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Amy Hess: FBI Relies on Judicial Authorization Principle to Access Encrypted Electronic Data
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Amy Hess: FBI Relies on Judicial Authorization Principle to Access Encrypted Electronic Data


mobile securityAmy Hess, executive assistant director of the FBI‘s science and technology branch, has said the FBI needs access to electronic information to aid in its investigations amid technological changes and evolving national security and criminal threats.

Hess made the remarks in testimony delivered Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight and investigation subpanel.

She cited the use of encrypted messaging tools by the Islamic State organization and other terrorist groups to radicalize individuals to perform terrorist attacks.

Hess told the House panel how the FBI implements the judicial authorization principle in order to ensure public safety as well as the individuals’ right to private communications.

“One of the bedrock principles upon which we rely to guide us is the principle of judicial authorization: that if an independent judge finds legally sufficient reason to believe that certain private communications contain evidence of a crime, then the government can conduct a limited search for that evidence,” she said.

Hess also noted the need for the U.S. government and the public to engage in a dialogue to discuss the impact of encryption on law enforcement agencies’ investigations.

House Subcommittee Looks to Revive F-22 Production
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House Subcommittee Looks to Revive F-22 Production


U.S. Air Force photo
U.S. Air Force photo

The House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee wants the F-22 fighter jet to return to the production line under a new defense bill proposal, The Hill reported Tuesday.

Kristina Wong writes the subcommittee released its proposals for the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday that seeks to restart production of the fighter jet after its closure in 2009.

Lawmakers ordered a study into the return of the aircraft to the production line amid growing concerns over adversarial activities that the subcommittee describes as “closing the technology gap” with the U.S., according to The Hill.

Defense News reported Wednesday that a 2010 RAND study estimated the cost of acquiring 75 F-22s at $17 billion based on the dollar value in 2008.

Lockheed Martin shut down the F-22 production at its Marietta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas facilities to comply with a order from then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Bob McDonald, Sloan Gibson: VA Works to Transform Veterans Care System
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Bob McDonald, Sloan Gibson: VA Works to Transform Veterans Care System


medical health doctorVeterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald and Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson have highlighted VA’s ongoing efforts to transform its healthcare system during a meeting with the Commission on Care in Washington, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.

Ben Thompson writes the MacDonald and Gibson told the commission that 90 percent of veterans who responded to a survey said they are “satisfied” or “completely satisfied” with the length of waiting time at VA hospitals.

However, a new Government Accountability Office report says the current VA system does not address the primary care needs of all newly enrolled veterans, according to Thompson’s article.

The report said GAO also found a wide variation in the amount of time newly enrolled veterans waited to receive  primary care at several VA medical centers.

McDonald said at the Commission on Care meeting the department aims to address veterans’ care access challenges through MyVA initiative, Military Times’ Patricia Kime reports.

He informed the panel that VA also seeks budget flexibility from Congress to implement other healthcare transformation measures.

“We can change the system if we get the legislation we need… but getting someone [in Congress] to work on the future has been difficult,” he added, according to Military Times.

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NIST Roadmap Seeks to Help Commerce Department Leverage Analytics for Public Safety Efforts
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NIST Roadmap Seeks to Help Commerce Department Leverage Analytics for Public Safety Efforts


big dataThe National Institutes of Standards and Technology has published a report that seeks to help the Commerce Department identify research-and-development opportunities to leverage data analytics for use in public safety communications and response efforts in the next two decades.

The Public Safety Analytics R&D Roadmap aims to guide the department on how to apportion funds worth approximately $300 million that NIST raised through the AWS-3 spectrum auction in 2015, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The document also details several R&D opportunities the department could pursue in the field of software, devices and networks in the next 20 years.

For the software category, the roadmap calls on the department to define standards on Internet-of-Things-based data and set up a public safety-focused data analysis and sharing center.

The roadmap also recommends the establishment of a network-based element to deliver mission-critical data as well as the development of an analytics framework that will work to help integrate various data sources across sensors and devices used in public safety communications.

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Report: Pentagon Mulls Maritime Surveillance Assistance to U.K.
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Report: Pentagon Mulls Maritime Surveillance Assistance to U.K.


PoseidonThe Defense Department plans to explore options on how it can assist the U.K. in maritime surveillance efforts before the British military receives its first P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft from the U.S., Defense News reported Tuesday.

According to the story by Aaron Mehta, the U.K. seeks to procure up to nine Boeing-built P-8s as part of efforts to increase the country’s airborne anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told the publication that Philip Dunne, British minister for defense procurement, has asked him what options they might consider to help address a maritime patrol capability gap in the U.K.

“We’re going to talk with the Navy and see what might be able to be worked out,” Work told Defense News.

Mehta reports some British military personnel have trained on the U.S. Navy‘s P-8s since after the U.K. cancelled its Nimrod acquisition program in 2010.

Robert Work also told Defense News that the U.S. will work to ensure the P-8 production line will not face interruptions that could possibly delay deliveries of the aircraft to the U.K.

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Box’s Aaron Levie: Cybersecurity Policies Should Be Aligned With the ‘New Digital World’
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Box’s Aaron Levie: Cybersecurity Policies Should Be Aligned With the ‘New Digital World’


cybersecurityAaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of cloud storage firm Box, wrote in a column posted Tuesday in The Washington Post that lawmakers should introduce policies on cybersecurity based on the “new digital world.”

Levie’s article is in response to a draft bill on encryption introduced by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The proposed legislation would require technology firms to help law enforcement authorities in their investigations through the establishment of encryption “backdoors” in their products.

“The collision between legacy laws and our new digital world will continue to resurface until our policy approaches catch up to our technology,” Levie wrote.

“We need legislation that is more attuned to the practical and technical realities of the new digital world and the long-term consequences of the decisions that we are making,” he added.

NASA Selects Preliminary Winners for Student Launch Challenge, Concludes Rocket Fair Event
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NASA Selects Preliminary Winners for Student Launch Challenge, Concludes Rocket Fair Event


deep_spaceNASA has released the list of preliminary winners from this year’s edition of the space agency’s annual Student Launch Challenge which took place April 13 through April 16.

The space agency said Tuesday that almost 50 teams of middle school, high school, college and university teams from 22 states participated in the week-long event that sought to evaluate competitors’ aerospace and engineering skills.

Teams looked to meet the goals that required rockets to fly to an altitude of one mile, deploy an automated parachute system and land in a state that allows the rocket to be reused.

NASA will announce overall winners in May, when the top three teams will each receive cash prizes and corporate sponsor Orbital ATK will award $5,000 to the first place winner.

A Rocket Fair event was also held for teams to deliver technical presentations on developed rocket and autonomous systems and receive feedback from NASA personnel and Orbital ATK’s team of rocket scientists and engineers.

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Ash Carter, Middle East Defense Chiefs Talk Defense Ties
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Ash Carter, Middle East Defense Chiefs Talk Defense Ties


Ashton Carter
Ashton Carter

Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates armed forces, have discussed the bilateral defense relationship between the  two countries, DoD News reported Tuesday.

The two defense officials met at Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE to discuss counterterrorism, instability in Iraq and Syria and Iran’s destabilizing efforts, according to the report.

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said the two leaders also overviewed shared objectives for the U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, DoD News reports.

Carter also met with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Deputy Crown Prince ‎Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to discuss the mutual security interests between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, according to another report by DoD News.

The defense secretary cited special operations and counterterrorism forces training, air and missile defense integration, cyber defense and maritime security as areas he says the U.S. and Saudi Arabia can enhance security cooperation, that second report says.

NASA Conducts Multi-Site Drone Traffic Mgmt Platform Test
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NASA Conducts Multi-Site Drone Traffic Mgmt Platform Test


droneNASA was scheduled Monday to demonstrate unmanned aircraft systems at six Federal Aviation Administration-approved UAS test sites across the U.S. as part of a coordinated test for NASA’s traffic management research platform.

The space agency said Monday its Ames Research Center would fly up to four drones at each location and monitor the flights from a remote location with the UTM system.

The initiative seeks to help non-NASA operators interact with the UTM research platform at various locations and collect information to help the FAA fine-tune the research effort.

UAS testing sites are located in Alaska, North Dakota, Nevada, New York, Maryland and Virginia.

NASA noted that the demonstration marks the first multi-site test of its UTM research platform and the most number of live UAS flights under the research platform.

Senate Panel-Approved FY 2017 Spending Bill Gives $19B to NASA
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Senate Panel-Approved FY 2017 Spending Bill Gives $19B to NASA


BudgetThe Senate Appropriations Committee’s commerce, justice and science panel has approved a fiscal year 2017 spending bill that will provide NASA with a $19.3 billion total budget, Space News reported Tuesday.

Jeff Foust writes that the amount is $21 million more than the space agency’s fiscal 2016 budget and includes $3.45 billion for the Space Launch System and Orion programs — an increase of $180 million from allocations for both projects in the previous year.

“This level makes it possible for the agency to continue supporting ongoing science and exploration missions,” Sen. Richard Shelby, CJS subcommittee chairman, said in the report.

The bill also looks to meet requirements for work on SLS’ Exploration Upper Stage and a crewed SLS/Orion mission by 2021, the report said.

It will also allocate $5.4 billion for science programs, along with $1.18 billion for the Commercial Crew program and $687 million for space technology.

Jeffrey Mervis also reported on Science Magazine that the bill gives the National Science Foundation a $46 million increase to its current $7.46 billion budget, which is below the White House’s request of $500 million additional funds for NSF.

The report noted that more details on the proposed budget will be provided at the Senate Appropriations Committee meeting Thursday.

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