The House Homeland Security Committee has approved a bill to reorganize the Department of Homeland Security‘s cybersecurity functions and component responsibilities, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

Aliya Sternstein writes the bill would have DHS turn its National Protection and Programs Directorate into an operational agency under the name of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, which would be led by current NPPD leader Suzanne Spaulding.

DHS proposed the name adoption in April as part of efforts to expand its identity to its workforce and other interested stakeholders.

Nextgov said the reorganization would see Phyllis Schneck, current deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications at NPPD, transition into an assistant secretary position and have a principal deputy director oversee cybersecurity.

A separate agency assistant director will oversee DHS’ cybersecurity information sharing program, according to the report.

EmeSec CEO Maria Horton has said the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program‘s plans to revamp its accreditation process could shorten the approval timelines for cloud service providers and require additional costs.

In a guest piece published Wednesday by MeriTalk, Horton wrote the proposed changes could help CSPs gain an authority to operate within three to six months.

Horton added the planned “readiness capabilities assessment” feature could give the FedRAMP Program Management Office a retrospective look into CSPs’ performance as well as help CSPs identify measures to promote their offerings.

She also said the proposed process could also add costs and risks for CSPs since third party assessment organizations will conduct the initial system evaluation.

The provisional ATO path is less likely to be used if the changes are implemented since the process looks to limit CSPs that could go through FedRAMP Accelerated or gain P-ATOs, Horton noted.

Engineers at the U.S. Air Force have started development work on an auto-air collision avoidance platform designed to prevent mid-air collisions involving fighter jets, Scout Warrior reported Wednesday.

Kris Osborn writes the new platform is based on an auto-ground collision avoidance system that is already installed onboard digital versions of F-16 fighter aircraft.

The auto-ground collision avoidance tool works to prevent potential ground collisions by altering the aircraft’s flight path through the use of computer algorithms, according to the report.

The service branch plans to integrate the auto-ground collision avoidance system with other fighter jets apart from F-16s in order to avert potential air-to-ground crashes.

“With this technology there is now a chance that the pilot can regain consciousness and become situationally aware and prevent flying that airplane into the ground,” Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy for acquisition at the Air Force, said in an interview with Scout Warrior.

Beth Cobert, acting director at the Office of Personnel Management, has said she is confident about the cybersecurity of the agency’s new information technology systems in an interview with the Washington Post published Wednesday.

She told The Post’s Joe Davidson that OPM moved to implement data protection measures after last year’s breach incident that affected approximately 22 million federal employee records.

“We have made huge strides,” Cobert noted during the interview.

“We have a lot of great tools in place.”

Davidson reports the agency established a continuous monitoring program, limited remote access to its network and formed a centralized security workforce to help protect IT systems across the organization.

OPM also adopted a two-factor authentication system as well as tools designed to stop malicious programs from entering the agency’s network and prevent data extrusion, according to the report.

A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management has said OPM has initiated steps to extend identify theft and credit monitoring services to victims of data breaches at the agency from three years to up to 10 years, Government Executive reported Wednesday.

The spokesman added that OPM also plans to increase its spending on such services from $1 million to as much as $5 million, Eric Katz writes.

Bob Gregg, CEO of data breach response services provider ID Experts, told GovExec that OPM might also expand identity theft protection to data hack victims who use their personal data to gain access to medical services.

According to the report, ID Experts received a $330 million contract from OPM to provide such services to approximately 21.5 million federal employees whose personal data were compromised in cyber hacks at the agency.

Gregg added that talks over OPM’s plan to introduce a proposal on the types of identity theft protection and credit monitoring assistance that the agency would offer to all federal employees might “heat up” soon as the 18-month fraud protection support contract for the first breach incident at the agency approaches expiration, according to GovExec.