The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has conducted a seven-day exercise on Plum Island in New York to simulate a cyber attack on the U.S. power grid, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

At least 100 people participated in the exercise that kicked off Nov. 1 to replicate “black start” or the restoration of power at two utility stations that were shut down for weeks by a cyber attack.

Several teams of grid operators, cyber researchers and cyber adversaries carried out the fourth black start exercise under DARPA’s Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems program.

The report said cyber researchers from Perspecta Labs, BAE Systems and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association used situational awareness tools and platforms designed to assess cyber attacks and isolate parts of the grid during the exercise.

Walter Weiss, RADICS program leader, told Nextgov the exercise sought to evaluate the capability of the cyber tools to counter the attacks launched by threat actors.

“We exercise with that absolute worst-case scenario where everything’s gone wrong, everything’s failed for a month and ask how are our tools still relevant,” Weiss said.

He said DARPA intends to continue conducting the exercise every six months through 2020 under the RADICS initiative.
 

A bill that would establish a cybersecurity agency within the Department of Homeland Security is now headed to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature after Congress passed the measure.

The House on Tuesday unanimously approved the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act a month after the Senate passed the legislation, DHS said Tuesday.

“The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving, and we need to ensure we’re properly positioned to defend America’s infrastructure from threats digital and physical,” said DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The CISA Act seeks to restructure the national protection and programs directorate at DHS to form a new agency that will focus on ensuring the security of physical and cyber infrastructure.

Christopher Krebs, undersecretary at NPPD, said the proposed restructuring under the bill would help the department advance collaboration with government and industry stakeholders and hire top cyber talent.
 

NASA has announced a new programmatic infrastructure aiming to foster research collaboration within the space agency’s Astrobiology Program.

The agency said Nov. 1 it is replacing its virtual Astrobiology Institute with several research coordination networks by the end of 2019.

The shift would only alter the type of coordination between researchers, and would not change the program’s general goal.

The program’s new infrastructure is a response to study-based findings recommending that NASA support cross-divisional research via RCNs.

Astrobiology has been among NASA’s 10 priorities since last year.

The National Science Foundation’s National Coordination Office for Networking and Information Technology Research and Development is seeking input on its 2019 federal cybersecurity R&D plan, the NSF said in a request for information.

The updated strategic plan will help create federally funded programs involving cybersecurity research, as well as the development of cyber education and workforce-related initiatives.

The 2019 plan will also guide federal efforts to establish cybersecurity best practices and consensus-based standards.

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 tasks federal agencies to modify their cybersecurity research strategies every four years.

Interested parties may submit feedback through Jan. 15, 2019.

NASA and the Breakthrough Prize Foundation have entered an agreement to commence initial research into a privately funded mission to study Saturn’s potentially habitable moon, called Enceladus, SpaceNews.com reported.

NASA intends to allocate approximately $72,384 as part of the Space Act Agreement which tasks Breakthrough to conduct most of the research work and NASA to provide technical and scientific advice for the Enceladus Mission.

The agreement states that NASA and Breakthrough are expected to make a decision in December 2019 on whether the project will move on to Phase A, which involves a life signature mission to the Saturn moon.

Pete Worden, Breakthrough’s chairman and former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, said during the NewSpace Europe industry event in 2017 that the foundation will facilitate a six-month study to determine alternative concepts for a mission to Enceladus. These concepts will be open for partnerships with NASA or other space agencies.

The General Services Administration plans to update the Wireless Mobility Solutions special item number 132-53 in its GSA IT Schedule 70 Program to add eight new categories, including Internet-of-Things, enterprise mobility management, application development, threat protection and identity management.

GSA said updating SIN 132-53 will help the federal government gain rapid access to commercially available wireless and advanced mobility products or services. The agency added the move would also enable industry partners to determine their mobility services and IT-related offerings and to standardize the acquisition of mobility products, which may then lower the total cost of ownership for agency customers.

“The proposed definitional expansion refines the range of mobility products and services that are anticipated by federal agencies well into the next decade,” GSA officials said. 

“The GSA IT Schedule 70 Program continually seeks to position enterprise mobility offerings to achieve value, cost savings and optimal balance between functionality, security and management for agencies,” they added. 

The proposed new categories under SIN 132-53 are:\n

• Wireless Carrier Services
• Mobility Infrastructure
• Mobility as a Service
• Enterprise Mobility Management
• Mobile Backend as a Service
• Telecom Expense Management
• Mobile Application Vetting
• Mobile Threat Protection
• Mobile Identity Management
• Internet-of-Things
• Other/Mobile Services

\nGSA also expects the update to help increase competition for IT Schedule 70, enable the entry of new companies and to help the government keep up with rapid technology changes.

A webinar is set for Nov. 14 to discuss the changes with the agency’s industry partners. 

The U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center demonstrated to NATO representatives a new military mobility software at Michigan Technological University’s Keweenaw Research Center in early October, Defense News reported Monday.

The initiative, which was called Next-Generation NATO Reference Mobility Model development demo, was put in place in an effort to help NATO allies gain knowledge of platforms they can easily transport all over Europe.

TARDEC researchers unveiled the difference between legacy and next-generation mobility software programs, highlighting modems with computing power that can assess how military vehicles perform in different terrains under varied environmental conditions.

Marta Kepe, a defense, security and infrastructure analyst at Rand, said challenges that influence the movement of military land platforms across Europe include “the conditions of transport infrastructure; multinational, cross-border and national level-movement coordination, including between military users of infrastructure and the civilian managers; and national legal requirements.”

 

The head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program has said that the CDM team seeks to collaborate with client federal agencies to determine cybersecurity solutions appropriate to their unique organizational requirements, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox told Federal News Network in a recent interview that “we want to make sure we are working with the agencies to understand” what they need to strengthen their systems and networks against cyber threats and “in the long run meet those requirements.”

The Homeland Security official also sought to dispel the notion that the CDM seeks to foist solutions on agencies, insisting, again, upon a focus on requirements, adding that “if an agency can show those requirements, then we will take the data from that system to meet the requirement.”

Cox went on to emphasize the importance of building partnerships for the effectiveness and success of the CDM program.

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program aims to minimize cybersecurity risks to government information networks and systems by providing requisite tools, capabilities and services.

The CDM was established by Congress.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has said efforts to combat hackers at federal agencies are paying off even with the landscape evolving since the National Insider Threat Program was established in 2011, Federal News Network reported Monday.

Nicole Ogrysko writes that the National Insider Threat Task Force believes responses to the challenge require newer methods, adaptable approaches and fresher insights.

However, Dean Boyd, spokesman for ODNI’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said federal agencies are already responding to threats to network security.

“The federal government as a whole has made significant progress in the past year,” Boyd told Federal News Network.

“These challenges are increasingly being addressed as formal training of insider threat personnel becomes more prevalent,” he added.

The task force on Oct. 24 released the Insider Threat Program Maturity Framework, which stipulates requirements for personnel insider threat training and monitoring employee activities and behavior.