The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General released a redacted report stating that the FBI needs to improve its process for handling cybercrime reports and notifying victims of cyber intrusions.

The IG noted that data in the FBI’s Cyber Guardian system, designed for disseminating notifications to cyber victims to help mitigate further attacks, was “incomplete and unreliable, making the FBI unable to determine whether all victims are being notified.” The report also states that not all FBI agents properly indexed victims, and there was an inconsistency in the quality of formal requests for investigative actions.

In addition, the IG discovered the Department of Homeland Security contributes to the incompleteness of data in Cyber Guardian. The FBI failed to inform victims of national security-related cyber cases of their rights, according to the report.

The IG recommends the FBI fix the inconsistencies in CyNERGY, which was under development to replace Cyber Guardian during the audit. The lack of updated guidance about handling protected critical information for Cyber Guardian users will be an issue for CyNERGY, the IG noted. Other recommendations detailed in the report include clarifying definitions of cybercrime victims, fostering interagency coordination, improving victim engagement and fixing data processing operations.

The U.S. Air Force found that the branch needs to accelerate its procurement process through its fiscal year 2018 annual acquisition report. Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said in statement published Tuesday that the military service needs to remain competitive and avoid the usage of procurement processes from the Cold War era.

Wilson confirmed the experimentation and prototyping authorities provided by Congress serve as factors in the acceleration of the military service’s procurement process and may help mitigate potential risks. “These authorities granted to us by Congress maintain oversight, and we will not sacrifice quality for speed,” Wilson said.

The report also noted other procurement pathways including startup collaborations, sustainment methods and agile software development.

The U.S. Air Force is selecting sources for an upcoming contractual effort to rebuild wings of the A-10 support aircraft, Military.com reported Tuesday.

Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the service branch is allotting $267 million to purchase 20 wings through the A-10-Thunderbolt II Advanced-Wing Continuation Kit program’s next contract. The selected contractor would succeed Boeing as the next provider of A-10 wings and help the Air Force maintain six A-10 squadrons.

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said “digital engineering” sometimes allows the service to bypass the regular manufacturing process for parts. The A-10 has been operational since the 1970’s. Fairchild Republic is the aircraft’s original manufacturer.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.

The U.S. Navy completed on-sea tests of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier belonging to the Nimitz class of ships. The carrier, also known as “Ike,” launched from Naval Station Norfolk to undergo sea trials off Virginia’s coast to evaluate several aspects including small-boat operations, countermeasure wash-down systems, catapult performance and high-speed turning, the Navy said Tuesday.

The series of trials lasted for five days and required boosted maintenance workload for the ship’s system engineers.

“Our investment in our ship paid off and now the real work begins: getting the flight deck certified so we start doing what this warship was built to do – launch and recover aircraft,” said Capt. Kyle Higgins, the carrier’s commanding officer.

The ship will proceed with the optimized fleet response plan basic phase where the vessel’s crew will undergo focused training.

The Office of Personnel Management released a final rule implementing direct-hire authority for mission-critical information technology positions. OPM said in the document published Wednesday that the authority will allow agency leaders to bypass select steps in hiring new personnel to address the shortage of applicants in critical IT roles. 

“IT managers who are looking to hire in critical roles who cannot get people to fill those critical roles are able to get the head of the agency to authorize direct-hire authority for those roles,” said Margaret Weichert, deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget and current acting director of OPM, at the FedScoop IT Modernization Summit. 

OPM will require IT officials to submit justification before exercising the hiring authority. The office said it will closely monitor each agency’s use of the authority to avoid abuse.

Agencies can use the authority to hire IT professionals for limited terms. Employees hired under the rule can work in government for up to eight years. Direct-hire authority is expected to take effect on May 3.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a 2019 Wash100 winner, will announce the agency’s initial plan to bring astronauts back to the surface of the moon by 2024, Space News reported Tuesday.

The plan is currently under development, which originally aimed to make the next manned lunar mission in 2028. 

“What we’re doing right now is trying to assess very quickly what would be required to achieve the end state of boots on the moon in 2024,” Bridenstine said. “The plan is all there. A lot of the pieces of the architecture are already there. We’re just going to have to pull a number of them forward.”

NASA intends to work with the White House in finalizing the plan to have a “consolidated position from the administration” before delivering it to Congress.

The space agency is also considering commercial options to achieve the 2024 goal. NASA is considering United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 Heavy and the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as potential alternatives to the Space Launch System if the development encounters future delays. 

Bridenstine said NASA would seek additional funding to support the plan.