NASA, NCAR Scientists Design Risk Map to Forecast Zika Virus Spread
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NASA, NCAR Scientists Design Risk Map to Forecast Zika Virus Spread


medical health doctorA team of scientists from NASA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and other institutions have developed a risk map that works to forecast the potential spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the U.S. from South America.

The National Institutes of Health also supported the team in efforts to design a tool that examines factors such as temperature, rainfall and socioeconomic aspects that may affect the spread of the virus in an effort to predict the time and scope of a potential outbreak, NASA said Wednesday.

“Knowledge is one of the most effective barriers to disease transmission and can alleviate unnecessary concern,” said Cory Morin, a NASA postdoctoral program fellow at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Earth Science Office.

Morin said transmission officials can create strategies that work to limit the spread of Zika through identification of risk factors.

The scientists believethe Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the virus will multiply across the southern and eastern U.S. in the coming months as warmer temperatures arrive during the summer months along the Atlantic coast and southern tier out to Phoenix and Los Angeles.

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Matt Gorham Takes Charge of FBI’s Washington-Based Counterterrorism Division
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Matt Gorham Takes Charge of FBI’s Washington-Based Counterterrorism Division


FBIMatt Gorham, formerly deputy assistant director for FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, will serve as the special agent in charge of the law enforcement agency’s counterterrorism division at the Washington field office.

He will assume his new duties in May, the bureau said Thursday.

Gorham joined FBI in 1995 and was assigned to handle violent crime and drug investigations within the Pittsburgh division prior to his work in the area of counterterrorism.

He also directed FBI’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the international operations division.

Gorham has also held several leadership roles within the bureau’s criminal investigative division, Richmond division and the cyber division.

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Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5
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Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5


Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5The Library of Congress will take down the online legislative information database THOMAS.gov on July 5 and transition the system to the Congress.gov domain.

The Library said Thursday THOMAS.gov’s two-decade old infrastructure can no longer support updates that would meet the needs of users.

The website was launched in 1995 and named after Thomas Jefferson through a bipartisan initiative.

Congress.gov went live in beta form in 2012 and is designed to provide data sets on bill status, summary and text; the Congressional Record; Congressional Record Index and committee reports; executive actions and archives that date back to 1973, the Library said.

The new website also contains Senate and House committee and member profiles, videos of legislative process and committee hearings, glossary of terms and direct links from bills to Congressional Budget Office cost estimates.

Congress.gov is a joint project between the Library, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Government Publishing Office.

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ODNI Eyes Social Media as Information Source
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ODNI Eyes Social Media as Information Source


SocialMediaOffice of the Director of National Intelligence leaders are continuing their efforts to issue a security executive agent directive that will set policies and guidelines on social media usage, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Nicole Ogrysko writes that the directive — still under review at the Office of Management and Budget — looks to detail ODNI staff on the proposed policies in an effort to use publicly-available information for use.

Bill Evanina, director of ODNI’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance-hosted event in Chantilly, Virginia Thursday social media is an area to be monitored as agencies continue to evaluate its employees with access to information, Ogrysko reported.

Kemp Ensor, director of security at the National Security Agency, called social media a “void” that NSA wants to patch through its own insider threat programs, according to the report.

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DHS Seeks Public Input on Social Media Monitoring Tool for Emergency Response Efforts
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DHS Seeks Public Input on Social Media Monitoring Tool for Emergency Response Efforts


DHS - ExecutiveMosaicThe Department of Homeland Security has requested public comments on a proposed records system that would permit DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency to collect, track and maintain social media-derived data for use in situational awareness operations.

DHS said in a Federal Register notice published April 21 the new system will work to help FEMA transmit information from social media sources to first responders in an effort to protect life and property from natural disasters, terrorism and other emergencies.

DHS set up the system in compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and will integrate the tool with its list of record systems.

The new system would authorize FEMA to create profiles and follow government officials, newscasters, spokespersons and private sector officials on social media in order to gather and monitor information for use in situational awareness missions.

Public comments on the proposed system will be accepted through May 23, according to the notice.

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Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser Nominated to Head AFRICOM
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Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser Nominated to Head AFRICOM


Thomas Waldhauser
Thomas Waldhauser

Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser,  director of joint force development at Joint Staff J7, has been nominated to serve as the next commander of U.S. Africa Command.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday Waldhauser’s nomination, if approved by Congress, will result in a promotion to the rank of general.

Waldhauser joined the U.S. military in 1976 as an infantry officer and has since held company grade assignments with the U.S. Marine Corps.

He deployed to the staff of the commander for the Marine Corps Central Command during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and served as the battalion landing team commander of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.

Waldhauser took the roles as commanding general for the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory and as deputy commander for the Marine Corps Combat Development Command when he was appointed as brigadier general in 2003.

He was promoted to the lieutenant general rank in 2009 and served as the deputy commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations from 2009 to 2010.

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Industry Groups React to DoD’s Source Selection Method for ‘Encore III’ IT Services Vehicle
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Industry Groups React to DoD’s Source Selection Method for ‘Encore III’ IT Services Vehicle


cloudITTwo government-contracting trade organizations have urged the Defense Department to take action to address their concerns about DoD’s use of a “lowest price, technically acceptable” method for selecting vendors for its Encore III information technology acquisition program.

The Professional Services Council and the IT Alliance for Public Sector told DoD acquisition chief Frank Kendall in a joint letter published April 22 they believe the LPTA method to be “inappropriate” for the Encore III contract vehicle and is in “direct contradiction” to the department’s guidance on that source selection process.

The Defense Information Systems Agency released the formal request for proposals on the contract March 3 and closed the bid solicitation April 25.

Encore III has an overall ceiling value of $17.5 billion over 10 years and will cover IT products and services that can be potentially used to support the department’s Joint Information Environment.

In their letter to Kendall, PSC and ITAPS explained that using LPTA is inappropriate because of the complexity of the program’s technology requirements.

The trade groups also pointed to an uncertainty on the technical labor market over the next decade and a disconnect between the costs being evaluated for the LPTA process and the actual work to be carried out under Encore III.

PSC and ITAPS said they believe “cost/technical tradeoff” analysis is the proper method to assess industry proposals on the contract since the department is looking for high-caliber IT offerings and not just commodity technology products.

ViON’s Rob Davies: Cloud Mgmt, Support Issues Must Be Laid Out in SLA
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ViON’s Rob Davies: Cloud Mgmt, Support Issues Must Be Laid Out in SLA


Rob Davies
Rob Davies

Rob Davies, executive vice president of operations at ViON Corp., suggests that the issues of cloud management responsibilities must be specified from the outset of a contract, CIO reported Wednesday.

During a panel discussion hosted by Federal News Radio Davies expressed that service level agreements must define the expectations of both the service provider and the customer during the contract negotiation stage, Kenneth Corbin reports.

Marlon Andrews, deputy chief information officer at the National Archives and Records Administration, told the panel that agencies still face the challenge of defining roles and responsibilities as agencies transition to a new technology environment, according to the report.

“Those are our challenges – not so much writing a contract, but once a contract is in place, how do we move forward in a support model that satisfies the requirements,” he said during the discussion.

“It is laid out in service-level agreements, but then when something goes wrong or you need something done, that’s when the finger-pointing takes place,” Andrews said.

Mark Schwartz, CIO at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, also said during the discussion that the CIS seeks what he describes as a cloud-native approach to identify cloud applications and manage the migration, CIO reports.

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Ash Carter: Pentagon Needs to Continue RD-180 Engine Buys
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Ash Carter: Pentagon Needs to Continue RD-180 Engine Buys


Ash Carter
Ash Carter

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said the Pentagon must continue its purchases of Russian RD-180 rocket engines until the U.S. can find an alternative to the United Launch Alliance‘s Atlas V, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Colin Clark writes that Carter told the Senate Appropriation defense subcommittee the military needs to buy at least 18 RD-180 engines or fly its payloads on Delta IV launch vehicles, which he claimed would require additional funds.

U.S. Air Force officials and some senior Pentagon officials have promoted the use of 18 RD-180 rocket engines until ULA, SpaceX and Blue Origin can offer new rockets that can carry military and other national security satellites into space, according to Clark’s report.

Moscow, Russia-based rocket engine company NPO Energomash designed and manufactures the RD-180 engines used on the Atlas V rocket.

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GAO: Transportation Dept Should Define Responsibilities in Vehicle Cyber Attacks
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GAO: Transportation Dept Should Define Responsibilities in Vehicle Cyber Attacks


cyberThe Government Accountability Office has recommended the Transportation Department define and document its roles and responsibilities for responses to cyber attacks against vehicles with an emphasis on systems that affect passenger safety.

GAO said in a report publicly released Monday it found modern vehicle interfaces for functions such as braking and steering that rely on software can be vulnerable to attacks via both short-range and long-range wireless connections.

Auditors at GAO consulted 32 selected industry stakeholders on practices that work to identify and mitigate potential vehicle cybersecurity risks such as lack of transparency, communication and collaboration on vehicles’ cyber defenses as the automobiles move through supply chains.

GAO found the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has worked to address potential vehicle cybersecurity issues and looks to determine its role in responding to a real-world attack.

GAO conducted the study to address available information about risks in modern vehicles that could affect passenger safety, practices and technologies to mitigate vehicle cybersecurity challenges and its impacts, opinions of selected stakeholders and DOT’s efforts to address vehicle cybersecurity.

Auditors also reviewed existing regulations and literature and interviewed DOT officials as well as other government heads from the Commerce Department, Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, industry associations and various other subject matter experts.

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