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GSA’s Justin Herman: Emerging Tech Could Help Update Public Services
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GSA’s Justin Herman: Emerging Tech Could Help Update Public Services


GSA's Justin Herman: Emerging Tech Could Help Update Public ServicesJustin Herman, intragovernmental emerging citizen technology lead at the General Services Administration, has said he believes emerging open data, artificial intelligence, distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies can help the government transform current public services.

He wrote in a blog post published Thursday that GSA seeks participants in the collaborative workshop, titled “Emerging Technology and Open Data for a More Open Government,” to help establish goals for the fourth U.S. National Action Plan for Open Government.

“Participants in this workshop, including U.S. businesses, federal managers, civil society groups and researchers, are directed to draft proposals that specifically use artificial intelligence, blockchain and/or open data to advance federal government transparency, accountability, participation, and/or technological innovation,” Herman added.

GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology program will host the workshop on Sept. 8 .

The agency also wants public input on how to mitigate bureaucratic and outdated information technology system challenges that hinder the transformation of public services.

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DHS, NIST to Sponsor Smart City Cybersecurity Challenge
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DHS, NIST to Sponsor Smart City Cybersecurity Challenge


DHS, NIST to Sponsor Smart City Cybersecurity ChallengeThe National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Homeland Security will sponsor a challenge that will urge participants to design smart city technologies with cybersecurity as the top priority.

NIST said Thursday the 2018 Global City Teams Challenge, called “Smart and Secure Cities and Communities Challenge,” will forge collaborations between volunteer cities and companies to incorporate cybersecurity into smart city tools.

GCTC was launched in 2014 to help communities and innovators work together on smart city initiatives that are intended to optimize mass transit, energy management and disaster response, among others.

AT&T, Verizon and Motorola Solutions have confirmed their participation in the 2017 challenge.

NIST and DHS will host the 2017 GCTC Expo in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28 and 29 to give more than 100 global teams the opportunity to showcase their smart city projects.

The expo will feature pavilions on transportation, public safety, utilities, city data platform and public WiFi/broadband, with international participants from Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, Portugal, Taiwan and U.K.

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Sen. Martin Heinrich: DoD Plans Directed Energy Tech Procurement
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Sen. Martin Heinrich: DoD Plans Directed Energy Tech Procurement


Sen. Martin Heinrich: DoD Plans Directed Energy Tech ProcurementSen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) has announced that the Defense Department plans to invest in directed energy systems and the investment can help create new jobs in the state.

Heinrich’s office said Wednesday the senator made the announcement during a visit to Boeing‘s facility in Albuquerque, N.M.

On the same day, he also toured a University of New Mexico laboratory focused on directed energy as well as met with university researchers and students who collaborate with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Earlier this year, Heinrich called on Defense Secretary James Mattis and the Defense Department to allocate funds for the development of modern weapon systems such as directed energy.

“This is an area where New Mexico can make yet another significant contribution to our nation’s defense—and in the process, we can see millions of dollars of investment and many new jobs in our state,” the senator said.

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Report: Interagency Group Unveils Draft Acquisition Guide to Facilitate Federal Cloud Adoption
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Report: Interagency Group Unveils Draft Acquisition Guide to Facilitate Federal Cloud Adoption


Report: Interagency Group Unveils Draft Acquisition Guide to Facilitate Federal Cloud AdoptionA group of technology executives from the Federal Communications Commission, General Services Administration and other federal agencies has released a draft guide that seeks to help agencies streamline the procurement process in order to increase the adoption of cloud platforms in the government, Nextgov reported Thursday.

The Cloud Adoption Survival Tips, Lessons and Experiences guide provides a definition of cloud computing, an explanation on consumption-based payment and a comparison of funding models for cloud in both public and private enterprises.

“The narrative we’ve created in this guide needs the audience and support of the Office of Management and Budget and groups like the White House Office of American Innovation,” said Sarah Millican, a digital strategy adviser for FCC’s office of the chief information officer and outreach leader for the interagency Cloud Computing Center of Excellence.

CCoE co-authored the guide with the Cloud Acquisition Professional.

The document also discusses the frameworks used by agencies to acquire cloud services, cloud security considerations, cloud service models and contract types as well as blanket purchase agreements and strategic contracting considerations associated with cloud procurements.

The interagency group intends to start seeking comments from cloud service providers in the next few weeks with a plan to hold a public meeting on Sept. 26 with government and industry stakeholders to address the next steps for the guide.

 

Profile: Thresa Lang, Navy Cybersecurity Division Director for DCNO N2/N6
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Profile: Thresa Lang, Navy Cybersecurity Division Director for DCNO N2/N6


Profile: Thresa Lang, Navy Cybersecurity Division Director for DCNO N2/N6
Thresa Lang

Thresa Lang serves as director of U.S. Navy cybersecurity division in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance.

In this capacity, she oversees cyber analysis, assessment and technical efforts across the service branch.

She concurrently serves as director of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s Washington operations and leads all programmatic, strategic planning and cyber requirement development and implementation activities of SPAWAR within the National Capital Region.

Lang held various leadership roles at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific before she joined the Senior Executive Service in late 2016 and helped establish the OPNAV N2N6F42 requirements branch.

Prior to joining the government, she worked as director of federal security business at Dell and as corporate security strategist and technical director for business assurance and strategic initiatives.

She also established and managed a company that offered consultancy services and special security instruction support to the intelligence community as well as supporting contractors.

She holds a master’s degree in management information systems from Bowie State University and a Ph.D. degree in information systems and assurance policy from University of Fairfax.

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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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