academia to accelerate deployment of new technologies and services. White House officials said they’re exploring ways to incentivize industry and academic experts to help establish the GEAR Center. 

“We want to do this quickly. We want to seed a center and start work in 2019,” said Margaret Weichert, deputy director of Office of Management and Budget. “I believe we can actually stand something up and actually deliver benefits in 2019 to showcase that there’s a way forward, in part because there are things like this that already exist,” she added. 

Weichert noted initial work at the center would focus on workforce reskilling, data management and information technology modernization within the government. However, the White House has yet to finalize the structure of the GEAR Center, whether it will run as a centralized, government-run enterprise or a dispersed collection of industry and academic experts with limited presence from federal leaders.

Senate Democrats introduced a bill to increase security for citizens’ personal data on public websites and apps.

Sen. Brian Schatz, top Democrat on the Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet subcommittee, led the proposal of the Data Care Act that would require online providers to improve security of personal information and prevent misuse of user data, according to a statement posted Wednesday. 

“By establishing a special fiduciary relationship between online providers and users, companies that use or sell people’s data will be held responsible for keeping consumers safe from harm, data breaches and unnecessary invasions of privacy,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who cosponsored the legislation. 

She added the bill would enable the Federal Trade Commission to collaborate with the U.S. Attorney General “to ensure service providers strengthen personal data protections and protect the security of American consumers’ sensitive personal data.”

Under the Data Care Act, service providers will be required to:

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• Reasonably secure individual identifying data and promptly inform users of data breaches that involve sensitive information
• Avoid using individual identifying data in ways that harm users
• Ensure that the duties of care and loyalty extend to third parties when disclosing, selling or sharing individual identifying data
• Follow federal and state enforcement as a violation of the duties will be treated as a violation of an FTC rule with first fine authority
• Follow FTC’s rule-making authority

The U.S. Navy will christen the future USS St. Louis built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine on Saturday at the company’s Marinette, Wis. facility, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

The Freedom-variant littoral combat ship can operate in open-ocean and near-shore environments and is designed to thwart threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft. The USS St. Louis is designated as LCS 19 and named after Missouri’s major port city located along the Mississippi River. In May 2017, a Lockheed Martin-led industry team laid the keel for the vessel at Marinette Marine’s location in Wisconsin.

Sen. Roy Blunt and Barbara Taylor, wife of Enterprise Holdings Chairman Andy Taylor will attend the christening. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been tasked with providing recommendations to the Pentagon for establishing a proposed agency that would lead efforts to build and acquire space technologies for the military, Space News reported Thursday.

DARPA will study the process and approach for the Space Development Agency following a directive by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin. In a memo sent to top defense officials, Griffin said he expects DARPA to complete the study in 45 to 60 days and focus on the requirements for a low-earth orbit communications transport layer and on the space capabilities outlined in the Department of Defense’s Space Vision.

The main tasks of the Space Development Agency include:

• Persistent global surveillance for advanced missile targeting
• Indications, warning, targeting and tracking for defense against advanced missile threats
• Alternate positioning, navigation and timing for a GPS-denied environment
• Global and near-real time space situational awareness
• Development of deterrent capability
• Responsive, resilient, common ground-based space support infrastructures
• Cross-domain, networked, node-independent battle management command, control and communications, including nuclear command, control and communications
• Highly-scaled, low-latency, persistent, artificial intelligence-enabled global surveillance

Fred Kennedy, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, will lead the study.