La’Naia Jones, deputy chief information officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has said the intelligence community has started to direct its cybersecurity efforts against the use of ransomware by nation state-related threat actors, expansion of the information technology supply chain exploits and commoditization of breaching capabilities, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.

“These are key areas that we are focusing on and we’re trying to make headway as foundational to the overall cybersecurity and cyber imperative,” Jones said Wednesday at a Splunk-hosted cyber event.

She noted that IC works to investigate nation state-linked adversaries on a daily basis and cited security risks associated with open-source tools.

“Hackers are successfully infecting a wide range of users through official software distribution channels and also obfuscating their intended targets,” Jones said.

Jones said the procurement of services and exploits by cyber threat actors from various vendors on the dark web is an example of the commoditization of hacking capabilities.

Sylvia Burns, chief information officer at the Interior Department, is set to join the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Sept. 7 to serve as deputy CIO for enterprise strategy, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

A spokesman for DOI said Burns has led efforts to restructure the department’s information technology reporting and management structure to comply with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act since taking over as CIO in 2014.

Burns has held various roles since joining DOI in 2006 such as division chief for portfolio management within the department’s office of the CIO and director of information planning for the office of the assistant secretary for Indian affairs.

She is co-chairwoman of the CIO Council’s services, strategy and infrastructure committee.

Vice Adm. Richard Brown, commander of the Naval Surface Force Pacific, has said that four reorganized littoral combat ships may be ready for deployment by 2019, Defense News reported Thursday.

The planned deployments are part of the service’s LCS reorganization program, which the U.S. Navy initiated in 2016 to fix mechanical problems found on the Independence-class USS Montgomery and USS Gabrielle Giffords and Freedom-class USS Detroit and USS Little Rock ships.

The Navy also intended to address the concerns on reduced crew ownership of the ships, which was blamed for various accidents.

The Navy replaced the modular LCS program, wherein each LCS has a small crew and would switch between anti-surface, anti-submarine or mine warfare mission packages depending on the mission, with a blue-and-gold crewing model wherein mission packages are assigned semi-permanently.

Lockheed Martin heads the team working on the Freedom variant of the Navy’s LCS class and Austal USA leads the work on the Independence variant.

Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford, U.S. Army chief information officer, has said the service should leverage the large volume of data through the use of artificial intelligence, enterprise cloud, identity management and other “data-driven technologies” as it works to upgrade its network, Fedscoop reported on Aug. 3.

“Any attempt to modernize this thing called the network must consider these factors, and the key factor being the data,” he said at an Association of the U.S. Army symposium.

Crawford said the service needs to address the “how” aspect of its network modernization effort by determining how it plans to build on some of the lessons learned to deliver an intuitive, resilient and reliable network that functions as a weapons system and how to adapt policies to the needs of warfighters.

“And last but not least, how do we intend to drive institutional change to promote sustained modernization that will enable the Army to adapt in response to the ever-changing environment?,” he added.

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center has initiated a series of in-flight tests that aims to identify the physiological effects of high-performance aircraft flights on the human body.

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Langley Research Center will monitor the breathing of five NASA pilots operating different airplanes and equipment in various flight conditions, the agency said Wednesday.

Armstrong will provide its F-18A/B and F-15D planes for the research program, which aims to examine the effects of high-performance flights on the aircraft as well.

Clinton Cragg, principal engineer at NESC, said during a recent congressional testimony that only a few studies have assessed the impact of high-performance flights on humans.

He noted that previous studies were not able to record certain variables such as the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in a pilot’s mask, the pressure within the cockpit and the pilot’s breathing rates, all of which could be used to complete the current research.

Alan Shaffer, the White House’s nominee for the role of deputy undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Defense Department, has said one of his priorities once confirmed is to focus on the DoD’s acquisition workforce, Defense News reported Tuesday.

“We’ve got to really focus on giving every bit of training to our young program managers and empower them to make a mistake — not big mistake — but empower them” to prototype and experiment, Schaffer said Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Other Pentagon nominees who appeared before the Senate panel were Veronica Daigle, nominee for the post of assistant defense secretary for readiness; Robert McMahon, nominee for the role of assistant defense secretary for sustainment; Alex Beehler, nominee for the assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for installations, energy and environment; and Casey Wardynski, nominee for the post of assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs.

Matthew Travis, deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said the agency is working on adapting its cybersecurity strategy to counter advanced cyber threats aimed at the government, Bloomberg Government reported Tuesday.

The DHS intends to strengthen its cybersecurity authority, which includes requiring other agencies to update their cybersecurity policies in areas where the National Protection and Programs Directorate sees unmitigated risks.

The department will also rely on public-private partnerships to work toward the same objectives.

DHS Assistant Secretary Jeanette Manfra said during an NPPD Office of Cybersecurity and Communications event that government and industry representatives who will work at the new National Risk Management Center will boost collaboration on cybersecurity.

Manfra added that federal contractors should adhere to standardized security practices and strict security requirements stated in governmentwide contracts.

The DHS also aims to launch several cybersecurity-related procurement programs through 2020, such as recompeting the Priority Telecommunications Services contract and streamlining the operations of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.