GAO Identifies ‘Critical’ Measures to Protect National Cyber Systems
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GAO Identifies ‘Critical’ Measures to Protect National Cyber Systems


GAO Identifies 'Critical' Measures to Protect National Cyber SystemsThe Government Accountability Office has urged the federal government to implement a set of “critical” actions to address cyber threats to information technology systems that support critical infrastructure.

GAO said Wednesday said these measures include establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, updating governmentwide data security programs and increasing federal role in infrastructure protection efforts.

The government audit agency found that the U.S. government has not yet implemented 1,000 out of the 3,000 recommendations the watchdog has provided since 2010.

Federal information systems will continue to remain vulnerable to sophisticated virtual attacks unless authorities move to address cybersecurity shortcomings, GAO noted.

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Air Force’s New Office to Help Address Fleet Sustainment Challenges; Heather Wilson Comments
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Air Force’s New Office to Help Address Fleet Sustainment Challenges; Heather Wilson Comments


Air Force's New Office to Help Address Fleet Sustainment Challenges; Heather Wilson Comments
Heather Wilson

The U.S. Air Force has established a new office that will aim to help sustain the military service’s legacy fleet and lower maintenance costs.

USAF said Wednesday its Rapid Sustainment Office will undergo a two-year test period before consideration for permanency.

“We will no longer pay premiums for things we can manufacture on our own,” said SecAF Heather Wilson, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

She added that the branch will use agile manufacturing and reform legacy sustainment processes to achieve the office’s goals for cost reduction and faster development.

The RSO will invest in methods and approaches encompassing predictive maintenance, additive manufacturing, cold spray repair, robotics, automation, corrosion detection, nondestructive inspection and composite repair.

Suzette Kent: Federal Government Aims to Complete IT Modernization Tasks by Year’s End
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Suzette Kent: Federal Government Aims to Complete IT Modernization Tasks by Year’s End


Suzette Kent: Federal Government Aims to Complete IT Modernization Tasks by Year's End
Suzette Kent

U.S. Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent has told House lawmakers that the government has completed 37 of the 52 tasks outlined in the Federal Information Technology Modernization Report, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.

She said at a joint subcommittee hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday the remaining tasks are scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

The Office of Management and Budget collaborated with the American Technology Council and the Department of Homeland Security to produce the report, as mandated by a May 2017 executive order.

Kent noted the tasks encompass federal government high-value asset security, network consolidation, commercial cloud services adoption and identity management strategies.

She added that Congress can help accelerate modernization activities across the government by authorizing funds through funding vehicles such as the Technology Modernization Fund.

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Report: DoD Inches Closer to Issuing 3rd Draft JEDI Cloud Solicitation
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Report: DoD Inches Closer to Issuing 3rd Draft JEDI Cloud Solicitation


Report: DoD Inches Closer to Issuing 3rd Draft JEDI Cloud SolicitationThe Defense Department is expected to issue this week the third draft solicitation for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud procurement program, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

Dana Deasy, chief information officer at DoD, assumed responsibility for the JEDI cloud effort early this month and told the Senate and House Armed Services Committees that the Pentagon expects to complete work on the third draft request for proposals for the program, sources told the station.

Sources said the release of the new draft RFP could be delayed as the negotiated deal on the fiscal 2019 defense spending bill sets some requirements for DoD with regard to JEDI and other cloud migration efforts.

One of those requirements is a report that details the Pentagon’s acquisition strategy for the JEDI cloud program and its connection to the MilCloud 2.0 initiative.

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CIO Dana Deasy Issues DoD’s Action Plan to Protect Public-Facing Web Services
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CIO Dana Deasy Issues DoD’s Action Plan to Protect Public-Facing Web Services


CIO Dana Deasy Issues DoD’s Action Plan to Protect Public-Facing Web Services
Dana Deasy

The Defense Department has announced plans to release by Aug. 17 a task order to facilitate the implementation of cybersecurity practices included in a binding operational directive from the Department of Homeland Security.

Dana Deasy, chief information officer at DoD, wrote a letter dated July 20 to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to provide details about the Pentagon’s action plan to implement those cyber measures by the end of this year in order to safeguard public-facing email services and websites.

DoD will also issue a “roll out plan” by Dec. 31 for the implementation of the HTTP Strict Transport Security mechanism for all public-facing websites.

The letter was in response to Wyden’s call in May for DoD to advance the adoption of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure encryption through HSTS on all public web services.

Deasy also offered details about DoD’s implementation plan for the public trust public key infrastructure, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance and STARTTLS encryption protocol.

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House Committee Approves Bill that Seeks to Codify DHS Cybersecurity Program
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House Committee Approves Bill that Seeks to Codify DHS Cybersecurity Program


House Committee Approves Bill that Seeks to Codify DHS Cybersecurity Program
John Ratcliffe

The House Homeland Security Committee passed a measure that will codify an important cybersecurity program at the Department of Homeland Security, The Hill reported Tuesday.

The proposed legislation, filed by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, would permit the DHS Secretary to formalize the structure and organization of the Continuous Diagnostics Mitigation program at the DHS, which seeks to secure federal networks from the threat of cyber dangers.

The proposed Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act was approved a few weeks after the Office of Management and Budget reported that 75 percent of federal networks are susceptible to cyberattacks.

DHS first introduced the CDM program in 2012 to help keep federal.gov networks free from threats of cyberattack. The department decided to roll out the program in four phases, with the first phase dealing with identifying the quality of protective software that federal agencies use.

Earlier this year, the government awarded a potential six-year, $621 million contract to Booz Allen Hamilton to commence activity on the next three CDM phases.

The bill would also mandate the DHS to inform Congress of whether the four-phase plan is the best approach to execute CDM, as per the amendment added by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., during the committee’s deliberation of the measure.

GAO: IRS Needs to Implement Changes to Taxpayer Authentication Efforts
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GAO: IRS Needs to Implement Changes to Taxpayer Authentication Efforts


GAO: IRS Needs to Implement Changes to Taxpayer Authentication EffortsThe Government Accountability Office stated in a recent report that the Internal Revenue Service has failed in keeping taxpayer identities protected and suggested that the latter should double down on its taxpayer authentication efforts.

The GAO said Monday that even though the IRS was able to save $10.5 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2016, people who use false identities were still able to get their hands on at least $1.6 billion during the same year.

As such, the agency made recommendations to IRS to help it effectively avoid instances of tax fraud.

The recommendations include: requiring the Identity Assurance Office to determine the amount of resources needed for measures in the agency’s Identity Assurance Strategy and Roadmap; creating a uniform policy and timeline for performing risk assessments for telephone, in-person and correspondence channels for authentication; and updating mechanisms to check for data quality in the Account Management Services in line with federal standards for internal control.

The GAO also called on the IRS to implement changes to its systems as a whole.

Fiscal 2019 Defense Spending Compromise Drops USAF’s JSTARS Recap Program
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Fiscal 2019 Defense Spending Compromise Drops USAF’s JSTARS Recap Program


Fiscal 2019 Defense Spending Compromise Drops USAF’s JSTARS Recap ProgramThe negotiated deal on the fiscal 2019 defense spending bill has supported the U.S. Air Force’s plan to cancel the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization program in favor of the Advanced Battle Management System, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The conference report on the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act states that the service would need for the ABMS program’s “increment 2” to achieve operational status before it can retire any of its E-8C JSTARS planes.

The Air Force uses JSTARS aircraft to perform command-and-control and ground surveillance missions.

The fiscal 2019 NDAA would authorize $120 million in additional funds to procure MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles in support of the ABMS initiative and $30 million to advance development work on a Northrop Grumman-built radar system for ground moving targets.

The report said congressional negotiators also set a number of requirements for the Air Force with regard to ABMS and existing JSTARS fleet, including quarterly reports on the ABMS program’s progress and a plan to sustain the current fleet of JSTARS aircraft.

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Congress Wants DoD to Prioritize Machine Learning, AI Tech Programs
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Congress Wants DoD to Prioritize Machine Learning, AI Tech Programs


Congress Wants DoD to Prioritize Machine Learning, AI Tech Programs

A fiscal 2019 defense budget deal unveiled by House and Senate negotiators Monday calls for the Defense Department to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning programs, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

Lawmakers wants the Pentagon to form a commission that would examine the potential applications of AI technology for national security and defense efforts.

DoD and Commerce Department secretaries and congressional defense committee members would appoint 15 individuals to serve on the commission and meet on a regular basis until October 2020.

The group would be tasked to submit a report that assesses the competitiveness of domestic and foreign milestones in AI, the availability of workforce and education incentives meant to harness the potential of people who are pursuing AI and machine learning technology jobs and the lucrativeness of investments in research to encourage AI technology development.

The new defense bill would also mandate the Defense Secretary to appoint an official to work with the private sector to help DoD develop and implement such technology.

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Defense Bill Conference Committee Backs EW, Cyber Strategies
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Defense Bill Conference Committee Backs EW, Cyber Strategies


Defense Bill Conference Committee Backs EW, Cyber StrategiesThe committee tasked to harmonize the House and Senate versions of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act has included multiple provisions on cybersecurity and electronic warfare in the NDAA conference report, MeriTalk reported Tuesday.

One provision makes it a matter of national policy to use “offensive cyber capabilities” and “all instruments of national power” when it comes to deterring or responding to cyberattacks aimed at the U.S., while another affirms the Defense Secretary’s authority “to conduct military activities and operations in cyberspace.”

Elsewhere, the report describes a provision prohibiting government agencies from doing business “with an entity that uses telecommunications equipment or services produced by Huawei Technologies Company or ZTE Corporation”–a toned-down version of an earlier proposal, which extends the prohibition to private companies.

Although the release of the report marks a milestone in the passage of the defense budget, a harmonized bill would still have to be voted on by the Senate and the House, with the latter expected to do so this week.

The president would then sign the final version into law.

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