US Navy Leads 30-Country Mine Countermeasures Exercise; William Warrender Comments
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US Navy Leads 30-Country Mine Countermeasures Exercise; William Warrender Comments


Canada_navy supply shipThe U.S. Naval Forces Command has helped to kick off the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise, a gathering of international naval and civilian maritime forces from six continents and 30 countries in Bahrain.

The event will tackle exercises that train participants to execute a spectrum of defensive operations that works to protect international commerce and trade including mine countermeasures, maritime security, operations and maritime infrastructure protection, the Navy said Monday.

“Our aim in IMCMEX 16 is to conduct exercises with our partner nations that allow us to continue to develop our interoperability and capability to ensure that we are ready to meet potential challenges now and in the future,” said William Warrender, combined maritime forces deputy commander for the British navy.

IMCMEX will feature new technologies such as unmanned underwater vehicles, exercise the USNS Choctaw County sealift capabilities and carry out other operations.

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Dimitri Kusnezov Nominated NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs
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Dimitri Kusnezov Nominated NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs


Dimitri-Kusnezov
Dimitri Kusnezov

Dimitri Kusnezov, chief scientist at the Energy Department‘s National Nuclear Security Administration, has been nominated to the role of deputy administrator for defense programs at NNSA.

President Barack Obama announced Kusnezov’s nomination on Thursday along with other key administration posts.

Kusnezov, who is also currently a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, has held several roles at NNSA since entering federal service in 2001.

He has served as acting chief information officer and director of the offices of science and policy, defense science, advanced simulation and computing, and research and development for national security science and technology.

Prior to working at NNSA, he taught physics at Yale University and Michigan State University and was a post-doctoral associate at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Kusnezov is a member of the Senior Executive Service.

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DHS Deploys User Verification Tool by Johns Hopkins APL-Queralt Team for Data Sharing
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DHS Deploys User Verification Tool by Johns Hopkins APL-Queralt Team for Data Sharing


cybersecurityThe Department of Homeland Security has begun to deploy a new system designed to help DHS facilitate data sharing and collaboration with other federal agencies and organizations through the Homeland Security Information Network.

DHS’ science and technology directorate provided funds to help Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and cloud-based platform provider Queralt build the Backend Attribute Exchange tool, DHS said Thursday.

The Backend Attribute Exchange system works to streamline the process of verification and identification of individuals’ credentials between different agencies or organizations.

“Ensuring the identity of network users is critical to sharing information securely,” said Reginald Brothers, undersecretary for science and technology at DHS.

At least 55,000 individuals use HSIN to carry out planning and response operations in support of national security missions, the department noted.

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DoD Awards $162M to 23 FY 2016 Projects Under Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative
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DoD Awards $162M to 23 FY 2016 Projects Under Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative

research and development RDThe Defense Department has chosen 23 multidisciplinary research projects to receive grants worth a total of $162 million over the next five years.

DoD said Thursday 54 academic institutions will engage in the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program for fiscal year 2016 through the selected science and engineering projects.

In FY 2015, the MURI program awarded a total of $149 million to 22 research programs touching on 19 topics including impulsive biological force, quantum optics and dimensional organic polymers, ExecutiveGov reported June 2015.

Melissa Flagg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for research, said the MURI program has helped develop technology in support of military forces in the past 30 years, including laser frequency combs, nano-manufacturing and spintronics technology.

She added that DoD has also partnered with the National Science Foundation’s NSF Innovation Corps program to deliver training on entrepreneurship to selected MURI participants in support of efforts to engage with industry on the technologies developed through the initiative.

The U.S. Army‘s research office, the U.S. Air Force‘s office of scientific research and the Office of Naval Research received 270 white papers and 88 proposals on 21 topics for the FY 2016 competition.

Click here to view the list of MURI awardees for FY 2016.

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University-Led Consortium Aims to Help DHS Secure US Infrastructure Via New Center
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University-Led Consortium Aims to Help DHS Secure US Infrastructure Via New Center


cybersecurityThe Department of Homeland Security has partnered with a consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a new center of excellence to develop critical infrastructure security tools and strategies.

DHS said Thursday the university will host an event Tuesday to mark the official launch of the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute CoE.

The CIRI consortium, which comprises 16 U.S. universities, companies and national laboratories, will run the new center as part of a potential $20 million grant awarded by DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate.

The group aims to help facilitate public-private initiatives to strengthen the resiliency of critical U.S. systems against cyber threats through the center.

Matt Clark, director of the DHS S&T Directorate’s Office of University Programs, Bob Kolasky, deputy assistant secretary at DHS’ Office of Infrastructure Protection, and University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen will deliver speeches at the CIRI CoE kickoff event.

GSA’s 18F Assembles Open Source Code Repositories on GitHub
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GSA’s 18F Assembles Open Source Code Repositories on GitHub


digital governmentThe General Services Administration‘s 18F organization has assembled repositories that contain open source code on its GitHub account in an effort to help federal government employees reuse the code for their work and personal use.

Britta Gustafson, content designer at 18F, wrote in a blog post published Wednesday that the code repositories include client projects, guides, prototypes and open source tools 18F plans to adapt.

The U.S. Digital Service worked to develop the code in a “free and open source software” model as a part of the public domain, according to Gustafson.

18F currently works to identify generic components of its project and detach them from the applications they are created for, Gustafson added.

“If you’re interested in volunteering to contribute to our work, these projects are in varying stages of development and would generally benefit from external expertise — feel welcome to open issues and pull requests,” Gustafson wrote.

Click here to view a list of 35 reusable projects from 18F that are currently available for various software development purposes.

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GAO Examines Use of Cloud Service-Level Agreements at 5 Federal Departments
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GAO Examines Use of Cloud Service-Level Agreements at 5 Federal Departments


cloudITThe departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Treasury and Homeland Security use service level agreements to procure cloud computing services from the private sector, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

GAO said Thursday it reviewed a total of 21 cloud SLAs from those five departments in order to determine the extent to which they have incorporated 10 key contract management practices.

Seven of the contracts reviewed include all key practices, 13 contracts contain five to nine practices and one contract does not incorporate any of those practices.

“Unless agencies fully implement SLA key practices into their SLAs, they may not be able to adequately measure the performance of the services, and, therefore, may not be able to effectively hold the contractors accountable when performance falls short,” GAO noted.

The agency recommended that the Office of Management and Budget add the 10 key practices to its future guidance for federal agencies.

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FAS: James Clapper Asks Intell Agency Leaders to Help Review Data Classification Practices
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FAS: James Clapper Asks Intell Agency Leaders to Help Review Data Classification Practices


James Clapper
James Clapper

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged the heads of U.S. intelligence agencies to review guidelines for data classification and identify obsolete secrecy policies that should be removed, the Federation of American Scientists reported Wednesday.

Steven Aftergood writes Clapper told intelligence agency directors in a March 23 memo obtained by FAS to “take a leading role in reducing targeted classification activities that could extend to the larger federal government.”

He asked them to examine the feasibility of cutting the number of original classification authorities in their respective organizations and to provide input on requirements that will be needed to implement a discretionary declassification program.

Clapper, a 2016 Wash100 recipient, also wants to know the potential advantages and disadvantages of creating an intelligence community-wide classification guide and if the confidential-level designation can be eliminated from agency guides.

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Carl Ghattas Named FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism
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Carl Ghattas Named FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism


fbi-headquartersCarl Ghattas has been appointed as FBI‘s new assistant director for the counterterrorism division and will be based at the bureau headquarters in Washington.

FBI Director James Comey has tasked the former special agent to oversee the headquarters’ investigations in counterterrorism, the bureau said Thursday.

The new assistant director has held numerous leadership positions since he joined the bureau in 1997.

He has served as the deputy assistant director in the directorate of intelligence at FBI HQ, chief of the extraterritorial investigations unit within the counterterrorism division, assistant special agent in charge of the Washington field office and chief of the strategic operations section at FBI HQ.

Ghattas also headed several overseas terrorism investigations in North America, South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and some domestic terrorism cases in Washington and the northern Virginia region.

GAO: Agencies Continue to Face Financial Reporting, Management Challenges
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GAO: Agencies Continue to Face Financial Reporting, Management Challenges


budget analysis reviewA Government Accountability Office report says unaddressed weaknesses in federal internal controls over financial reporting have prevented the agency from giving an opinion on the government’s annual financial statement.

GAO said Wednesday it observed that the government is still unable to adequately reconcile many intragovernmental transactions and balances among agencies and that financial management challenges continue to plague the Defense Department.

“Both the long-term fiscal projections included in the governmentwide financial statements and GAO’s own recent long-term fiscal simulations show that, absent policy changes, the federal government continues to face an unsustainable long-term fiscal path,” the agency noted.

According to the report, the federal government has issued more than $1 trillion in improper payments since fiscal year 2003 and generated an estimated an annual tax gap of $385 billion.

GAO said it believes that continued oversight by the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget as well as strong commitment by all agencies are key to address federal financial management challenges.

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