Katerina Megas, program manager for National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s Cybersecurity for Internet of Things program, said in a recent summit that agencies must be aware of challenges that IoT brings in cybersecurity, FCW reported Thursday.

Megas leads a program seeking to establish cybersecurity standards that would guide federal agencies’ usage of IoT devices.

The agency opened the draft of these standards for comments and suggestions and will continue accepting responses through Oct. 24.

“We plan on starting to release iterative discussion documents to talk about if there were a baseline for IoT devices,” Megas told FCW at the Internet of Things Global Summit.

These discussion documents are intended for release before the final version of the IoT standards undergoes publishing, the report noted.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has announced that the Pentagon has completed a review that examines the country’s capabilities against missile threats, Defense News reported Thursday.

Shanahan said Wednesday at a media roundtable that the Defense Department has not yet scheduled the release of the missile defense review, which he said has been finalized “for quite some time.”

He noted that DoD is working to integrate the findings of the MDR strategy into its fiscal 2020 budget proposal that is expected to be completed in the next couple of months.

He hinted that the budget request will be based on DoD’s National Defense Strategy, National Posture Review and the White House’s National Security Strategy.
 

NASA and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency have agreed to collaborate on space exploration and human spaceflight missions under a new arrangement.

The agreement allows the two agencies to conduct research in space biology, physical sciences and human research at UAE’s Mars Scientific City, NASA said Thursday.

The IA also includes training UAE astronauts, as well as allowing the Middle Eastern nation to access the International Space Station and participate in lunar exploration operations.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine explained that the partnership comes as the American space agency plans to relaunch crewed missions to the moon for long-term exploration and utilization.

He added that UAE is expanding its capabilities on Earth and in space with initiatives such as the Emirates Mars Mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2020.

The IA follows a framework agreement that the two agencies signed in 2016 to collaborate on ground-based and sub-orbital research, research and flight activities in low-Earth orbit and human and robotic exploration on the moon, among other things.

Frank Konieczny, chief technology officer of the U.S. Air Force, has said the service could reform its cyber acquisition process based on results from the Kessel Run Experimentation Lab, FCW reported Wednesday.

Konieczny explained during the Dell Digital Transformation Summit that the Air Force seeks to obtain an authority to operate within three or four weeks instead of six years.

He added that the service plans to revive programming as a career to sustain agile software development in the long run.

Standardization should be implemented across the code so that work turned over to new programmers will be easily understood, according to Konieczny. This will help speed up the delivery of products,

A preliminary investigation has shown that the mysterious substance found on envelopes addressed to Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson is castor seeds, The Hill reported Wednesday.

Defense Department spokesperson Dana White revealed the results of the initial analysis to The Hill via a statement, noting, however, that the FBI is still conducting further tests.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency detected the suspicious substance while screening mail at a remote facility on Monday. The Wall Street Journal reports that the envelopes tested positive for the poison ricin following an on-site test.

Ricin can be produced using castor seeds, but the seeds on their own would only be dangerous if swallowed.

Undersecretary Chris Krebs of the Department of Homeland Security has said that his agency is prepared to fend off any attempts by foreign adversaries to meddle in U.S. elections, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

Krebs made the remarks at a recent panel on election cybersecurity, where National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina also talked about cyber operations being carried out by China on social media with the goal of affecting American popular opinion.

Evanina noted, however, that officials have yet to find proof of any attempt by the Chinese to infiltrate U.S. election infrastructure, despite President Trump’s earlier claims to the contrary.

Speaking at the United Nations on Sept. 26, President Trump accused China of attempting to interfere in the 2018 U.S. midterms elections, saying that the Chinese “do not want me or us to win because I am the first ever to challenge China on trade.”

Trump afterward said he had “plenty” of evidence to back up his statements.