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US Digital Service, 18F Launch Unified Login Tool for Govt Websites
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US Digital Service, 18F Launch Unified Login Tool for Govt Websites


US Digital Service, 18F Launch Unified Login Tool for Govt WebsitesThe U.S. Digital Service and the General Services Administration‘s 18F organization have unveiled online tool designed to help citizens access multiple government websites using the same username and password.

The login.gov single sign-on tool is currently used for the Customs and Border Protection‘s CBP Jobs app that shows candidates their job application status, Joel Minton and Tom Mills wrote in a joint blog entry posted Tuesday.

Login.gov works to help users create their username and password then set up multifactor authentication through phone numbers or an authenticator application.

The tool is designed to also protect users’ personally identifiable information via an identity proofing process that works to confirm identities online.

USDS and 18F professionals collaborated to research the top login systems in the technology industry and carry out continuous usability tests to develop login.gov.

A unified login system will support data transfer between agencies and streamline processes managed by multiple government entities, such as the visa and immigration process, Minton and Mills noted.

USDS and 18F also plant to deploy experts to help agency developers incorporate their code with login.gov.

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NASA Seeks Govt or Industry Partnership for Solar Electronic Propulsion Tech Demo
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NASA Seeks Govt or Industry Partnership for Solar Electronic Propulsion Tech Demo


NASA Seeks Govt or Industry Partnership for Solar Electronic Propulsion Tech DemoNASA‘s Space Technology Mission Directorate looks to partner with another government agency or a company to demonstrate solar electronic propulsion technologies.

A selected partner will help conduct a flight demonstration of NASA-built SEP systems such as solar arrays and an electric propulsion system equipped with a 13-kilowatt Hall Effect thruster magnetic shielding device, the space agency said Wednesday.

NASA aims to build an advanced SEP technology to power commercial space missions as well as support various science, cislunar space and manned missions to Mars.

The agency will accept input from interested parties through Sept. 8.

NASA added it expects to finish development and qualification efforts for an electric propulsion system in 2019.

The project seeks to encourage rapid commercial infusion of such technology and help reduce technical risks for the space agency’s Deep Space Gateway concept and similar applications.

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Dan DelGrosso: Navy Eyes Full-Scale Migration to Commercial Cloud
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Dan DelGrosso: Navy Eyes Full-Scale Migration to Commercial Cloud


Dan DelGrosso: Navy Eyes Full-Scale Migration to Commercial CloudDan DelGrosso, technical director of the U.S. Navy‘s program executive office for enterprise information systems, has said he expects the military service to move all data to a commercial cloud platform as part of the branch’s cloud-first policy, FCW reported Wednesday.

He said at the FCW Cloud Summit in Washington, D.C. that Navy leaders received a five-year proposal in July to migrate all data to a commercial cloud and close incompatible legacy information technology systems.

“We’re trying to get out of the business of owning our own infrastructure,” DelGrosso added.

He urged government agencies to “get out of the assumption that our data is too sensitive for the commercial cloud.”

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Hanscom AFB, Enlighten IT Consulting Aim to Boost Air Force Network Security; John Bennion Comments
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Hanscom AFB, Enlighten IT Consulting Aim to Boost Air Force Network Security; John Bennion Comments


Hanscom AFB, Enlighten IT Consulting Aim to Boost Air Force Network Security; John Bennion CommentsU.S. Air Force acquisition personnel from Hanscom Air Force Base have begun to assess the service branch’s network, which consists of more than 800,000 end points, as part of efforts to boost its security and collect data generated from daily operations.

Hanscom AFB teamed up with Enlighten IT Consulting to automatically analyze security events that occur when the Air Force Network gets exposed to potential harmful websites or when users fail verification processes, the service branch said Wednesday.

End points such as classified terminals, desktops, laptops and mobile devices trigger approximately 100,000 security events per hour, the Air Force noted.

“We’re extracting patterns from the flow of data in an entire system to identify problems quickly and predict threats,” said 1st Lt. John Bennion, Data Analytics Pathfinder program manager at Air Force Life Cycle Management-Hanscom.

Enlighten IT will continue to provide recommendations for the Hanscom AFB personnel on possible data analytics strategies that can deliver usable information across the entire network.

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NGA, NRO to Explore Commercial GEOINT Offerings With New Tool
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NGA, NRO to Explore Commercial GEOINT Offerings With New Tool


NGA, NRO to Explore Commercial GEOINT Offerings With New ToolThe National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office will compare their near term geospatial intelligence needs with commercial offerings through a new leaderboard, Space News reported Tuesday.

NGA and NRO established Commercial GEOINT Activity last year to jointly explore GEOINT capabilities in the private sector.

CGA directors implemented the Leaderboard tool in June to collect information from industry providers of GEOINT products.

Space News quoted Kevin Ayers, director of NGA’s commercial GEOINT activity engagement division, as saying the Leaderboard will help CGA “rack and stack those companies so we can have a better sense of what is going to make the biggest difference for us.”

CGA seeks near-term capabilities such as satellite imagery and data that can be procured within 18 months.

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Army Seeks Ideas for Future Weapons Capabilities Via Online Gaming Environment
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Army Seeks Ideas for Future Weapons Capabilities Via Online Gaming Environment


Army Seeks Ideas for Future Weapons Capabilities Via Online Gaming EnvironmentThe U.S. Army has created an online gaming environment designed to collect feedback from soldiers to inform concept developers and engineers of new ideas on how to integrate new capabilities into weapons systems, vehicles and other military platforms, the Army reported Wednesday.

The Army Research and Development Command teamed up with the Training and Doctrine Command and Army Game Studio to build the Operation Overmatch gaming environment as part of the Early Synthetic Prototyping initiative.

Operation Overmatch works to “crowd-source” ideas as well as collect insights and game analytics from service personnel to evaluate new concepts for future study.

“In a game environment, we can change the parameters or the abilities of a vehicle by keystrokes,” said Lt. Col. Brian Vogt, ESP project lead at TRADOC’s Army Capabilities Integration Center.

“Army engineers will determine if the change is plausible before we put it in the scenarios.”

Through Operation Overmatch, soldiers can fight adversaries in realistic scenarios, experiment with military tactics, team organization and weapon systems as well as explore various prototypes of robotic vehicles, aerial drones and manned armored vehicles.

The online game is scheduled to enter the beta testing phase in October.

Profile: Teresa Smetzer, CIA Digital Futures Director
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Profile: Teresa Smetzer, CIA Digital Futures Director

 

Profile: Teresa Smetzer, CIA Digital Futures Director
Teresa Smetzer

Teresa Smetzer is the director of digital futures at the CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation.

She began her career at CIA and served in various roles such as analyst, technologist and senior manager over a 17-year period.

Smetzer then left federal service and worked as vice president of business development at General Dynamics for three years.

After that, she established and led Jasmah Consulting as CEO until its acquisition by nonprofit government consulting services company LMI in 2008.

She also held the positions of chief operating officer, CEO and a member of the board of directors of enterprise mobile messaging technology provider 3Seventy.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and master’s degree in chemical engineering from University of Texas at Austin.

 

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Treasury Dept Sanctions 10 Foreign Firms, 6 Individuals for Support to North Korea’s Nuclear Programs, Energy Trade
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Treasury Dept Sanctions 10 Foreign Firms, 6 Individuals for Support to North Korea’s Nuclear Programs, Energy Trade


Treasury Dept Sanctions 10 Foreign Firms, 6 Individuals for Support to North Korea’s Nuclear Programs, Energy TradeThe Treasury Department has blocked from dealing with the U.S. 10 foreign companies and six individuals in response to their involvement in activities that are deemed to support North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The agency’s actions seek to comply with the resolution enacted by the United Nations Security Council on Aug. 5 as a measure against North Korea’s continued ballistic missile tests, the Treasury said Tuesday.

“Treasury will continue to increase pressure on North Korea by targeting those who support the advancement of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and isolating them from the American financial system,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The department’s office of foreign assets control designated two China-based companies, a Russian company and its director for their links to enterprises and activities that support North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction development programs.

Three Chinese firms, two Singapore-based companies, three Russian individuals and a Chinese business executive were also named for their participation in activities that back North Korea’s coal and oil trade.

OFAC also designated two companies and an individual for their involvement in the exportation of workers from North Korea.

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Inspector General: DoD’s European Reassurance Initiative Faces Personnel, Budget Mgmt Challenges
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Inspector General: DoD’s European Reassurance Initiative Faces Personnel, Budget Mgmt Challenges


Inspector General: DoD's European Reassurance Initiative Faces Personnel, Budget Mgmt ChallengesThe Defense Department‘s office of inspector general has called on DoD to develop strategies to address budgetary and personnel management issues under a program that offers military support to U.S. allies in Europe.

The OIG said in a report published Tuesday the European Reassurance Initiative establishes new requirements for the U.S. European Command without authorizing an increase in personnel.

ERI is funded under overseas contingency operations appropriations that are usually planned for one year and do not align with DoD’s five-year Future Years Defense Program planning cycle, according to the report.

This funding arrangement may affect the capacity of EUCOM and Operation Atlantic Resolve countries to sustain ERI’s support for allied and partner military forces, the OIG reported.

OAR countries include Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

Auditors also found that OAR countries have yet to develop procedures or transportation infrastructure to support the timely deployment of U.S., allied and partner-nation forces.

U.S. agreements with OAR nations on infrastructure use do not have clear guidelines for facility access, sustainment and development, the OIG noted.

Such infrastructure challenges exist partly due to OAR participants’ lack of movement agreements with other NATO countries as well as insufficient experience in managing military convoys and equipment owned by multiple forces.

The report also revealed that EUCOM does not have specific metrics to assess the impact of ERI initiatives on allied and partner nations’ training, infrastructure and military capacity-building activities, which will make it difficult for DoD to track the progress of OAR countries.

The OIG urged the Joint Staff director to evaluate whether EUCOM and its subordinate commands have enough personnel resources to perform ERI missions.

The oversight body also called on the office of the deputy secretary of defense to formulate ways to change the ERI budgeting cycle to align it with participating countries’ training and capacity-building efforts.

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GSA Adopts 18F Federalist Platform to Transition Federal Identity Guides Into Digital Playbooks
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GSA Adopts 18F Federalist Platform to Transition Federal Identity Guides Into Digital Playbooks


GSA Adopts 18F Federalist Platform to Transition Federal Identity Guides Into Digital PlaybooksThe General Services Administration has developed digital formats of its Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management Roadmap and associated implementation guidance through the adoption of an 18F platform.

The FICAM playbooks built on 18F’s Federalist platform work to help agencies implement ICAM operations through the use of common patterns, share data and submit ICAM-related questions, GSA said Tuesday.

The FICAM team at GSA’s office of governmentwide policy partnered with the agency’s 18F organization to use the Federalist platform to create and launch three FICAM playbooks online such as the Personal Identity Verification Guide, Enterprise Architecture and Federal Public Key Infrastructure Guides.

Federalist is designed to facilitate web content hosting, deployment of GitHub-based content into agency-hosted sites, compliance with federal security and web policies as well as the transition of technical guides into digital formats.

The FICAM team plans to launch additional playbooks on identity management, physical access control systems, federation, program management and access management over the next few months.

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