The House of Representatives has passed a bill requiring research on the industry of internet-connected devices.

The State of Modern Application, Research, and Trends Internet of Things or SMART IoT act would task the Secretary of Commerce to gather data on industry sectors that produce internet-connected devices, the House Commerce Committee said Thursday.

The bill would also require the secretary to identify federal agencies and activities associated with IoT industry sectors.

Additionally, the study would list policies and standards that guide the use of IoT and help consumers assess internet-connected devices.

Reps. Bob Latta R-Ohio, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., authored the bill.

Mark Bunn, program manager of Trusted Internet Connections at the Department of Homeland Security, has elaborated on how government organizations’ modernization plans can be augmented by the TIC mandate, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Bunn said during a Tuesday FCW webcast that TIC 3.0 will allow federal agencies to divide the TIC architecture into multiple documents to make the technology easier to implement.

He added that the initiative will also complement the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ cyber and risk management frameworks.

Additionally, the initiative aims to provide more flexibility to agencies by allowing new technologies like microsegmentation and software-defined networks to operate.

Bunn also noted that the TIC architecture will be run at a higher level than its current running capacity.

“One of the key things there is you’ll see patterns based on level of trust instead of connection classes. Instead of having things like interagency connections and intra-agency connections, these will be much simpler in that you’ll see connections from a high trust environment to a medium trust environment,” he added.

The Council to Secure the Digital Economy has issued the latest guidelines to eliminate botnets and secure networks against sophisticated threats, MeriTalk reported Thursday.

The industry-led CSDE created the 2018 International Anti-Botnet Guide based on the perspectives, practices and experiences of companies to address the increasing challenges to the global digital economy.

The council includes USTelecom, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Consumer Technology Association.

CSDE highlighted that the government and internet service providers could play key roles in securing the internet.

“The guide provides real-world, presently available solutions to a global challenge that cannot be met by one stakeholder set or one country alone or by any governmental mandate,” the guide stated. 

Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for cybersecurity for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security, agreed that a collaboration between private and public sectors could help solve the security problems.

The International Anti-Botnet Guide’s security recommendations focus on infrastructures, software development, devices and device systems, home and small business systems installation, and enterprises. 

“Widespread implementation of the security practices featured in this guide will dramatically reduce botnets and help secure the global digital economy,” the document said.

Capt. Max McCoy, commodore of the U.S. Navy‘s F-35C squadrons, has said a newly-installed Joint Strike Fighter Wing will be used to support training and manning operations of the service’s fighter aircraft missions, USNI News reported Thursday.

The JSF Wing, which will be stationed in Lemoore, Calif., will be crucial to integrating the F-35C into the carrier air wing and strike group in a short amount of time, McCoy said.

The new wing’s priority is to prepare Strike Fighter Squadron 147, or VFA 147, for operational testing and have it secure an initial operating capability status by early 2019, possibly in February, the captain said.

VFA 147 will be the first in the squadron to undergo the IOC process, with the target for all pilots to be carrier-qualified set in early December, McCoy said.

He added that the JSF Wing will work to see the squadron deployed as part of a carrier air wing by 2021.

Col. G. Scott McLeod, Army program manager for training devices, said the service branch is mulling plans to use Other Transaction Authority agreements to help it update its fleet of vehicle maintenance trainers, National Defense reported Wednesday.

McLeod, who works for the service’s program executive office for simulation, training and instrumentation, said it will use OTAs to cut across bureaucracy in the Department of Defense‘s procurement divisions.

This will be carried out with the help of the Training and Readiness Accelerator consortium, which is run by nonprofit National Security Technology Accelerator, he added.

Among the list of family vehicle maintenance trainers that the Army plans on acquiring are the armored multipurpose vehicle, the Bradley fighting vehicle and the Abrams battle tank.

The endeavor is set to be accomplished within 18 months, with the Army allotting $58M for the Abrams tank, $57M for the Bradley trainer and $28M for the armored multipurpose vehicle.
 

The Department of Homeland Security will deploy a new algorithm built to monitor system vulnerabilities and baseline configuration settings across the federal government to give an agency an overall rating on its cyber hygiene, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

DHS integrated the Agency-Wide Adaptive Risk Enumeration algorithm in new cybersecurity tools provided through its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program. 

AWARE sends data to a centralized dashboard at the agency, which operators then use to compile cyber scores to see how each agency maintains its cybersecurity. 

“We’ll be able to have a scale as to what agencies are doing well, what agencies might need some additional support and help get us a sense of one of the most important factors in combating the threat: basic cyber hygiene — getting things patched, getting things configured,” said Kevin Cox, CDM program manager at DHS.

AWARE is still in the development phase and DHS plans to add guidelines on how agencies will compare their cyber hygiene to others. 

The agency plans to roll out the program in the second and third quarters of fiscal year 2019 and to reach full production in early fiscal 2020.