The Government Accountability Office has called on the Customs and Border Protection to develop a standardized guidance for efforts to track security validations under CBP’s supply chain security partnership program.

GAO said Wednesday CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program faced problems with its Portal 2.0 data management system which required C-TPAT staff to manually verify member data.

C-TPAT is a voluntary public-private partnership program under which CBP evaluates member organizations’ supply chain security practices against minimum security criteria in exchange for benefits such as reduced shipment inspections.

GAO noted CBP identified the root causes of Portal 2.0 malfunctions, including unclear requirements and insufficient tests, and outlined recommended actions.

C-TPAT staff told the audit agency they run field office reviews to track and complete security validations despite Portal 2.0 issues.

Auditors said field offices lack standardized guidance from C-TPAT headquarters that could help ensure the consistency and reliability of efforts to track security validation.

GAO’s preliminary analyses also revealed that CBP’s Dashboard data reporting tool cannot accurately provide data on C-TPAT member benefits.

The government watchdog urged CBP to develop a plan to fix the Dashboard to help provide reliable data on C-TPAT member benefits.

Ten U.S. Strategic Command civilian employees will take part in a 13-week graduate-level leadership training program meant to help develop their skills in support of the agency’s organizational transformation and mission awareness expansion initiatives.

USSTRATCOM said Jan. 27 a group of national security and defense experts will train Strategic Leadership Fellow Program participants in a classroom-based, hands-on environment at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

“One of the key elements of this program is collaboration, not just with each other, but with colleagues and others at USSTRATCOM, industry partners, researchers across the University of Nebraska, working together on important research projects,” said Lou Pol, dean of UNO’s College of Business.

Bob Hinson, executive director of the National Strategic Research Institute and a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, said the fellowship aims to boost the civilian workforce that helps address Stratcom’s complex challenges and global operations.

The full list of the 2017 USSTRATCOM Strategic Leadership fellows can be found here.

The Department of Homeland Security‘s science and technology directorate has created and commercialized a new Bluetooth access control capacity for virtual mobile infrastructure on mobile devices.

DHS said Wednesday the VMI platform offers no data-at-rest capacity on mobile devices which will help provide secure access to applications and enterprise data that run in a cloud or data center environment using any device.

“Government personnel can use the Bluetooth access control capability on the smartphone to connect to the virtual device managed in the cloud,” said Vincent Sritapan, a DHS S&T program manager.

“This technology presents an opportunity for government to securely connect with first responders to support the Homeland Security Enterprise,” said Robert Griffin, acting under secretary for science and technology.

Hypori Federal secured a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II Other Agencies Technology Solutions contract in July 2016 to continue the expansion of VMI capacity for government mobility use.

The company expanded the VMI suite as part of the S&T Cyber Security Division’s Mobile Device Security R&D project to help end-users connect virtual devices to a managed Bluetooth without any resident data.

The Senate voted 52-47 Wednesday to confirm Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, Reuters reported Thursday.

Julia Edwards Ainsley writes Sessions is the eighth of President Donald Trump’s 22 Cabinet nominees that have been confirmed.

Sessions served as a Republican senator from Alabama for four terms beginning in 1997.

He was a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Sessions was elected as the state’s attorney general and nominated by former president Ronald Reagan to serve as U.S. attorney for Alabama’s southern district.

Sessions held a two-year role as assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of Alabama.

He practiced law in Russellville and Mobile, Alabama and served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended the Department of Veterans Affairs to address issues regarding critical system modernizations, data center consolidation and the retirement of legacy systems to help refresh the VA’s information technology environment.

According to a report published Tuesday, GAO suggested the VA to establish metrics and goals that will determine the extent to which VA’s modernized electronic health record system meets interoperability with the Defense Department.

GAO also recommended the VA modernize or replace obsolete legacy IT systems as well as address challenges regarding the modernization of the latter’s scheduling system including gaps on the Veterans Benefits Management System implementation and planning.

The government watchdog agency noted that VA has not yet created a long-term plan to address EHR system needs beyond fiscal year 2018, while neither VA nor the DoD have established outcome-oriented goals to define expectations from efforts to bolster EHR interoperability.

VA has started a new program to create or purchase a new scheduling system following the collapse of a previous modernization project for the agency’s outpatient appointment scheduling system that has been in use for more than 30 years.

GAO added that VA did not establish a timeframe and cost estimate for the completion of the VBMS system used to manage disability benefits and the agency also did not meet any of the Office of Management and Budget-established data center optimization areas.