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Civilian/News
House Panel OKs DHS Reauthorization Bill Via Legislative Markup
by Jane Edwards
Published on June 19, 2017
House Panel OKs DHS Reauthorization Bill Via Legislative Markup


House Panel OKs DHS Reauthorization Bill Via Legislative MarkupThe House Homeland Security Committee cleared through a legislative markup Wednesday a bill that would reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security that was established in 2002, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

The DHS Authorization Act seeks to increase the department’s efficiency through consolidation and elimination of “unnecessary programs and offices,” said Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The legislation would task the department’s chief information officer to develop an inventory of DHS’ software licenses every couple of years and an information technology strategic plan every five years as well as remove the shared service director position.

The measure also describes the responsibilities of DHS’ chief security officer, proposes changes to the rotation program, seeks to authorize a steering panel for employee engagement and calls for the department to evaluate its facilities and logistic functions for each component and site.

The House speaker inked a memorandum of understanding with the chairmen of eight panels in the lower chamber to facilitate the reauthorization of DHS on a regular basis, the report added.

DoD/News
Navy Investigates USS Fitzgerald Ship Collision Off Japan
by Mary-Louise Hoffman
Published on June 19, 2017
Navy Investigates USS Fitzgerald Ship Collision Off Japan


Navy Investigates USS Fitzgerald Ship Collision Off JapanThe U.S. Navy has launched an investigation into the USS Fitzgerald guided missile destroyer’s collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship that occurred approximately 56 nautical miles off the coast of Honshu in Japan early Saturday.

The impact caused significant damages to the Fitzgerald pilothouse and commanding officer’s cabin as well as flooded a machinery room and two berths for 116 sailors who were onboard the warship, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin said in a statement published Sunday.

He noted the crew conducted damage control efforts to stabilize the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and sail it back to a U.S. naval base near Yokosuka on Saturday evening.

Japanese allies have provided support and assistance to Navy’s response efforts and the service branch has notified the families of personnel who died from the ship collision.

“We recognize that there are other organizations who have equities in this incident, and we expect they will conduct their own separate investigations. More information on any further investigations will be forthcoming,” Aucoin added.

The investigation, led by a flag officer, will cover both JAGMAN administrative and safety assessments.

DoD/News
Army Outlines FY 2017 Force Structure
by Ramona Adams
Published on June 16, 2017
Army Outlines FY 2017 Force Structure


Army Outlines FY 2017 Force StructureThe U.S. Army has outlined how it will distribute additional soldiers as part of an end strength increase mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

The service branch said Thursday its regular Army force will reach 476,000 soldiers; the Army National Guard will increase to 343,000 soldiers; and the Army Reserve will have 199,000 troops.

The 2017 NDAA permits the Army to maintain an end strength of 1.018 million soldiers and reverse a plan to reduce the service branch’s force size to 980,000 troops by the end of fiscal year 2018.

“These force structure gains facilitated by the FY17 end strength increase have begun, but some will take several years to achieve full operational capability,” said Brig. Gen. Brian Mennes, Army director of the force management division.

“Implementation of these decisions, without sacrificing readiness or modernization, is dependent upon receiving future appropriations commensurate with the authorized end strength,” he added.

The Army plans to establish readiness enhancement accounts in all Army components to boost manning and readiness levels in existing combat units; retain units previously slated for inactivation; and create new units and personnel increases in existing organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

The service branch expects the end strength increase to help address the capabilities gap against adversaries; meet modernization needs; and boost readiness in existing units.

DoD/News
Michele Gates: NASA to Discontinue Asteroid Redirect Mission
by Scott Nicholas
Published on June 16, 2017
Michele Gates: NASA to Discontinue Asteroid Redirect Mission


Michele Gates: NASA to Discontinue Asteroid Redirect MissionNASA will move to shutter its Asteroid Redirect Mission after agency leadership defunded the project due to a lack of support from Congress, Space News reported Wednesday.

Michele Gates, ARM program director, told NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group at a meeting Tuesday the agency will continue to develop proposed technologies for the mission despite the cancellation of the project.

“We are in an orderly closeout phase, capturing all the good work that has been done across the team, and transitioning activities as appropriate to other potential missions or archived for future use,” said Gates.

She added the agency will preserve other elements of the ARM project such to planetary defense approaches and near-Earth asteroid research efforts.

NASA also dropped plans to award a contract for the development of an ARM robotic spacecraft bus as well as cancelled efforts to select hosted payload proposals and enlist a research team for the defunded robotic mission.

Government Technology/News
John Zangardi: Workforce, Industry Collaboration Key to Cyber Resiliency
by Ramona Adams
Published on June 16, 2017
John Zangardi: Workforce, Industry Collaboration Key to Cyber Resiliency


John Zangardi: Workforce, Industry Collaboration Key to Cyber Resiliency
John Zangardi

John Zangardi, acting chief information officer of the Defense Department, has said DoD needs to hire “exceptional” talent, maintain good cyber hygiene and collaborate with industry to stay ahead of security threats, DoD News reported Thursday.

He told audience at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s Defense Cyber Operations Symposium that DoD aims to attract civilian cyber professionals  through the Cyber Excepted Service enterprise-wide recruitment approach.

Congress authorized DoD to implement new procedures to hire and manage civilian employees who can help strengthen cybersecurity at the department.

DoD will use a market-based pay structure to offer targeted and competitive compensation packages to cyber personnel as well as release personnel policies for the new recruitment initiative in July or August, according to Zangardi.

“The future will require the development of a well-rounded workforce that is proficient in the basics, and the basics to me are reading and writing and math — literacy and mathematics,” he told forum audience.

“These are enablers for the next generation of cyber talent.”

Government Technology/News
DARPA Eyes Digital Tech for Coastal Urban Operations; John Paschkewitz Comments
by Scott Nicholas
Published on June 16, 2017
DARPA Eyes Digital Tech for Coastal Urban Operations; John Paschkewitz Comments


DARPA Eyes Digital Tech for Coastal Urban Operations; John Paschkewitz CommentsThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has introduced a program that aims to create digital tools to support the U.S. military’s expeditionary operations in complex urban locations such as coastal cities.

DARPA said Thursday the Prototype Resilient Operations Testbed for Expeditionary Urban Scenarios program seeks a software platform for tablets and other personal devices to facilitate adaptive composition of multiple battlefield elements.

PROTEUS also seeks to demonstrate new tools and concepts across air, ground, sea and electromagnetic spectrum domains with an interactive virtual testbed.

The platform will be built to help military users compose dismounted forces, manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other assets across various command levels as troops operate.

“We aim to amplify the initiative and decision-making capabilities of [non-commissioned officers] and junior officers at the platoon and squad level as well as field-grade officers commanding expeditionary landing teams,” said John Paschkewitz, a DARPA program manager.

“We want developers to come up with innovative, decision-focused, virtual worlds that correctly capture the complex and non-linear consequences of choices made at both the command and tactical levels by both friendly and opposing forces,” Paschkewitz added.

DARPA will host a proposers day for the PROTEUS program on June 30 in Arlington, Virginia, to gather input from potential developers of urban warfare concepts.

Civilian/News
OMB Moves to Reduce Agency IT, Procurement Data Reporting Requirements
by Jane Edwards
Published on June 16, 2017
OMB Moves to Reduce Agency IT, Procurement Data Reporting Requirements


OMB Moves to Reduce Agency IT, Procurement Data Reporting RequirementsThe Office of Management and Budget has issued a new memorandum that aims to reduce reporting requirements for federal agencies, NextGov reported Thursday.

OMB Mick Mulvaney revoked several directives in the areas of information technology, procurement, financial management, performance management and customer service.

OMB eliminated five memoranda on IT security that were issued before the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 was enacted as well as guidance for the management of agencies’ IT assets and portfolios.

The agency also declared obsolete seven memos that sought to help agencies respond to potential IT service disruptions associated with year 2000 and rescinded several guidelines related to FISMA reporting requirements released between 2004 and 2010.

OMB also removed outdated benchmarking requirements for IT spending dashboard – PortfolioStat – in the Integrated Data Collection Tool.

For the acquisition aspect, the memo also canceled the implementation guidance for an executive order that sets reporting requirements for agencies with regard to the use of project labor agreements for construction projects as well as paused until fiscal 2020 a reporting requirement for reviews of acquisition functions.

Mulvaney wrote in the memo that OMB will work with the General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management to determine and rescind cumbersome compliance activities over the next year.

DoD/News
Senate OKs Russia, Iran Sanctions Bill With Amendment for Russian-Made Rocket Engines
by Jane Edwards
Published on June 16, 2017
Senate OKs Russia, Iran Sanctions Bill With Amendment for Russian-Made Rocket Engines


Senate OKs Russia, Iran Sanctions Bill With Amendment for Russian-Made Rocket EnginesThe Senate voted 98-2 Thursday to pass a bill that would enact new sanctions against Russia and require the White House to secure congressional approval before lifting any current sanctions, Reuters reported Thursday.

The proposed legislation seeks to penalize Russia for its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, involvement in Syria’s civil war and annexation of the Crimea region in Ukraine.

The measure covers new sanctions on Russia’s mining, energy, metals, railways and shipping projects as well as punitive actions against Russian cyber threat actors and the country’s involvement in weapons delivery to Syrian government.

The bill would also impose sanctions on Iran with regard to its ballistic missile activities that are not linked to the nuclear agreement the Arab country signed with the U.S. and other countries.

Space News also reported that lawmakers also voted 94-6 to clear an amendment to the Senate bill that would permit NASA and space launch service providers to continue to import and use Russian-made rocket engines for civil and commercial launches.

“Without passage of Amendment #250, we lose a tremendous portion of our access to space,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colorado).

Gardner introduced and sponsored the amendment with Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and other lawmakers.

Russia-based NPO Energomash supplies RD-180 and RD-181 engines that run on United Launch Alliance-built Atlas 5 and Orbital ATK-made Antares rockets, the report added.

News
Joint Chiefs: 70 Percent of U.S. Cyber Command Force Teams Are ‘Fully Operational’
by Barbara Boland
Published on June 15, 2017
Joint Chiefs: 70 Percent of U.S. Cyber Command Force Teams Are ‘Fully Operational’


Joint Chiefs: 70 Percent of U.S. Cyber Command Force Teams Are 'Fully Operational'Seventy percent of U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force teams have reached initial operating capability and are “fully operational capable,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

By September 30, 2018, the Cyber Mission Force is expected to have 6,200 individuals on all 133 of its operational teams. Its mission is to defend DoD networks, support military objectives, provide mission and analytic support, and defend critical U.S. infrastrucure.

“They’ve had all the manning, they have all the training, they’re fully operational capable,” said Gen. Joseph Dunford. “But I think none of us are complacent with where we are in cyberspace given the number of threats we face every day. We need to defend the network, develop effective offensive tools and be in a position to grow the force.”

First set up in 2009, mission force teams were added to the command in 2015.

“Without going through details, we’re actually simultaneously conducting cyber operations now against multiple adversaries,” said Dunford.

The military continues to push for a bump in cyber defense spending and Admiral Mike Rodgers, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, said he believes this is necessary “to execute our mission.” He’s seeking a 16 percent increase, $647 million, for U.S. Cyber Command’s budget to separate it from the NSA.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required that Cyber Command be separated from NSA for fiscal year 2017.

Government Technology/News
Steven Walker Outlines DARPA’s Cybersecurity Research Goals
by Ramona Adams
Published on June 15, 2017
Steven Walker Outlines DARPA’s Cybersecurity Research Goals


Steven Walker Outlines DARPA's Cybersecurity Research GoalsSteven Walker, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has outlined DARPA’s plans to protect U.S. networks against cyber attacks at the 2017 Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Walker said DARPA’s security research goals are focused on efforts to harden systems against cyber attacks; continue operations during attacks; and win in the cyber domain.

In a move to harden systems, DARPA hosted the 2016 Cyber Grand Challenge where participants worked to defend a network and counterattack an adversary’s network within minutes using only machines.

Walker noted DARPA plans to turn CGC into an operational capability and transition the technology to other government agencies.

“You can imagine using it before we deploy a software product to test that software product against many different exploits and using it in sort of a pre-defense way as well,” said Walker.

DARPA also works to develop technologies that can detect, isolate and characterize cyberattacks on the electric power grid to support continued operations during cyberattacks, the acting director added.

The DARPA program seeks to create anomaly detection technologies with low false-alarm rates for the U.S power grid system as well as network isolation and threat characterization platforms for normal information technology and integrated control systems hardware and software.

The agency also launched the Plan X cyber mission framework tool in a push to provide a common operating picture for cyber warriors, Walker noted.

DARPA’s cyberwarfare programs include Enhanced Attribution, which seeks to provide visibility into all aspects of malicious cyber actions, and Network Defense Program, which has developed algorithms and tools to help detect illicit behavior in networks.

Walker believes DARPA is headed toward the development of a national network defense system that will support real-time monitoring of U.S. internet domains to detect botnets; correlate adversary probing of enterprise networks; show indications and warning of network compromises; and coordinate a national response to possible attacks.

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