The Department of Homeland Security has authorized four companies to offer a network analysis service to their commercial and government clients as part of DHS’ Enhanced Cybersecurity Services voluntary information-sharing program.

The NetFlow Analysis tool will work to help AT&T, CenturyLink, Lockheed Martin and Verizon identify and examine malicious activity in enterprise computer systems, Andy Ozment, DHS assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, wrote in a blog article published Jan. 26.

He said DHS-accredited commercial services providers use sensitive or classified threat information from the ECS program to prevent unauthorized access and data transfer to their clients’ networks.

CSPs also offer domain name service sinkholing and email filtering services through the program.

An updated ECS Privacy Impact Assessment document from the department’s privacy office says the network analysis platform is not meant to collect, store or use personally identifiable information, Ozment added.

Nextgov’s Aliya Sternstein reported Monday the DHS may provide anonymized cybersecurity metrics information to the National Institute for Standards and Technology, FBI and National Security Agency for program evaluation purposes.

Some civil liberties advocacy groups said the department’s new privacy impact assessment report contains a loophole for agencies such as NSA to monitor Internet users, Sternstein writes.

Justin Herman, SocialGov program lead at the General Services Administration, has unveiled the U.S. Digital Registry to help ensure citizens interact with official third-party digital platforms for the government.

The repository works to authenticate the Web, social media and mobile platforms that agencies use to deliver information and services to the public, Herman wrote in a blog entry posted Friday.

“The rise of third-party platforms in delivering modern public services required us to rise beside them with greater means of maintaining accountability over official government accounts and make it as easy to follow all public services as it was to find one,” the federal social media manager said.

He added that the U.S. Digital Registry also aims to bolster cybersecurity through the deterrence of fake government accounts on Twitter, Facebook and others, as well as support performance reporting and data analysis on the government’s digital engagement efforts.

Government agencies have taken part in a “verification sprint” to authenticate and add their official social media accounts to the repository by March 31.

Tonya Ugoretz, a senior intelligence analyst at FBI, has been named director of the cyber threat intelligence integration center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

ODNI said Jan. 7 Maurice Bland, formerly assistant deputy director for cyber at the National Security Agency, will serve as deputy director of CTIIC; and Thomas Donahue, a 25-year senior intelligence service member at CIA, will be research director.

“CTIIC will lead integrated community analysis of our cyber adversaries and support interagency efforts to develop whole-of-government opportunities against cyber threats,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

“It will build understanding of cyber threats to inform government-wide decision-making.”

President Barack Obama directed ODNI to set up CTIIC through a memorandum signed in February 2015.

The center will work to coordinate and analyze intelligence on local and international cyber threats and help the federal government understand and counter such network vulnerabilities.

The U.S. Army has started to develop a universal control interface that will work to allow uniformed personnel to operate and control various types of unmanned aerial systems, the Army reported Thursday.

The service branch expects the Tactical Open Government Architecture interface to enable small UAS crews to run other types of drones and help reduce the number of 15W drone operators, according to Col. Courtney Cote, project manager for UAS.

J.D. Leipold writes Col. Paul Cravey, capability manager for UAS at the Training and Doctrine Command, said the military branch plans to deploy TOGA over the next two years for use in the operation of all small drones.

“We look for that universal control interface to be scalable, tailorable and modular so it might be in an Army Intelligence and Security Command formation, inside a Tactical Operations Center or permanent base, maybe in a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle or the cockpit of an Apache,” Cravey said at a forum hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun the performance tests for the General Atomics-built Predator B unmanned aircraft system at a demonstration set to take place at a civilian airport in Texas.

CBP’s air and marine operations unit kicked off the four-week deployment at the San Angelo regional airport last week, CBP said Thursday.

During the test, CBP will use the drone to conduct border security operations along the Texas border.

CBP’s air and marine operations will fly the UAS above 18,000 feet and employ instrument flight rules.