The Defense Information Systems Agency plans to integrate tools into the Defense Department‘s Host Based Security System cyber threat detection platform to support the transition to a new cybersecurity network defense approach.

DISA said Tuesday HBSS will evolve into Endpoint Security Solutions through a multi-year effort that will include product life-cycle updates and the addition of endpoint protection components such application whitelisting, visibility and containment tools.

ESS will also utilize the security features of the Windows 10 secure host baseline, the agency added.

The new approach to network defense will undergo constant review through the Unclassified-but-Sensitive Internet Protocol Router Network/Secret Internet Protocol Router Network Cyber Security Architecture Review process, DISA said.

The agency collaborates with the National Security Agency, the DoD Cyber Range and “red” teams to support DoD’s department-wide endpoint security effort.

NASA has invited university student teams and their faculty advisers to design and analyze concepts that utilize modular space systems and robotic technology for in-space spacecraft assembly.

NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and the National Institute of Aerospace seek ideas for the development of tugs that are powered by solar electric propulsion and would work to transfer payloads to a lunar distant retrograde orbit from low Earth orbit, NASA said Tuesday.

The quest is part of the 2017 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing Idea Challenge and interested participants are required to submit proposals by Nov. 30.

NASA said a panel of experts will select four finalist teams to submit technical papers on their concepts and prepare a presentation for the BIG Idea Forum in February, for which they will get a $6,000 stipend.

The space agency added it will offer the winning team paid internships with the GCD team at the Langley Research Center to develop and mature their concept.

A few concepts NASA wants participants to use in the challenge include approaches for packaging modules to minimize the loads of launch vehicles, modular solar arrays and ion engines as well as robotic assembly of the modules that constitute the SEP tug.

The Government Accountability Office has called on the Defense Department to maintain a database to keep track of National Guard’s emergency response capabilities in support of civil agencies during a cyber attack.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday DoD should also carry out a “tier 1” exercise that would involve combatant commanders and organizations at the national level in order to help prepare its personnel for disasters with cyber and physical effects.

The tier 1 exercise would also help the Pentagon assess response capabilities, test response plans and address challenges in previous exercises that seek to support civil authorities during a cyber incident, the congressional audit agency said.

GAO made the recommendations after it found that DoD has encountered difficulties in prior cyber exercises, such as inadequate integration of joint physical-cyber scenarios and limited participant access.

The report also cited cyber units, computer network defense groups and communications directorates as the three cyber capability types that are present in National Guard units.

Some of the DoD-backed cyber exercises that seek to support civil agencies in the event of a cyber attack include the U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Guard 15, Army National Guard’s Cyber Shield 2015 and the Vista Host II exercise of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, the report added.

The Defense Department plans to redirect $100 million in funds toward efforts that seek to detect cyber threats in weapon systems, Defense News reported Thursday.

Joe Gould writes DoD Comptroller Mike McCord issued an Aug. 29 notice to inform Congress of the Pentagon’s plans to transfer the funds to a research, test and evaluation budget from a technology analysis account to facilitate detection of cyber vulnerabilities in weapon systems.

The fiscal year 2016 defense policy allocates $200 million to fund DoD’s efforts to assess network threats in weapon systems and requires the department to submit a report to Congress by the end of 2019, Gould reports.

Jacquelyn Schneider, a scholar at George Washington University, said in a report published by the Center for New American Security, that weapon systems built in the past two decades are vulnerable to cyber attacks since such platforms rely on digital satellite communications, blue force trackers, GPS networks and network targeting data, according to the report.

The report said the Distributed Common Ground System-Army and the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 Lightning II aircraft are some of the military platforms that depend on digital systems.