John Zangardi, acting chief information officer at the Defense Department, has said one of his priorities at DoD is to advance the transition to Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system as the department works to implement a defense enterprise office platform, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

“The objective is to be done and in our networks by the end of this calendar year,” Zangardi said Tuesday at the Adobe Digital Government Symposium.

Meredith Somers writes DEOS seeks to integrate voice, email, video and content management platforms as well as communication tools into a single unified client.

Zangardi noted that his cybersecurity priorities at DoD include efforts to maximize capability and lethality, reduce the cyber attack surface, understand the department’s information technology infrastructure and build up efficiency and effectiveness.

He said the need to drive efficiency seeks to facilitate the deployment of military capabilities to warfighters as well as “free up dollars that can be put into the procurement of planes, or ships or tanks or bullets.”

Zangardi also offered updates on the final request for proposals for the Unified Capabilities contract, plans to revise the cybersecurity scorecard and modernization of the Defense Travel System, the report added.

Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-Washington), Kathleen Rice (D-New York) and Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey) have urged the Office of Personnel Management to modify requirements and streamline the recruitment process for federal cybersecurity jobs.

Kilmer, Rice and Gottheimer currently serve as co-chairs of the New Democrat Coalition’s Cybersecurity Task Force and told Acting OPM Director Kathleen McGettigan in a joint letter released May 1 that the agency should look to the private sector for ideas to optimize the cyber hiring process.

Agencies do not utilize certification tests because it is not explicitly authorized in the 1958 Government Employees Training Act, the three lawmakers noted.

The representatives inquired about potential actions that could encourage the use of certification exams, if such measures are not prohibited, and urged OPM to provide information on its degree requirements for cybersecurity personnel.

They said OPM should be “more flexible” with job requirements to help meet a growing demand for federal cyber workers.

Non-traditional education paths such as a two-year degree or a certification test can be enough to prepare cybersecurity personnel, according to the lawmakers.

A study led by the Department of Homeland Security‘s science and technology directorate has offered recommendations for the federal government to manage the security of mobile devices being used by agency employees.

DHS said Thursday it submitted the report titled “Study on Mobile Device Security” to Congress in accordance with the Cybersecurity Act of 2015.

“The Study on Mobile Device Security has found that threats to the mobile device ecosystem are growing, but also that the security of mobile computing is improving,” said Robert Griffin, DHS acting undersecretary for science and technology.

The report calls on the federal government to adopt a framework for mobile device security based on existing standards and best practices as well as boost Federal Information Security Modernization Act metrics to focus on mobile security.

DHS also recommends to include mobility in the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program; continue DHS S&T’s applied research program in mobile application security; launch a new program on mobile threat information sharing; and coordinate the adoption of mobile security technologies into operational programs, among others.

The study found that mobile security threats facing the federal government require a mitigation approach that differs from protective measures created for desktop workstations.

The report also noted federal government mobile devices could serve as an entry point to attack back-end computer systems that contain citizen data and sensitive government information.

DHS S&T led the study in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

The Defense Department could soon unveil a road map that will describe how DoD plans to utilize unmanned air, ground and maritime technologies over the next 25 years, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Valerie Insinna writes the U.S. Air Force has assembled enterprise capability collaboration teams to help the service branch make decisions concerning its force structure

Lt. Col. Gary Rafnson, deputy chief of capabilities-based planning for ISR at the Air Force, said a draft version of the road map document has approximately 60 pages.

The “2013 Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap” paper outlined the agency’s strategies to expand defense capacities during a time when DoD faced budget uncertainty and included strategies on how the department looked to address anti-access and area-denial threats.