/
CBP Helps California’s Mineta San Jose Airport Implement Facial Biometrics
Published on
CBP Helps California’s Mineta San Jose Airport Implement Facial Biometrics


CBP Helps California's Mineta San Jose Airport Implement Facial BiometricsU.S. Customs and Border Protection is providing a facial biometric matching service for Mineta San Jose International Airport or SJC as the station works to fully implement the technology this fall.

The airport is the first in the West Coast to apply facial biometrics to process international travelers, CBP said Aug. 6.

Facial recognition technology works to streamline, accelerate and boost the security of traveler processing activities.

In 2017, the airport accommodated 438,800 international arrivals, exhibiting significant growth from 2015’s record of 199,900 international arrivals.

SJC aims to use biometrics technology to address challenges that result from the increase of international travels to the U.S.

“CBP is excited to partner with SJC, which serves as another example of what we can achieve by advancing the entry/exit mandate through public-private collaboration,” said CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

/
Sean Heritage Offers Updates on DIU’s Progress, Commercial Solutions Opening Process
Published on
Sean Heritage Offers Updates on DIU’s Progress, Commercial Solutions Opening Process


Sean Heritage Offers Updates on DIU’s Progress, Commercial Solutions Opening Process
Sean Heritage

Sean Heritage, acting managing partner at the Defense Innovation Unit, has said DIU is in a “period of thoughtful reflection” as it contemplates on recent experiences as a “learning organization,” Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

“And as we continue to experiment there’s going to be hiccups and things we learn along the way and it’s important that we are modifying our processes and ways of doing business as a result,” he told the station.

DIU removed the “experimental” from its name, a move which Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said seeks to emphasize the organization’s permanence within the Defense Department.

Heritage provided updates on DIU’s progress with its projects and use of the Commercial Solutions Opening approach that aims to encourage nontraditional defense firms to work with the Pentagon.

“Yes, the number of CSOs have slowed down and yes it’s rather deliberate as we begin to focus more and more on choosing the most impactful projects and problems to solve and ensuring we are executing our processes in a defensible way,” he added.

/
DHS Launches Security Initiative for US Telecommunications Infrastructure
Published on
DHS Launches Security Initiative for US Telecommunications Infrastructure


DHS Launches Security Initiative for US Telecommunications Infrastructure
Christopher Krebs

Chris Krebs, undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, has announced that the department is working on strengthening the telecommunications infrastructure of the U.S., FCW reported Wednesday.

At a National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee meeting, Krebs said the DHS is seeking security systems to protect domestic infrastructure from foreign actors.

The DHS will integrate its effort with the committee’s “moonshot” project, which was launched in May to address national cybersecurity issues, to help determine the capabilities and policies that can be used to safeguard U.S. telecommunications systems.

During the NSTAC meeting, Krebs also brought up the department’s objectives for the National Risk Management Center, which DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said would drive public-private teaming at the strategic level to respond to cyber defense matters.

The NPPD official added that the center would also address some of the recommendations of NSTAC’s moonshot effort.

/
Contracting Vet Carlen Capenos Named DISA Small Business Program Director
Published on
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.

/
Wright-Patterson AFB Conducts Email Cloud Migration
Published on
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.

/
Stacey Dixon Stresses Importance of Machine Learning in Predicting Cyber Attacks
Published on
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.

/
Sen McCaskill Raises Concerns Over Presidential 2019 Budget for OIG Funding Cuts
Published on
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.”

/
AHRQ Challenge Seeks New Apps to Facilitate Patient-Reported Outcome Data Collection
Published on
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.

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

/
FAA Authorizes Northern Plains Test Site to Fly UAS Beyond Line of Sight
Published on
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.

1 … 2,090 2,091 2,092 2,093 2,094 … 2,715