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NSA Issues Advisory on Iranian Brute Force Cyber Attacks
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NSA Issues Advisory on Iranian Brute Force Cyber Attacks

The National Security Agency, alongside partner agencies like the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has released a joint cybersecurity advisory concerning efforts by Iranian cyber actors to compromise the systems belonging to various critical infrastructure—or CI—sectors.

Attack Objectives

The NSA said Wednesday that since 2023, Iranian cyber actors have been using brute force and other techniques to break into systems used by energy, government, healthcare and other CI organizations. MITRE ATT&CK defines brute force as the attempt by an attacker to systematically guess the target system’s password via “a repetitive or iterative mechanism.”

Once the Iranian attackers gain access, they work to enable persistent access by modifying multifactor authentication registrations. They also steal more credentials to sell on criminal forums.

Purpose of the Advisory

The joint cybersecurity advisory seeks to provide readers with recommendations on how to detect brute force activity on their systems. The document also offers recommendations on how to mitigate such activities.

“We explain the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the Iranian actors, as well as indicators of compromise,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Dave Luber explained.

“Our agencies are sharing detailed insight into this malicious cyber activity and what organizations can do to shore up their defenses,” Luber added.

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HHS Strategic Plan for AI Coming Soon
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HHS Strategic Plan for AI Coming Soon

Over a third of the government’s use cases for artificial intelligence are under the purview of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Micky Tripathi, acting chief AI officer for the agency. In order to govern and organize this enormous AI push, HHS will publish a strategic plan to guide its AI activities in January, FedScoop reports.

AI is broadly applicable throughout HHS, with functionality across the “entire breadth of what the department covers,” said Tripathi at an NVIDIA event last week. But the strategic plan will give serious consideration to “guardrails” as well.

At the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit, healthcare data and IT leaders like Veterans Affairs’ Lisa Rosenmerkel, HHS Center for IT’s Xavier Soosai and Deputy CIO Jennifer Wendel will offer exclusive insights about how HHS and the government healthcare system are integrating AI and many more innovative technologies. Don’t miss out on this fascinating event, set for Dec. 11; it’ll close out the year for POC in style.

Goals of the HHS AI Strategic Plan

Per Tripathy, the forthcoming AI strategic plan “looks across the department as we think about the healthcare sector generally, so it’s both externally focused as well as internal saying: Where do we see from just a general public policy perspective the needs of the industry and all of those domains across that entire value chain … what role does the federal government play in each of those areas? What potential roles does AI play in each of those areas?”

Tripathy said the guide both attempts to break down obstacles to innovation as well as erect boundaries and limitations that ultimately serve to encourage technological advancements rather than stymie them.

Those who will be impacted by the strategy should look for it to address areas such as medical research and discovery, healthcare delivery, medical product safety management, preclinical practice and much more.

HHS Strategic Plan for AI Coming Soon
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NASA Reintroduces Acquisition Process Modernization Framework
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NASA Reintroduces Acquisition Process Modernization Framework

NASA has relaunched a framework that seeks to modernize acquisition processes and advance innovation across the space agency.

The agency said Wednesday the NASA Acquisition Innovation Launchpad framework, or NAIL, was introduced in February 2023 as a pilot program to solicit ideas from acquisition stakeholders to drive innovation and manage risk-taking.

The NAIL program’s accomplishments over the past year reportedly include enhancing the procurement process, advancing automation and building an industry feedback forum.

NASA’s Office of Procurement expects the relaunched NAIL framework to address several priorities in fiscal year 2025, including providing additional engagement opportunities for the agency’s innovators, fostering procurement success stories and investing in technology and talent.

The agency also announced that NAIL Program Director Brittney Chappell will oversee new framework improvements and engagement moving forward.

“I am thrilled to step into this role and lead the program, using everything our team has learned from the last year,” said Chappell. “Together with internal and external stakeholders, we will turn bold ideas into impactful solutions that drive real change.”

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Army Unveils Cybersecurity Pilot Program for Small Businesses
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Army Unveils Cybersecurity Pilot Program for Small Businesses

The U.S. Army has launched a pilot program designed to help small businesses in the defense industrial base meet cybersecurity requirements.

The Army said Wednesday the Next-Gen Commercial Operations in Defended Enclaves pilot, or N-CODE, will merge commercial cloud offerings with enhanced security features to provide small enterprises with a secure environment to store, communicate and process sensitive data.

With N-CODE, small businesses can use an initial set of productivity tools that could help them meet most of the security controls under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.

DOD News reported that the Army is allocating approximately $26 million in fiscal year 2025 and FY 2026 funds for the N-CODE pilot program.

“This essentially provides a cyber-secure enclave in a secure environment for small businesses to participate in where they can collaborate, share information, [and] most importantly, do their own work that they need to that would otherwise present a threat vector for actors that we know are very active in the cybersecurity space,” Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said of the pilot during a discussion at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting Tuesday.

“What’s great about it is [that] it is compliant with CMMC, so all of the department’s requirements would be met by operating in this environment,” Camarillo added.

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OSC Discloses Findings of TraCSS Consolidated Pathfinder Project
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OSC Discloses Findings of TraCSS Consolidated Pathfinder Project

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce has released a report outlining the findings and results from OSC’s Consolidated Pathfinder project that seeks to inform the development of the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS.

OSC said Thursday the report found that the TraCSS program needs to reassess assumptions about the benefits of “surge tracking” to offer additional information for conjunctions of interest.

The Consolidated Pathfinder project sought to inform OSC on contractual methods, metrics and structures that will facilitate the use of commercial space situational awareness capabilities to promote spaceflight safety in low Earth orbit and explore the commercial sector’s ability to maintain an LEO object catalog.

According to the paper, the Pathfinder Project maintained a major portion of the Department of Defense LEO space catalog, and prediction errors for objects that could be assessed were “substantially equivalent” between DOD and the pathfinder.

The report also highlighted the challenge associated with the divergence in collision risk assessments generated by pathfinder and DOD systems.

In about 12 percent of the serious cases, one system suggested a mitigation measure and the other platform recommended an outright dismissal of the serious event.

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White House Names New Appointees to State Dept Commission
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White House Names New Appointees to State Dept Commission

President Joe Biden announced he intends to appoint several individuals to serve in a Department of State commission and two federal boards.

The new appointments include four new members to serve the State Department’s Commission on Reform and Modernization, eight members to the National Science Board and a lone addition to the National Cancer Advisory Board, the White House said Tuesday.

Chosen for the commissioner roles were Michael Guest, Pamela Spratlen, Caroline Tess, and Ricardo Zuniga. They will work with other panel members to advise the president and Congress on helping the State Department address the modern challenges of diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Biden’s appointees to the NSB include Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Yolanda Gil, Juan Gilbert, Jeffrey Isaacson, Willie May, Alondra Nelson, Sarah O’Donnell and Ryan Panchadsaram. They will support the National Science Foundation’s mission of promoting research and education in science and engineering.

The White House selected Kimberly Stegmaier to join the NCAB, which assists the National Cancer Institute in implementing the national cancer research program. The board also supports the government’s research and development initiatives to prevent, detect and treat cancer.

NNSA Blueprint Outlines Nuclear Security Enterprise Priorities
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NNSA Blueprint Outlines Nuclear Security Enterprise Priorities

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has released a blueprint outlining its 25-year plan to modernize the Nuclear Security Enterprise, or NSE.

Priorities under the Enterprise Blueprint include investing in the production and science infrastructure supporting weapons design, manufacture, certification and assessment; reestablishing eliminated capabilities; replacing old buildings; and meeting modern safety, security and environmental standards, the NNSA said Tuesday.

The investments will initially focus on sustaining the current nuclear stockpile and restoring production capabilities for modernizing weapons, with the NSE scientific base, global security and naval nuclear propulsion as the next priorities.

U.S. Nuclear Deterrence

The NSE comprises DOE laboratories, the Nevada National Security Site, production plants, and processing facilities involved in the design, production and testing of nuclear weapons. While the enterprise served its purpose during the Manhattan Project, Cold War and post-Cold War eras, the NSE believes assets must be modernized to keep pace with the current geopolitical and technological changes that require increased capability and capacity to maintain the U.S. nuclear deterrence.

According to Jill Hruby, DOE undersecretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA administrator, the blueprint offers a roadmap to meet current and future mission demands and effectively address nuclear security.

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Purdue Team Chosen for Microelectronics Commons Project
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Purdue Team Chosen for Microelectronics Commons Project

A team headed by Purdue University has been selected for a project to enhance artificial intelligence hardware through the Microelectronics Commons program in partnership with the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub.

Purdue said Monday its CHEETA: CMOS+MRAM Hardware for Energy-EfficienT AI project, one of four awardees announced on Sept. 18, aims to make AI hardware more energy efficient and the sensor-to-decision response time faster. This development will enhance the “size, weight and power” metrics, which are expected to support defense initiatives.

The project intends to utilize CMOS+X and magnetic random-access memory, or MRAM, to develop efficient in-memory computing hardware fabrics.

The team will receive $21 million for over four years from the Applied Research Institute to fund the project. It is made up of faculty members from the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and collaborating partners Northrop Grumman, Everspin Technologies, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Michigan.

Purdue President Mung Chiang, stated, “Purdue is strongly committed to supporting the CHIPS Act and the U.S. DOD’s ME Commons program, enhancing economic prosperity to the Silicon Heartland and national security of the U.S.”

Karen Plaut, executive vice president for research at Purdue, emphasized that the collaboration will enhance defense technologies and boost the nation’s leadership in advancing critical technologies.

“By uniting the strengths of our partnerships with Argonne National labs, NSWC Crane as well as government agencies, leading industry partners and top academic institutions, we are embarking on a groundbreaking project that will push the boundaries of semiconductor innovation,” Plaut said.

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State Department Awards Exovera Media Reporting Contract
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State Department Awards Exovera Media Reporting Contract

The U.S. Department of State has awarded Exovera a contract to continue its media monitoring services in support of the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Iraq.

Under the potential five-year agreement, Exovera will continue reporting on Iraqi multimedia platforms to help embassy officials better understand Iraq’s politics and governance, security and economic affairs and other issues related to the U.S., the software and data science company announced Wednesday.

Bob Sogegian, Exovera CEO, said, “With the demonstrated depth of analytical capabilities, local and regional contextual knowledge and editorial judgment, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq relies on Exovera’s experts and technology to deliver comprehensive situational awareness.”

Exovera will leverage its exoINSIGHT platform to provide the embassy with interactive access to open-source content and a host of artificial intelligence analytic and reporting capabilities. The application uses machine learning and natural language processing to retrieve insights from a growing body of organized data.

“With the demonstrated depth of analytical capabilities, local and regional contextual knowledge, and editorial judgment, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq relies on Exovera’s experts and technology to deliver comprehensive situational awareness,” Sogegian added.

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NIST to Create New Standardization Center of Excellence
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NIST to Create New Standardization Center of Excellence

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has awarded ASTM International $15 million in funding to establish the new Standardization Center of Excellence.

The center will support U.S. engagement in international standardization for critical and emerging technologies, or CETs, that are essential to safeguard the country’s competitiveness and national security, NIST said Tuesday.

The center will conduct pre-standardization engagement to ensure that the private sector will participate in international standardization efforts. It will also build a pipeline of professionals who will lead U.S. international standards development efforts.

In addition, the center will start a collaborative program with NIST to accelerate the development of industry-driven standards for selected CETs and create a data-sharing hub for all stakeholders involved in standardization.

According to Charles Romine, the associate director for laboratory programs at NIST, the public-private partnership will help the United States advance international standardization for CETs, such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology and biotechnology.

ASTM International will work on the project with several partners, which are expected to provide the needed international expertise for standards development, education and optimization.

Under a cooperative agreement, NIST will fund the project over five years, engage with the center and its stakeholders, and provide technical expertise and leadership.

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