/
NASA Awards University of Oklahoma $161M Contract for Atmospheric Carbon Cycle Observatory Devt
Published on
NASA Awards University of Oklahoma $161M Contract for Atmospheric Carbon Cycle Observatory Devt


NASA Awards University of Oklahoma $161M Contract for Atmospheric Carbon Cycle Observatory DevtNASA has awarded the University of Oklahoma in Norman a potential $161 million contract to develop a geostationary instrument that will work to measure vegetation health and carbon-related greenhouse gases from space.

The agency said Friday it selected the university’s proposed Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory out of 15 submissions received for the agency’s second Earth Venture Mission opportunity that seeks to support small orbital research through the Earth System Science Pathfinder program.

GeoCarb will work to track vegetation stress across the Americas and study the exchange processes and natural sources that affect methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The instrument will fly aboard a commercial communications satellite as a payload to gather data from a geosynchronous Earth orbit.

Work under the cost-reimbursement contract is scheduled to begin in July and run through June 20, 2026.

NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia oversees the ESSP initiative for the space agency’s science mission directorate.

/
GSA Publishes Cloud Transformation Guidance for Data Center Community
Published on
GSA Publishes Cloud Transformation Guidance for Data Center Community


GSA Publishes Cloud Transformation Guidance for Data Center CommunityThe General Services Administration‘s Data Center Optimization Initiative Program Management Office has released a report to share lessons learned on cloud transformation efforts for the data center community.

Dan Pomeroy, director of the DCOI PMO, said in a post published June 14 that the whitepaper tackles findings and guidance on four cloud computing adoption topics including business drivers, migration considerations, organizational readiness and organizational impact.

DCOI PMO offers guidance on the federal tools and resources that can help agencies transition to the cloud and utilize cloud computing capacities not available in current information technology service offerings, noted Pomeroy.

Pomeroy added that the DCOI PMO also offers research assistance to help agencies mitigate cloud challenges.

/
Online Trust Alliance Audit: 60% of Federal Sites Get Failing Scores in Privacy, Security
Published on
Online Trust Alliance Audit: 60% of Federal Sites Get Failing Scores in Privacy, Security


Online Trust Alliance Audit: 60% of Federal Sites Get Failing Scores in Privacy, SecurityA new audit report by Online Trust Alliance has found that 60 percent of federal websites failed in terms of privacy, security and consumer protection practices, GCN reported Wednesday.

OTA assessed approximately 1,000 websites for the 2017 Online Trust Audit & Honor Roll report and found that the number of government sites that made the “honor roll” dropped to 39 percent this year from 46 percent in 2016.

Government sites that landed spots in the list of 50 highest scoring websites include those from the Education Department, Federal Communications Commission, Census Bureau and HealthCare.gov.

The annual report also showed that 46 percent of federal sites use DKIM and SPF as tools for email authentication and the percentage of websites that implement Domain Name System Security Extensions climbed to 93 percent, up from 88 percent in 2016.

At least 70 percent of government sites adopt Internet Protocol version 6, according to the audit.

The audit also noted that 76 percent of consumer services websites received the honor roll status, while only 27 percent of banking sites made the list.

The OTA report also evaluated websites from internet retailers, email and internet service providers as well as news and media.

/
Rep. Mac Thornberry: HASC’s FY 2018 NDAA Contains Acquisition Reform, Missile Defense Provisions
Published on
Rep. Mac Thornberry: HASC’s FY 2018 NDAA Contains Acquisition Reform, Missile Defense Provisions


Rep. Mac Thornberry: HASC’s FY 2018 NDAA Contains Acquisition Reform, Missile Defense Provisions
Mac Thornberry

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said his panel’s $640 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2018 includes proposed changes to the Defense Department’s acquisition system, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Thornberry told reporters Thursday that the draft fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act contains changes to the e-commerce section’s wording.

“The goal is to have multiple online marketplaces,” he said.

“We changed the wording of the language to better reflect the desire and expectation that it will be more than one.”

Thornberry noted that his panel also collaborated with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and General Services Administration over the governmentwide procurement system.

“We’ve talked a lot with GSA, who’s very interested in helping manage these online marketing places for the benefit of the entire government,” he added.

He also noted that the measure proposed to boost spending on missile defense, munitions and cybersecurity efforts.

Other provisions that Thornberry mentioned include the proposed 2.4 percent increase in service personnel’s pay and funding support for the European Deterrence Initiative, the report added.

/
GAO Requests $618M Budget for Fiscal 2018
Published on
GAO Requests $618M Budget for Fiscal 2018


GAO Requests $618M Budget for Fiscal 2018The Government Accountability Office has asked Congress for $618.2 million to fund operations at the federal watchdog agency in fiscal 2018.

GAO said Wednesday the funds would help the agency maintain a staffing level of 3,100 full-time employees to address the agency’s need for increased attention in areas such as improper government payments, tax gap and the impact of rapid science and technology development on policy.

The agency added it plans to offset spending with $27.5 million in reimbursements from rental income and program and financial audits, which will lead to a net budget request of $590.7 million.

GAO’s efforts in FY 2016 resulted to approximately $63 billion in financial benefits to the federal government as well as more than 2,071 recommendations that led to 1,234 program and operational updates across the government, the report noted.

The agency also published 697 reports and responded to requests from 95 percent of Congress’ standing full committees in FY 2016.

/
James Mattis: US, China Declare North Korea’s Nuclear Missile Program a Threat to APAC Security
Published on
James Mattis: US, China Declare North Korea’s Nuclear Missile Program a Threat to APAC Security


James Mattis: US, China Declare North Korea’s Nuclear Missile Program a Threat to APAC Security
James Mattis

Defense Secretary James Mattis has said both U.S. and Chinese officials attested that North Korea’s nuclear missile efforts pose a security threat in the Asia-Pacific region, DoD News reported Wednesday.

“We also affirmed our strong commitment to cooperate, including through the U.N. to realize our shared goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said after the first U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.

Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Yang Jiechi, China’s state councilor, and Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of the Chinese joint staff department, for the dialogue held Wednesday at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Mattis cited that the dialogue also touched upon the resolution of maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

“We discussed ways to decrease tension and reduce risk in the South China Sea,” he said.

“As we maintain open dialogue on this topic, the United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”

U.S. and Chinese officials also discussed the defense cooperation between the two countries and China’s assistance to Iraq to help counter the Islamic State militant organization, the report added.

/
FAA’s New Committee to Establish Standards for UAV Tracking
Published on
FAA’s New Committee to Establish Standards for UAV Tracking


FAA's New Committee to Establish Standards for UAV TrackingThe Federal Aviation Administration will establish a new aviation rule-making committee tasked to develop standards on how to identify and track unmanned aerial vehicles.

FAA said Wednesday that panel will consist of stakeholders from the aviation community, unmanned aircraft industry, industry member organization, researchers and standards groups.

The committee will help the agency identify, categorize and recommend emerging technologies for remote UAS tracking and identification.

It will also evaluate the affordability and feasibility of available technologies and how such systems can help meet requirements of air traffic control and law enforcement organizations.

FAA added the group will also provide recommendations to support efforts toward beyond visual line of sight drone flights.

/
NASA, Italian Counterpart Partner to Study Cosmic X-Rays
Published on
NASA, Italian Counterpart Partner to Study Cosmic X-Rays


NASA, Italian Counterpart Partner to Study Cosmic X-RaysNASA and Italy’s space agency have agreed to jointly launch a mission that will explore cosmic X-rays beginning in 2020.

Robert Lightfoot, acting administrator of NASA, and Roberto Battiston, president of the Italian space agency, signed an agreement at the Paris Air Show to establish the terms of cooperation under the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission, NASA said Tuesday.

The IXPE mission aims to deploy three telescope systems designed to measure the polarization of cosmic X-rays and help both agencies discover their origins as well as interactions with matter and gravity in space.

NASA will contribute the X-ray telescopes and facilities to support end-to-end X-ray calibration and science operations under the program.

Italy’s space agency will provide three polarization-sensitive X-ray detectors that will serve as IXPE’s “eyes” as well as access to the agency’s equatorial ground station in Malindi, Kenya.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies has been selected to conduct spacecraft and mission integration efforts for the mission and will collaborate with the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics to operate the flight system.

Other IXPE program partners include the Stanford University, McGill University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

/
DHS’ Jeanette Manfra: Russia Targeted Election Systems in 21 States
Published on
DHS’ Jeanette Manfra: Russia Targeted Election Systems in 21 States


DHS’ Jeanette Manfra: Russia Targeted Election Systems in 21 StatesFederal officials told lawmakers at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday they have determined that Russia interfered with election-related platforms prior to the U.S. presidential elections in 2016, The Hill reported Wednesday.

“We have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted,” said Jeanette Manfra, acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security’s national protection and programs directorate.

Manfra also noted that those systems were not used in vote tallying procedures and commended DHS’ move to classify election systems as critical infrastructure.

Bill Priestap, assistant director of counterintelligence division at FBI, said the bureau has initiated a number of investigations into foreign threat actors that targeted election-related systems in 2016.

Senators held the hearing to discuss the extent of the Russian breach of U.S. electoral systems and the federal government’s efforts to prevent potential cyber threats to 2018 and 2020 elections, the report added.

/
Kevin Cox: DHS Eyes Cloud Deployment for Federal CDM Dashboard
Published on
Kevin Cox: DHS Eyes Cloud Deployment for Federal CDM Dashboard


Kevin Cox: DHS Eyes Cloud Deployment for Federal CDM DashboardThe Department of Homeland Security considers plans to field the federal dashboard for continuous diagnostics and mitigation in the cloud, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

“Definitely as we go forward we’re looking at doing more in the cloud, including potentially at some point in the future, placing the federal dashboard in a high [baseline] cloud,” Kevin Cox, CDM program manager at DHS, said Wednesday at the MeriTalk’s GovProtect forum in Washington.

DHS plans to introduce later this summer the federal CDM dashboard designed to combine feeds from all agency dashboards, assess the agencies’ cybersecurity posture and help the department and the Office of Management and Budget identify data systems that need protection from cyber threats.

“We’re looking at how we interface with the cloud, whether it be infrastructure, platform or software,” Cox said.

“But at the end of the day wherever there is government data being processed… [w]e need to get federal leadership the visibility as to how that data is being secured, who’s accessing it and how it’s being used,” he added.

 

1 … 2,292 2,293 2,294 2,295 2,296 … 2,703