A new MeriTalk study has found that 90 percent of federal information technology executives say their agencies have experienced a drop in security breaches such as insider threats and malware driven by the adoption of big data analytics.

The report titled “Navigating the Cybersecurity Equation” is underwritten by Cloudera and is based on an online poll of 150 federal IT managers in July, MeriTalk said Monday.

The survey also found that 81 percent of federal IT executives said their agencies have implemented big data analytics for cybersecurity purposes, while nearly 60 percent said their agencies still face cyber challenges at least once a month as a result of inability to perform data analysis.

Factors that affect federal agencies’ efforts to analyze data for cybersecurity measures include the lack of skilled staff and management support as well as potential privacy concerns.

“Internal and external cybersecurity threats will continue to evolve daily and we need to unlock the power of the data in order to regain the advantage,” said Rocky DeStefano, a cybersecurity subject matter expert at Cloudera.

“Agencies need complete visibility into the data across their enterprise.”

The study also revealed that 94 percent of respondents said they plan to make big data analytics-focused investments over the next couple of years in the areas of technology infrastructure, business intelligence and hardware.

MeriTalk also found that 84 percent of respondents think the adoption of big data analytics has helped prevent cyber attacks, while 88 percent believe their agencies encounter difficulties to derive cyber intelligence from data.

The Federal Aviation Administration‘s new regulations governing routine non-recreational use of small unmanned aerial systems went into effect Monday.

FAA said Monday it created the rules formally known as Part 107 in an effort to mitigate potential risks that small UAS can pose to other aircraft, people and properties on the ground.

The agency also implemented processes to help drone operators apply for waivers if their proposed flights do not quite comply with the new policy or seek authorization to fly Class G drones in controlled airspace.

On Monday, FAA launched an online portal where operators can request waivers of applicable provisions under Part 107 and expand operations based on technology mitigations.

Authorized testing centers in the U.S. will now administer the Aeronautical Knowledge Test to support the remote pilot certification process for applicants that aim to complete the FAA Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application.

The aviation authority also published extensive materials in August to help small UAS owners prepare for the test.

The National Training Center at Fort Irwin currently holds training exercises to evaluate a small unmanned aerial vehicle that will work to gather intelligence on adversaries for cyber operators and military intelligence personnel.

The U.S. Army Cyber Command said Friday Maj. Deonand Singh, operations officer for the 781st military intelligence battalion at Fort Meade, noted that the collected information will ultimately serve to provide tactical insights to brigade commanders.

The test team has used the small UAS to support the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team at Fort Riley on a two-week training rotation at NTC earlier this month, Army Cybercom added.

Lt. Col. Jon Burnett, Army Cybercom chief of cyber support to corps and below at Fort Belvoir, said the unmanned vehicle conducted reconnaissance tasks to get information on the training scenario’s operational information environment.

National Institutes of Health researchers have partnered with Florida State University and Johns Hopkins University and discovered three compounds that work to hamper the ability of Zika virus to replicate and destroy brain cells.

Scientists at NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences identified emricasan, niclosamide and a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor through the use of robots designed to perform drug repurposing screening functions, NIH said Monday.

Emricasan is an experimental drug that is under the clinical trial phase for the treatment of liver fibrosis and injury, while niclosamide is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of worm infections.

A CDK inhibitor, PHA-690509, works to regulate brain development and cellular processes.

“Our identification of repurposed small molecule compounds may accelerate the translational process of finding a potential therapy,” said Anton Simeonov, scientific director at NCATS.

A team led by NCATS researcher Wei Zheng identified over 100 compounds that work against the mosquito-borne virus through the use of a caspase 3 protein-based assay to screen 6,000 experimental and FDA-approved drugs.

The research team subjected at least 100 compounds to tests and identified three experimental treatments that work to protect neuronal cells from the virus.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, Emory University and NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke also supported the research.

NASA is slated to hold the final phase of the agency’s space exploration robotics challenge in September after five years of competition and will award a $1.36 million prize to the winning team.

Seven finalists have been selected out of 40 participating teams worldwide to compete for two hours to locate up to 10 unknown samples with different sizes, shapes, locations and difficulty levels under the easy, intermediate and hard categories, NASA said Tuesday.

The three-day Sample Return Robot Challenge will take place at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts from Sept. 4 to 6.

Finalists in the competition are:

• Team Al – Toronto, Canada
• Alabama Astrobotics – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• MAXed Out – Santa Clara, California
• Mind & Iron – Seattle, Washington
• Sirius – South Hadley, Massachusetts
• Survey – Los Angeles
• West Virginia University Mountaineers – Morgantown, West Virginia

The competition will close with an awards ceremony and press conference on Sept. 6 at the WPI quadrangle.

The challenge is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program with a goal to help further innovation in space exploration robotics technologies.