The Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a new method to help the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency reduce the number of nuisance alarms that radiation portal monitors produce at various U.S. ports of entry.

PNNL said Jan. 4 the Revised Operational Settings approach works to optimize the settings of RPMs through the use of alarm algorithms that are considered to be selective energy-sensitive.

CBP uses RPMs at various ports of entry to screen bags, cargo and mail for threatening radiological materials.

“[The ROS method] is based on data analytics techniques utilizing the analysis of the unique characteristics of each specific radiation portal monitor deployed and the type of cargo that goes through it,” said Sonya Bowyer, a physicist at PNNL.

According to PNNL, sea ports and land border crossings have respectively seen a 78 percent and 44 percent drop in average alarm rates on nonthreatening radioisotopes in cargo following the implementation of the new technique.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, believes the Education Department is under risk of a cyber breach, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Chaffetz told an event at the Brookings Institute in Washington that the potential cyber attack could affect half of the nation’s population, Scott Maucione reports.

He cited security issues with the department’s information systems and pointed to a problem with the diversity of contractors that handle student information, according to the report.

Chaffetz told legislators the department’s database that contains personal information of individuals that apply for student loans are susceptible to cyber attacks, the station reports.

“Here, we’re talking about more than $1 trillion in student loans and data on more than 100 million Americans, and it’s not secure by any definition,” he said.

Chaffetz hascalled on the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the security status of the department’s data centers in November, Maucione reports.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has appointed Tonya Ugoretz, Maurice Bland and Thomas Donahue to be on the leadership team of the newly-formed Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center.

ODNI said Thursday Ugoretz will head CTIIC, Bland will serve as deputy leader and Donahue will be the 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,” DNI James Clapper said.

“I am confident this capable team will work seamlessly with intelligence community and federal partners to integrate intelligence on foreign cyber threat capabilities and activities.”

Ugoretz is a career intelligence analyst and former chief intelligence officer from FBI, where she has worked on assignments with CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Intelligence Council.

Bland is a retired U.S. Army colonel and has served as associate deputy director for cyber at the National Security Agency.

Donahue was chief editor of the President’s Daily Brief at the CIA and senior director for cyber operations for the staff of the National Security Council.