The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a cybersecurity guide meant to help small businesses secure information systems.

NIST said Wednesday it created the Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals guide in an effort to provide basic cybersecurity steps and walk small business owners through a risk assessment process.

“Businesses of all sizes face potential risks when operating online and therefore need to consider their cybersecurity,” said Pat Toth, lead author of the NIST guide.

“Small businesses may even be seen as easy targets to get into bigger businesses through the supply chain or payment portals,” Toth added.

The guide also contains worksheets to help small businesses identify information they store and use; determine the information’s value; and assess potential risks in case the information’s confidentiality, integrity or availability is compromised, NIST said.

The agency noted the publication outlines strategies to regulate employee access to data and information; conduct information security training for employees; establish information security policy and procedures; encrypt data; install web and email filters; and update operating systems and applications.

NIST added the guide recommends that small businesses install surge protectors and uninterruptible power supplies; look into cybersecurity insurance; and find reputable cybersecurity contractors.

The document is based on the agency’s Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity that was published in 2014 to provide standards and best practices from the federal government and industry.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has deployed more than 1,000 networked mobile detectors at the National Mall in downtown Washington as part of an exercise to track radioactive material threats in urban areas.

DARPA said Friday the scavenger hunt was conducted as part of the agency’s SIGMA program that aims to create networked sensors designed to provide radiation detection capacity over large urban areas.

Hundreds of volunteers participated in the field test and wielded a backpack that contained radiation detectors while walking around the park as they attempted to locate an abducted fictitious physicist.

“We collected and analyzed a huge amount of streaming data as we watched in real-time as participants covered a large portion of D.C.,” said Vincent Tang, a DARPA program manager.

The University of Maryland’s national consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism supported the planning of the day-long deployment with its recruitment of ROTC cadets from universities in the National Capital Region as well as U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen.

DARPA aims to test the system on a full city- and regional-scale as well as demonstrate the program’s continuous wide-area monitoring capacity in 2017 prior to its transition to local, state and federal operational systems in 2018.

https://youtu.be/GFJoDV1J0kQ

The Government Accountability Office has introduced a mobile application designed to help users access GAO’s priority recommendations for government operations management in support of the upcoming presidential and congressional transitions.

Gene Dodaro, U.S. comptroller general and GAO leader, said Thursday the app is designed to directly lay out lists of major changes necessary during the transition phase and allow users to navigate agency reports.

“GAO has organized its work to help President-elect Donald Trump and the next Congress tackle critical challenges facing the nation, fix agency-specific problems, and scrutinize government areas with the potential for large savings,” Dodaro added.

The app, which is now available on the App Store and Google Play, also direct users to newly established congressional and presidential transition web pages that offers GAO resources that officials can use to set priorities and implement reforms.

GAO noted that the transition web pages also features a management agenda, the agency’s high risk list and information on key national challenges the U.S. faces.

The General Services Administration, Office of Management and Budget and Defense Department have begun to co-host information sharing and collaboration sessions to provide software category management assistance to agency software license managers.

Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the integrated technology service office at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog entry posted Wednesday the Enterprise Software Category Team — comprised of GSA, OMB and DoD-Enterprise Software Initiative — supports agencies’ efforts to implement the Making Electronic Government Accountable by Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act.

She said the MEGABYTE Act directs agency chief information officers to manage their information technology infrastructure and conduct software category management in efforts to achieve savings that can be re-invested in IT modernization projects.

GSA’s IT Software Category team works with industry and government professionals in enterprise software licensing, software asset management, strategic sourcing and category management to help agencies meet MEGABYTE requirements, according to Davie.

She added ESCT hosts meetings where software license managers from 24 Chief Financial Officer Council agencies discuss progress in savings; software centralization; strategic vendor management; and software inventory data collection.

The team has facilitated nine sessions with representatives from 28 separate agencies which led to the creation of tools and templates designed to aid vendor management planning, software centralization, cost savings analysis and automated software asset management, Davie wrote.