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Contracting Vet Carlen Capenos Named DISA Small Business Program Director
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Contracting Vet Carlen Capenos Named DISA Small Business Program Director


Contracting Vet Carlen Capenos Named DISA Small Business Program Director
Carlen Capenos

Carlen Capenos, former chief of the acquisition resources division at the Defense Information Systems Agency, has been appointed as director of DISA’s Office of Small Business Programs.

The 22-year contracting officer said in a statement published Thursday that she will coordinate with public and private entities to boost contracting procedures with small businesses at prime contract and subcontract levels to support warfighters and national-level leaders.

“Small businesses have innovative ideas, strong work ethics and they want to do well,” she added.

As chief of DISA’s acquisition resources branch, Capenos led contracting operations for various customers throughout the agency and the Defense Department.

She also previously held several contracting roles in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for seven years and the U.S. Air Force for two years.

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Wright-Patterson AFB Conducts Email Cloud Migration
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Wright-Patterson AFB Conducts Email Cloud Migration


Wright-Patterson AFB Conducts Email Cloud MigrationWright-Patterson Air Force Base has migrated more than 30,000 email accounts to the cloud as part of a Defense Department effort to provide greater email storage.

Under the Cloud Hosted Enterprise Service initiative, the 88th Communications Group Communications/Cyber Planner and 88th Communications Squadron worked to migrate email accounts of the base’s users, Wright-Patterson AFB said Wednesday.

Post-migration, the team performed cleanups to correct errors and update accounts that did not successfully migrate to the cloud.

The 88th Cyber Operations Center helped the team resolve issues after the two-day migration that did not cover accounts from the 88th Medical Group.

Vanessa Johnson, who leads the 88th Communications Group Communications/Cyber Planner, said the migration arrived at a 99.4 percent success rate with approximately 50,000 items updated.

Email migration activities have since moved to other U.S. Air Force bases.

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Stacey Dixon Stresses Importance of Machine Learning in Predicting Cyber Attacks
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Stacey Dixon Stresses Importance of Machine Learning in Predicting Cyber Attacks


Stacey Dixon Stresses Importance of Machine Learning in Predicting Cyber Attacks
Stacey Dixon

Stacey Dixon, newly appointed director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, has said leveraging machine learning capabilities will help the intelligence community predict cyber attacks, Fifth Domain reported Thursday.

Dixon noted in an Intelligence Matters podcast that IARPA has procured predictive analytics programs that use physical or analytical indicators to determine if an entity has a weak cybersecurity posture.

A few of the predictive technologies include an automated system that monitors the online presence of malicious actors and cybersecurity officers, while another analyzes historical cyber attack data.

The IARPA head also said that there is a need to lower the sensitivity of predictive tools to continue providing credible information on possible cyber attacks.

She added that showing the decision-making process of predictive models will help analysts trust the information being presented to them.

Dixon accepted her new position in IARPA on Wednesday, bringing with her over 15 years worth of experience in the IC. She previously worked as the agency’s deputy director for two years.

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Sen McCaskill Raises Concerns Over Presidential 2019 Budget for OIG Funding Cuts
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Sen McCaskill Raises Concerns Over Presidential 2019 Budget for OIG Funding Cuts


Sen McCaskill Raises Concerns Over Presidential 2019 Budget for OIG Funding Cuts

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., recently criticized the President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget for reducing the funding of several inspector general offices across the federal government.

The ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pointed out in an Aug. 15 report that the FY 2019 budget endorsed by the president provided seven IG offices at five federal agencies funding levels that were lower than their corresponding FY 2017 allocations.

The budget for the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security, for example, received a 7.2 percent cut, while the OIGs at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture received 8 and 11 percent budget reductions, respectively.

Meanwhile, the budget for the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program within the Treasury Department was reduced by 57.9 percent.

McCaskill emphasized that inspectors general “play a vital role in uncovering and preventing waste, fraud and abuse at federal agencies” and that inadequate funding would impair their ability “to continue robust oversight of federal spending and jeopardize taxpayer dollars.”

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AHRQ Challenge Seeks New Apps to Facilitate Patient-Reported Outcome Data Collection
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AHRQ Challenge Seeks New Apps to Facilitate Patient-Reported Outcome Data Collection


AHRQ Challenge Seeks New Apps to Facilitate Patient-Reported Outcome Data CollectionThe Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has launched a three-phase competition to develop new applications designed to streamline the collection of standardized patient-reported outcome data for use in research and clinical settings.

AHRQ said in a Challenge.gov notice the initial phase of the Step Up App Challenge calls for participants to provide proposals that describe how they plan to develop their proposed apps.

Applications are due Sept. 24, according to the notice.

The agency will evaluate the proposals based on participant capabilities, impact, feasibility and originality before picking the winners that will advance to the app development phase.

AHRQ will award a grand prize of as much as $87,000 to the winning app that will be assessed based on technical merit, functionality and usability and deployability.

The developer will work with MedStar Health to conduct a pilot test of the winning app over a seven-month period next year across nine clinical practice settings in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

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NIST, IEEE to Collaborate on Cloud Interoperability Standard Development; Robert Bohn Quoted
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NIST, IEEE to Collaborate on Cloud Interoperability Standard Development; Robert Bohn Quoted


NIST, IEEE to Collaborate on Cloud Interoperability Standard Development; Robert Bohn Quoted
Robert Bohn

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has partnered with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in an effort to develop interoperability standards for cloud computing platforms, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.

Robert Bohn, NIST’s cloud computing program manager, said at an FCW-hosted Wednesday the agency aims to formulate a concept to support cloud data exchange among intra- and inter-organizational government teams.

NIST aims to publish a draft document on proposed “federated” cloud standards by the end of next month, then collect public feedback within a 60-day period.

The agency’s partnership with IEEE seeks to determine government, business and medical applications of the upcoming guidelines, the report noted.

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FAA Authorizes Northern Plains Test Site to Fly UAS Beyond Line of Sight
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FAA Authorizes Northern Plains Test Site to Fly UAS Beyond Line of Sight


FAA Authorizes Northern Plains Test Site to Fly UAS Beyond Line of SightThe Federal Aviation Administration has announced that the Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site is now allowed to fly large drones beyond visual line of sight without a chase plane.

The North Dakota State Government said Tuesday that the authorization enables the GA-ASI Predator A and B unmanned aircraft to fly within 30 miles of the Grand Sky aviation park at the state’s Grand Forks Air Base and use a ground-based radar system instead of chase aircraft.

Chase planes are used for test flights to monitor and ensure the safety of experimental aircraft.

“This milestone is not only beneficial to North Dakota but to the whole UAS community. We look forward to expanding our capabilities and partners who will leverage this approval,” said Nicholas Flom, executive director of the NP UAS TS.

The test site partnered with the FAA, the U.S. Air Force, General Atomics‘ aeronautical systems business, Harris Corporation and the Grand Sky park to achieve the two-year certification.

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Report: US Military Seeks to Modernize Intell Database, Processes
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Report: US Military Seeks to Modernize Intell Database, Processes


Report: US Military Seeks to Modernize Intell Database, ProcessesDefense officials at the 2018 DoDIIS Worldwide Conference have said the U.S. military is set to leverage a new data analytics system that will help modernize intelligence databases and accelerate data processing operations, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

The Machine-Assisted Analysis Rapid-Repository System or MARS will succeed the Modernize Intelligence Database, which has been collecting intelligence data for the defense intelligence enterprise over the past 20 years.

Jack Gumtow, chief information officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, stated that MARS will help streamline data analysis processes, identify static and mobile military forces and advancements in adversary technology and boost collaboration with the private sector.

The new platform will also house data in a cloud environment and work to meet the needs of specific analysts and missions, according to MARS Program Manager Terry Busch.

Busch noted that MARS is in its early stages and that Congress still needs to approve the system before DIA moves forward with the development program.

DIA is currently seeking industry feedback on the new data analytics system based on a prototype that the agency developed.

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Intelligence Community to Adopt New IT Practices in Second Modernization Era
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Intelligence Community to Adopt New IT Practices in Second Modernization Era


Intelligence Community to Adopt New IT Practices in Second Modernization Era
John Sherman

John Sherman, chief information officer of the Intelligence Community, said the IC will implement new information technology practices as it enters the second modernization era to boost coordination across several federal agencies, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

Sherman noted during the DoDIIS Worldwide Conference that the new IT effort will help the U.S. keep pace with advancements over the next 10 years.

The modernization initiative will include developing new systems to meet user needs and boost the productivity of workers, as well as modifying the flexibility of the desktop environment for various architectures and standards.

Sherman stated that the Collaboration Reference Architecture will still help standardize services that agencies can deploy for their operational needs.

The second wave of IT modernization will also focus on maintaining a secret classification sphere, upgrading cybersecurity systems and forming collaborations.

Sherman added that he expects the effort to solidify a partnership with the Defense Department and the defense intelligence enterprise.

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Amy Hess Named FBI Executive Assistant Director for Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Operations
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Amy Hess Named FBI Executive Assistant Director for Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Operations


Amy Hess Named FBI Executive Assistant Director for Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Operations
Amy Hess

FBI has appointed Amy Hess to serve as the executive assistant director of the criminal, cyber, response and services branch of the agency.

The law enforcement organization said Tuesday Hess has left her position as special agent in charge of FBI’s office in Louisville, Ky., which she held for nearly two years.

She joined FBI in 1991 as a special agent assigned in the agency’s office in Kansas City, Mo.,  where she conducted investigations on violent crimes, gangs and drug trafficking organizations.

Over her 27-year career in FBI, Hess contributed to counterterrorism operations and led the agency’s inspection, international operations, operational technology, and science and technology divisions.

She also previously oversaw FBI’s offices in Washington, D.C.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Memphis, Tenn.

Hess graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

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