The Office of Naval Research has developed nanoscale electrical wires made of genetically modified soil bacteria.

ONR’s warfighting performance department sponsored a team of researchers led by Derek Lovley, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to create a synthetic nanowire based on genetically engineered Geobacter, ONR said Tuesday.

Researchers altered the bacteria’s genetic profile and substituted two amino acids with tryptophan, an amino acid that works to transport electrons at the nanoscale.

Study results show that the synthetic nanowires conducted electricity 2,000 times more than their common counterparts.

“Being able to produce extremely thin wires with sustainable materials has enormous potential application as components of electronic devices such as sensors, transistors and capacitors,” said Linda Chrisey, a program officer at ONR’s warfighter performance department.

Cameron Chehreh, chief technology officer at Dell’s federal business, has said the structure of legacy software for government off-the-shelf products is the main challenge facing the government’s information technology modernization efforts in an interview with Signal Magazine posted Tuesday.

Chehreh told the publication the use of virtualization technology, software-defined networking and virtualized data centers as well as gradual modernization efforts could help to address risks.

A Dell-sponsored survey of 100 federal IT leaders says 71 percent of respondents claim they run “important” applications through outdated operating systems.

Chehreh added government organizations should get their staff to support “the real imperative to modernize,” Jontz reported.

A hacker group known as “Shadow Brokers” plans to auction off files it claims it has stolen from the computer systems of “Equation Group” cyber spies linked with the National Security Agency, Wired reported Monday.

Andy Greenberg writes that Shadow Brokers released an encrypted file that has a decryption key offered for sale in a bitcoin auction, as well as a sample of the stolen data with 300 megabytes worth of code that match NSA-used cyber exploits.

The group posted its claim on the data theft in a now-deleted post to the microblogging site Tumblr, the report said.

Matt Suiche, founder of incident response firm Comae Technologies, has said the released sample files also include previously unpublished exploits that targeted Cisco, Juniper, Fortigate and Topsec equipment.

The report added that Claudio Guarnieri, a researcher at the University of Toronto, also pointed to a match with NSA code included in the 2013 data leak by Edward Snowden.

Wired noted some security researchers think that the leak may be a deceptive operation designed to confuse potential investigators of the hack.

NASA has partnered with Space Center Houston and innovation consulting firm NineSigma to launch a $1 million prize competition that seeks to foster technology development in the area of robotic dexterity to support the agency’s Journey to Mars initiative.

The Space Robotics Challenge seeks teams to program a virtual robot based on NASA’s Robonaut 5 to perform tasks in a simulated environment that involves latency periods to represent communications delay from Earth to Mars, the agency said Wednesday.

“Precise and dexterous robotics, able to work with a communications delay, could be used in spaceflight and ground missions to Mars and elsewhere for hazardous and complicated tasks, which will be crucial to support our astronauts,” said Monsi Roman, manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program.

The agency noted it will challenge participants to align a communications dish, repair a solar array or fix a habitat leak on a Martian habitat with virtual robots.

NASA also looks to integrate software that will be developed through the competition with old and future robotic technology platforms.

Technology could help robots to set up habitats, life support systems, communications and solar apparatuses as well as conduct preliminary scientific research ahead of astronauts’ arrival at landing sites, according to the agency.

The Space Robotics Challenge’s qualifying round will occur from September to November and an open practice will take place from January to early June 2017.

NASA is slated to hold the final virtual competition in June next year.

The General Services Administration has launched a new special item number for cybersecurity platforms and services and collaborated with other federal agencies to develop procurement support to facilitate cyber vulnerability assessments of government information technology systems.

GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth wrote in a blog post published Monday such actions are part of GSA’s initiative to update its acquisition vehicles in support of the Obama administration’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan.

GSA has also implemented the “Making It Easier to Work With Government” program that seeks to help small businesses and vendors of cybersecurity products and services secure contracts through the agency’s multiple award schedules, said Roth, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2016.

She also cited that GSA has made updates to the Acquisition Gateway’s IT category and has notified procurement and program managers about cybersecurity-focused acquisition vehicles.

GSA’s 18F digital services team has teamed up with the Office of Management and Budget to help draft guidance that seeks to help agencies develop implementation plans for legacy IT system updates in support of CNAP, Roth added.