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US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations Preparedness
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US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations Preparedness


US Navy Launches Inspection Program for Cyber Operations PreparednessThe U.S. Navy debuted early this year a program that allows the service branch to conduct and direct for the first time mission-based and threat-focused inspections of cyber operations.

The Office of Compliance and Assessment of the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command introduced the Command Cyber Operational Readiness Inspections program for the evaluation of threats and vulnerabilities in applications, data, networks and information systems for organizational missions, the Navy said Tuesday.

Capt. Kristian Kearton, director of OCA, said the office will form cyber inspection teams to mature the inspection process.

FCC OCA has relieved the Joint Forces Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Networks on the comprehensive performance and CCORIs and Command Cyber Readiness Inspections for the Navy as a component of the U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Strategic Command.

Cmdr. James Brown, OCA mission support and inspection team officer in charge, said CCORIs provide assessment of mission and DODIN risks from network cybersecurity states to unit commanders, USCYBERCOM heads and the JFHQ-DODIN.

The CCORI group of three teams of eight includes agents from OCA inspection, support commands and partner sites and conducts mission, vulnerability and threat element assessments for the identification of technical and non-technical risks of external and insider attacks to critical systems.

FCC/C10F consists of over 16,000 reserve and active sailors and civilians across 40 Cyber Mission Force units and 26 active and 26 reserve commands all over the world.

The FCC also serves as the commander of the Navy’s Service Cryptologic Component for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service.

The C10F supports the cyber/networks, cryptologic/signals intelligence and space operations of the Navy and joint forces and employs a task force structure for the implementation of FCC’s missions.

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NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on Website
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NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on Website


NIST Adds Drone Forensics Resources on WebsiteThe National Institute of Standards and Technology has added new images for drone investigation uses in Computer Forensic Reference Datasets.

The agency said Tuesday it added a new drone-dedicated CFReDS section that contains visual evidence and guides on a number of popular drone models that may be used for criminal activity.

“The drone images will allow investigators to do a dry run before working on high-profile cases,” said Barbara Guttman, manager of digital forensic research at NIST.

Colorado-based digital forensics firm VTO Labs developed the images under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“The forensic images contain all the ones and zeroes we recovered from each model,” said Steve Watson, chief technology officer at VTO.

The company constructed the images based on industry standard data formats and included step-by-step photo-illustrated teardown instructions with each visual.

Watson uncovered serial numbers, flight paths, launch and landing locations, photos, videos and even credit card information during tests.

The images function to help forensics practitioners in recovering data, university laboratories in training and testing efforts and software developers in evaluating applications.

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SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton Comments
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SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton Comments


SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Shareholder Reports to Investors; Jay Clayton CommentsThe Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted a new rule to enhance the process of delivering fund shareholder reports to investors.

The commission said Tuesday the new process under Statement on Investment Company Rule 30e-3 aims to guide investors who invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded and other investment funds.

The new rule enables fund investors to choose a “notice and access” method for delivering their shareholder reports online for free, as well as mailing investors a physical notice of each report’s availability.

“The new rule modernizes delivery options for fund information while preserving the right of fund investors to receive information in paper form as they do today,” SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said in a statement published Tuesday.

The earliest the SEC said the modified process will be adopted is Jan. 1, 2021.

The commission added it seeks feedback on how it can further modernize the design and delivery of fund information, as well as public comment on the framework for specific processing fees for sending shareholder reports and other data to investors.

SEC will accept responses until Oct. 31.

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NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion Projects
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NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion Projects


NASA Selects 3 Museums for STEM Promotion ProjectsNASA‘s Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions has awarded science, technology, engineering and math funds cumulatively valued at $2 million to projects of three educational museums.

The space agency said Wednesday the projects will go on for the next two to three years and are individually valued between $650,000 and $750,000.

Arizona Science Center will administer The Moon and Beyond: An Immersive Game for STEM Learning in Museums and Planetariums. This project seeks to provide a STEM experience based on the physical adventure game Escape Room.

Second, Florida-based museum Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden will implement the Growing Beyond Earth Innovation Studio. This project seeks to provide a collaborative, botanic garden makerspace in support of NASA’s food production challenges.

Lastly, Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center will conduct Apollo Redux: Inspiring Next Generations of Engineers and Scientists through use of Historic Mission Operation Control Room Consoles and Simfault Interactive Programs. This project seeks to provide interactive mission simulations and exhibitions with actual consoles used in the Apollo spacecraft’s mission control room.

NASA selected these projects from 43 entries via peer review.

The selected organizations will collaborate with other museums and educational institutions to administer exhibits, learning programs, multimedia and other interactive activities.

The space agency will involve its Museum Alliance, a network of informal education professionals, to work with the organizations.

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Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting Scorecard
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Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting Scorecard


Agency at OPM Gets ‘A+’ on FY 2017 Small Business Contracting ScorecardThe Office of Personnel Management’s office of small and disadvantage business utilization got a grade of “A+” on the Small Business Administration’s fiscal 2017 scorecard that evaluates federal agencies’ efforts to meet their small business prime and subcontracting targets on an annual basis.

SBA also uses the Small Business Procurement Scorecard to provide contracting data and report progress of agencies, OPM said Tuesday.

“The OSDBU worked to inform the small business community of the prime and subcontracting opportunities available with OPM by engaging the small business communities around the country,” said Desmond Brown, OSDBU director of OSDBU at OPM.

“These efforts allowed OPM to exceed our agreed upon FY 2017 goals by 20.7 percentage points in providing contracts to various segments of the small business community,” Brown added.

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GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate Production
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GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate Production


GAO: DoD Should Address F-35 Deficiencies Prior to Full-Rate ProductionThe Government Accountability Office has found that the Defense Department is close to completing the baseline development for the F-35 aircraft program but plans to enter into full-rate production in October 2019 before addressing key deficiencies discovered during testing.

GAO called on Congress to consider withholding appropriations for the Block 4 modernization effort for the Lockheed Martin-built fighter jet until DoD provides a technology evaluation and schedule and cost estimates, according to a report published Tuesday.

The report noted that the Pentagon has requested $278 million in funds to kick off the Block 4 process before it can provide a “sound business case” for that effort.

GAO recommended the DoD secretary should ask the F-35 program office to determine measures that could be taken to ensure that the aircraft meets maintainability and reliability requirements prior to reaching maturity for each variant and address deficiencies before moving to full-rate production.

DoD has asked $9.8 billion in fiscal 2019 funds and plans to request an additional annual budget of $10.4 billion for the F-35 program in the next 20 years, according to the report.

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Senate Committee Proposes $100M for Marine Light Attack Aircraft
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Senate Committee Proposes $100M for Marine Light Attack Aircraft


Senate Committee Proposes $100M for Marine Light Attack AircraftThe Senate Armed Services Committee has proposed $100 million for the U.S. Marine Corps to purchase light attack aircraft as part of a fiscal 2019 defense policy bill, Military.com reported Friday.

The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act contains the funding proposal for a new USMC aircraft platform and is slated for a full Senate vote in the coming weeks for 

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at aerospace and defense consulting firm Teal Group, told Military.com he believes it is possible for the Marines to only use a few dozen light attack planes instead of an entire fleet.

The U.S. Air Force began the second phase of an experimentation last month to further evaluate the Sierra Nevada–Embraer team’s A-29 Super Tucano and Textron‘s AT-6B Wolverine.

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Army Kicks Off ‘Ultra-Light’ Camouflage Prototyping Competition
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Army Kicks Off ‘Ultra-Light’ Camouflage Prototyping Competition


Army Kicks Off 'Ultra-Light' Camouflage Prototyping CompetitionThe U.S. Army has kicked off a competitive program for industry participants to prototype a system to help increase the performance of military personnel and equipment.

Increment 1 of the Ultra-Lightweight Camouflage Net System will be designed to offer multispectral protection against sensor threats and replace camouflage variants that were developed in the 1990s, the Army said Monday.

The service branch selected three potential suppliers to conduct work under the engineering manufacturing development phase of the ULCANS program.

“We are executing a development and fielding strategy to ensure camouflage is made available as quickly as possible to units with the most pressing operational needs,” said Col. Frank Moore, a product manager at the Army.

The prototyping effort will run for six months and the service branch plans to choose a system for final development and test by 2019 fiscal year’s first quarter.

Low-rate initial production is scheduled to commence in the third quarter of FY 2019.

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Casey Wardynski Nominated Army Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs
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Casey Wardynski Nominated Army Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs


Casey Wardynski Nominated Army Assistant Secretary for Manpower, Reserve Affairs
Casey Wardynski

President Donald Trump has nominated Casey Wardynski, CEO of entertainment technology company FISH Technologies, as assistant secretary at the U.S. Army for manpower and reserve affairs.

The White House said Monday Wardynski will succeed Debra Wada if the Senate confirms his nomination.

The position entails oversight of military, civilian and contractor performance, force structure and other human resources-related matters.

Prior to FISH Technologies, Wardynski served as superintendent of Huntsville City Schools in Alabama for five years and managed a public school system that included 38 schools, a $250 million budget and a $279 million capital program.

He also developed and launched a cybersecurity program for middle and high school students that resulted in Huntsville pupils ranking first in the national CyberPatriot competition and the Huntsville City Schools system being named as one of the national cybersecurity centers of excellence.

He previously served as chief financial officer of Aurora Public Schools in Colorado.

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Office of Naval Research, University Partner to Build USV Platform for Coastal Security
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Office of Naval Research, University Partner to Build USV Platform for Coastal Security


Office of Naval Research, University Partner to Build USV Platform for Coastal SecurityThe U.S. Navy‘s Office of Naval Research will collaborate with Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science to develop an autonomous unmanned marine vehicle intended for coastal security operations.

FAU will conduct a five-year research project that aims to produce unmanned surface vehicles that would function as base ships for smaller unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles as part of a $1.25 million grant from ONR, the university said May 23.

Manhar Dhanak, an FAU professor, will lead a team to create tools for multi-sensor perception; collision avoidance; simultaneous localization and mapping; and improved low-level control in austere weather.

The university noted that a SLAM algorithm will offer a situational awareness world map designed to manage the USV’s navigation and route planning functions.

Dhanak’s team will consist of engineers, a post-doctoral associate and students from SeaTech - The Institute for Ocean and Systems Engineering under FAU’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering.

Resulting vehicles effort could aid in coastal surveillance operations and training for ocean engineering students, the university added.

The team will work with the university’s Naval Engineering Education Consortium program that uses UUVs to detect objects situated on the bottom of the ocean.

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