Gen. Paul Nakasone: NSA, Cybercom to Help Agencies Thwart Cyber Interference in Elections
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Gen. Paul Nakasone: NSA, Cybercom to Help Agencies Thwart Cyber Interference in Elections


Gen. Paul Nakasone: NSA, Cybercom to Help Agencies Thwart Cyber Interference in Elections
Paul Nakasone

Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, has said both organizations will collaborate with other government agencies in efforts to monitor foreign attempts to interfere in U.S. elections, DoD News reported Thursday.

“I have complete confidence in the forces under my command,” Nakasone told reporters during a press conference held Thursday at the White House.

“We will work in conjunction with other elements of our government to make sure we bring the full power of our nation to bear on any foreign power that attempts to interfere with our democratic processes.”

He noted the Pentagon provides intelligence data, technical expertise and information support that the Department of Homeland Security can impart to state and local government officials to secure 2018 midterm elections.

Chris Shank to Head DoD Strategic Capabilities Office
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Chris Shank to Head DoD Strategic Capabilities Office


Chris Shank to Head DoD Strategic Capabilities Office
Chris Shank

Chris Shank, former senior adviser to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force, has joined the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office as its new director, Defense News reported Friday.

Shank will lead the SCO and its efforts to explore and develop strategies to counter emerging threats across various domains.

He succeeds Will Roper, who now serves as the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.

As senior adviser to the Air Force secretary in 2017, Shank helped re-establish the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the White House National Space Council.

The Air Force vet also held several leadership and adviser roles in other companies and agencies such as Van Scoyoc Associates, Honeywell, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Department of Defense and NASA.

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Joanne Collins Smee to Step Down From GSA Role; Emily Murphy Comments
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Joanne Collins Smee to Step Down From GSA Role; Emily Murphy Comments

 

Joanne Collins Smee to Step Down From GSA Role; Emily Murphy Comments
Joanne Collins Smee

Joanne Collins Smee, federal acquisition service deputy commissioner and director of technology transformation services at the General Services Administration, will step down from her post by the end of this month.

She intends to return to the private sector after her tenure with the agency where she oversaw the establishment and growth of the Centers of Excellence, GSA said Thursday.

Collins Smee helped the agency grow its CoE effort that functions to modernize the information technology capacities of federal government components, beginning with the Agriculture Department.

“GSA remains committed to completing the important work Joanne has begun at USDA, and to bringing the CoE model to other federal agencies,” said Emily Murphy, administrator of the GSA and a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

“I am confident that the talented team Joanne has put in place will be able to bring about significant, meaningful change in federal IT for years to come,” Murphy added.

 

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Gen. Carlton Everhart Eyes Orbiting Military Supplies Within 10 Years
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Gen. Carlton Everhart Eyes Orbiting Military Supplies Within 10 Years


Gen. Carlton Everhart Eyes Orbiting Military Supplies Within 10 Years
Carlton Everhart

An Air Force general said he initiated talks with SpaceX and other space launch firms about  having prepositioned cargo in space that can potentially deliver supplies to U.S. troops within a decade, Defense One reported Thursday.

“I can just position in space and have a re-supplying vehicle come up and come back down,” Air Force Gen. Carlton Everhart, head of Air Mobility Command, told reporters Thursday at a Defense Writers Group event.

“I don’t have to have people there, I just have to have the cargo there,” he said of the concept that could be based on SpaceX’s cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.

Everhart noted that he has begun talks with Gen. Jay Raymond, head of Air Force Space Command, about a possible partnership in order to advance the concept and plans to propose space cargo-related investments in the next cycle of the Program Objective Memorandum.

“I think in the next five years we can be right in on that concept stage. … Actual routine, probably within the next 10,” he added.

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Air Force Releases New Strategy to Achieve ISR Dominance; Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson Comments
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Air Force Releases New Strategy to Achieve ISR Dominance; Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson Comments


Air Force Releases New Strategy to Achieve ISR Dominance; Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson Comments
VeraLinn Jamieson

The U.S. Air Force has issued a new flight plan that details the service’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance goals in the next 10 years in order to maintain technological advantage amid threats posed by near-peer adversaries.

The Next Generation ISR Dominance Flight Plan suggests efforts to advance disruptive technologies; use of cross-domain and multi-role ISR capabilities to build up lethality and readiness; and investments in basic capabilities of partnerships and people to promote culture change, the Air Force reported Thursday.

Lt. Gen. VeraLinn “Dash” Jamieson, deputy chief of staff for ISR, said the service’s future ISR portfolio will be composed of a “multi-domain, multi-intelligence, government/commercial-partnered collaborative sensing grid.”

“It will be resilient, persistent, and penetrating to support a range of options across the spectrum of conflict,” Jamieson added.

The pursuit of disruptive tech and opportunities consists of machine intelligence, agile capability development and data strategy as its three lines of effort, while human capital and partnerships comprise the pathway for driving culture change through investments in foundational capabilities.

The adoption of cross-domain and multi-role ISR for lethality and readiness has five lines of effort and those are high altitude assets; ISR from cyber space; publicly available information; ISR from space operations; and persistent, penetrating, multi-role capabilities.

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NIST Releases Revised Handbook on Secure Access System for Mobile Devices
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NIST Releases Revised Handbook on Secure Access System for Mobile Devices


NIST Releases Revised Handbook on Secure Access System for Mobile DevicesThe National Institute of Standards and Technology has released the second draft of a handbook that describes how to extend onto mobile devices a federally mandated access security standard originally meant for desktops and laptops, American Security Today reported Thursday.

The revised handbook incorporates feedback from the first draft and features additional sample implementations for the Derived Personal Identity Verification Credentials System, a variant of the PIV system designed in response to a 2004 presidential directive that sought to standardize access security mechanisms in federal agencies.

The original PIV system involved the use of PIV cards, which required card readers typically found in desktop and laptop computers, but not on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones.

The DPC System replaces PIV cards with “tokens,” which can take the form of software, removable components like SD cards, or integrated hardware.

The NIST, which published the handbook in partnership with the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and several participating firms, is inviting the public to further improve the document by providing feedback via email.

The agency, which has called on interested parties “to share lessons learned and best practices,” will be accepting comments until Oct. 1.

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Lori Diachin Named Deputy Director of DOE’s Exascale Computing Project
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Lori Diachin Named Deputy Director of DOE’s Exascale Computing Project


Lori Diachin Named Deputy Director of DOE’s Exascale Computing Project
Lori Diachin

Lori Diachin, deputy associate director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been appointed deputy chief of the Energy Department’s Exascale Computing Project in a move that will take effect Aug. 7.

Diachin will succeed the retiring Stephen Lee, ECP said Tuesday.

“Lori has deep technical expertise, years of experience and a collegial leadership style that qualify her uniquely for the ECP deputy director role,” said Bill Goldstein, director of LLNL and ECP board chairman.

Diachin brings to her role over 15 years of leadership experience in high performance computing.

She previously served as director for LLNL’s center for applied scientific computing and head of HPC4Materials and HPC4Manufacturing programs for DOE’s fossils energy and energy efficiency and renewable energy offices.

Prior to LLNL, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

ECP was unveiled in 2016 by the National Nuclear Security Administration and DOE’s office of science to advance the development of an exascale computing network in support of the department’s national security, economic and scientific discovery missions.

GAO: DOE’s NNSA Needs More Effective Contract Document Management Procedures
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GAO: DOE’s NNSA Needs More Effective Contract Document Management Procedures


GAO: DOE's NNSA Needs More Effective Contract Document Management ProceduresThe Government Accountability Office has recommended that the National Nuclear Security Administration adopt a strategy to ensure that contract documents are readily available for immediate use of principal users and partner agencies.

GAO said Wednesday the Office of Acquisition and Project Management within the Department of Energy’s NNSA should require field offices to use the DOE’s Strategic Integrated Procurement Enterprise System for management and operating contract document management.

The watchdog also said OAPM should keep a closer eye on how field offices organize management and operating contract documents and use such observations to better streamline those efforts.

GAO found during a study that OAPM did not have immediate access to key management and operating contract documents at NNSA field offices, casting doubt on OAPM’s capability to perform its oversight responsibilities.

DISA Extends Unclassified Mobile Device Capability to All DoD Partners, Agencies
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DISA Extends Unclassified Mobile Device Capability to All DoD Partners, Agencies


DISA Extends Unclassified Mobile Device Capability to All DoD Partners, AgenciesThe Defense Information Systems Agency has extended the availability of its unclassified mobile device service to all of the Defense Department’s agencies, partners and operations.

The agency said Wednesday it initially released the DoD Mobility Unclassified Capability exclusively to users of the DoD Enterprise Email service.

The extension of DMUC enables non-DEE users to manage their mobile devices and applications, obtain public key infrastructure credentials and connect to DISA’s service desk support, among other things.

Al Smith, program manager for DMUC, stated that the agency has recently been working with DoD missions partners to connect them to their email environments, as well as to complete their missions through the unclassified mobile device product.

Smith added DISA will continue to quickly distribute DMUC to defense organizations to keep up with new innovations in devices and software.

The service now costs $4.31 from the previous $7.54 per device per month.

USDA Allocates $97M for 11-State Rural Broadband Connectivity Program
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USDA Allocates $97M for 11-State Rural Broadband Connectivity Program


USDA Allocates $97M for 11-State Rural Broadband Connectivity ProgramAgriculture Department Secretary Sonny Perdue has announced that USDA is allocating $97 million for 12 projects focused on improving rural broadband service in 11 states.

Perdue noted that the initiative will provide over 22,000 subscribers with efficient Internet connectivity resulting in more educational, social and business opportunities in their rural communities, USDA said Wednesday.

Among the department’s investments, which will go through the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan and Community Connect Grant programs, will include the provision of $21.4 million to Chibardun Telephone Cooperative in Cameron, Wis.; $2.67 million to Osage Innovative Solutions in Tulsa, Okla.; and $13.7 million to Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Company in Green City, Mo., among others.

The projects are expected to focus on the states of Arizona, Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Maryland and Nevada.

The broadband effort comes after President Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity in April 2017 aimed at identifying legislative solutions for promoting agriculture and prosperity in rural communities.

In January, Perdue presented the task force’s findings to Trump detailing how e-connectivity is a tool for productivity, education and healthcare which are contributory to economic development, workforce readiness and an improved quality of life.

 

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