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DHS Conducts Maritime Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise With Japan
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DHS Conducts Maritime Cybersecurity Tabletop Exercise With Japan

Following the success of a maritime security tabletop exercise with the government of Indonesia in June, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a second one on Aug. 21 and 22, this time with counterparts from Japan.

The August exercise simulated a major cyber incident impacting the operations of one of Japan’s ports and sought to provide participants an opportunity to test incident response policies and procedures, DHS said Friday.

The exercise also sought to facilitate discussions about enhancing preparedness for critical infrastructure threats.

Commenting on the activity, DHS Undersecretary for Policy Robert Silvers said, “Exercises like these bolster our nation’s capabilities and establish reliable channels for coordination with key international partners.”

“Cyber attacks pose a shared risk, beyond any single nation’s control, making it imperative for the United States and Japan to collaborate in addressing these challenges to thrive in such interconnected environments,” Silvers added.

For his part, Masahiro Inada, director general of the Ports and Harbours Bureau within Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said, “Cyber attacks to ports and harbors could potentially disrupt key international logistics functions which serve as a lifeline of Japan, a country surrounded by the sea, affecting both Japan and the United States.”

“I intend to share best practices gained through this exercise and continue to promote the reinforcement of cyber security of ports and harbors, while working together with relevant parties,” Inada added.

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DOD Names Diba Hadi as Cyber Academic Engagement Office Principal Director
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DOD Names Diba Hadi as Cyber Academic Engagement Office Principal Director

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer has appointed Diba Hadi, a more than three-decade higher education and program management leader, as principal director of the Cyber Academic Engagement Office.

DOD said Friday Hadi will oversee all academic outreach initiatives and several CAEO programs, including the DOD Cyber Service Academy, National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity and the Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ.

Hadi most recently served as the senior academic and project management adviser at the FBI, where she led professional development efforts, managed accreditation standards and offered strategic academic guidance.

In June, the department’s OCIO launched CAEO to serve as a central hub for defense and academic cyber activities.

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Peter Guinto Joins OUSD(A&S) as Senior Technical Advisor
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Peter Guinto Joins OUSD(A&S) as Senior Technical Advisor

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment has appointed Peter Guinto as senior technical advisor of Price, Cost and Finance, effective Aug. 5. 

OUSD said he will oversee the operations and activities of the office within the Defense Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy directorate. Guinto will report directly to John Tenaglia, principal director of the latter directorate.

In addition, Guinto will manage the PCF directorate as it conducts peer reviews of sole source contracts, offer training programs for pricing strategies, develop pricing policies and strategies and provide support  to major defense acquisition teams on business negotiation matters.

Guinto was vice president of government affairs and president of government, defense and aerospace at Resilinc, before joining the PCF Directorate.

The U.S. Air Force veteran spent almost 12 years in the service and held several leadership positions including chief of contracts, senior contract analyst and senior cost/price analyst.

Prior to joining the Air Force, Guinto embarked on a medical and legal career. He worked as a registered respiratory therapist for five years before becoming a law clerk and a self-employed lawyer.

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NLRB Appoints David Gaston as 1st Chief AI Officer
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NLRB Appoints David Gaston as 1st Chief AI Officer

The National Labor Relations Board has appointed David Gaston, its assistant general counsel and branch chief of E-litigation, as the board’s first chief artificial intelligence officer. 

In his new role, Gaston will oversee compliance with federal AI regulations, including risk management on the technology’s use, the NLRB said Thursday.

The CAIO functions add to his current responsibility of overseeing the board’s information strategy, including developing tools for electronic collection, storage and retrieval of data on legal proceedings.

Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB’s general counsel, said Gaston’s seven years of experience leading the agency’s information and litigation strategy will enable the agency “to move forward strategically in the area of AI.”

One of the board’s initiatives to check AI use in the labor front came in a memorandum of understanding with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau signed in March 2023. Under the MOU, the agencies will collaborate to ensure that American employers’ AI practices do not infringe upon workers’ rights.  

Before NLRB, Gaston worked as a special assistant attorney at the Department of Justice and as an attorney advisor at the Department of Agriculture.

Gaston holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School and two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Georgia, both earned with magna cum laude distinctions.

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DISA Director Discusses Need to Improve DOD Cyber Measures
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DISA Director Discusses Need to Improve DOD Cyber Measures

The director of the Defense Information Systems Agency said the Department of Defense needs to enhance its cybersecurity measures and technologies to counter threats and protect critical networks.

Speaking at the 2024 Department of the Air Force Information Technology & Cyberpower Conference, DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, highlighted how optimizing operations and industry collaboration can help secure the U.S. cyber landscape in the coming years, noting that data breaches in 2023 rose 72 percent and the cost of cybercrime is expected to increase to over $10 trillion in 2026, DISA said Friday.

Skinner emphasized the importance of integrating identity management into the DOD network, saying that “identity is at the heart of zero trust.”

He asked industry to deliver artificial intelligence capabilities that address risk management framework challenges and accelerate the civilian hiring process to help overcome the shortage of cybersecurity professionals.

“The problems we’re running into and are going to run into aren’t getting any easier,” said Skinner. “So that’s my ask to industry, is continue driving forth on critical thinking and see where we can improve.”

Skinner, who also serves as commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-DOD Information Network, discussed ongoing efforts to protect the DODIN. He said the DOD controls access at internet access points but the effort is not enough, pointing to the delay in implementing Comply-to-Connect protocols.

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OPIR Missile Warning System Payload Delivered to Lockheed Facility
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OPIR Missile Warning System Payload Delivered to Lockheed Facility

RTX company Raytheon has delivered to Lockheed Martin the first of two Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Missile Warning Program satellite payloads meant for deployment to geosynchronous Earth orbit.

The payload—dubbed Next-Gen OPIR sensing in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit 1, or NGG-1—will now undergo integration with its satellite’s bus at Lockheed’s facility in Sunnyvale, California, where it will subsequently be subjected to further testing, Space Systems Command said Friday. The payload had previously undergone thermal vacuum chamber testing at Raytheon’s facility in El Segundo from late April through early August.

NGG-1 is on track for initial launch capability by December 2025. Once operational, it will provide strategic missile warning capabilities — including against hypersonic weapons — alongside OPIR sensors in a highly elliptical orbit.

Commenting on the effort, SSC NGG Program Mission Payloads section chief Capt. Christian Pung said, “Next-Gen OPIR capabilities will ensure we maintain an asymmetric advantage against adversarial threats.”

“Our advancements in early warning capabilities strengthen our ability to track incoming missiles and deter their potential effects throughout all phases of a conflict. I look forward to our team of military, civilian, Federally Funded Research and Development Center, and industry partners continuing to work together to keep ahead of threats and future conflicts in space,” Pung added.

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CDC Taps Leidos for $51M Health Safety Network Modernization Contract
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CDC Taps Leidos for $51M Health Safety Network Modernization Contract

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded Leidos a five-year, $51 million contract to provide technical support for the agency’s healthcare safety network.

Under the National Healthcare Safety Network, or NHSN, Development, Maintenance, Support and Modernization contract, Leidos will continue its ongoing work operating and evolving the NHSN platform through data management and software development, among other duties, the Reston, Virginia-based company announced Tuesday.

Liz Porter, president of Leidos’ health and civil business, said, “NHSN is a critical cornerstone in enhancing patient safety and healthcare delivery across the U.S.”

The NHSN application transfers electronic messaging directly from electronic health records, provides case-by-case infection prevention and provides users insights into healthcare facility capacities. The platform also tracks vaccination uptake in healthcare settings, monitors blood safety abberation and aims to help mitigate contagious outbreaks. 

“Since the inception of NHSN in 2003, our collaboration with the CDC has empowered over 160,000 users at more than 38,000 facilities with reliable and actionable data,” Porter stated. “Our combined efforts ensure the secure transmission of healthcare data across evolving sites of care, driving improvements in patient outcomes and fostering system modernization and efficiency.”

The CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases authorized the NHSN contract.

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Army’s Doug Bush Signs Memo to Require Software Bills of Materials in Related Contracts
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Army’s Doug Bush Signs Memo to Require Software Bills of Materials in Related Contracts

Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, has signed a memorandum that directs the U.S. Army’s procurement community to start including contract language requiring vendors to produce and deliver software bills of materials, or SBOMs, for all covered computer software, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The memo signed Aug. 16 provides the Army with 90 days to work on implementation guidance for SBOMs, including sample contract language and sample data item descriptions.

Upon the guidance’s release, individual program offices will have another 90 days to incorporate SBOM contract language for covered software, including for subcontractors.

In the memo, Bush, a previous Wash100 awardee, wrote that the government has a shared responsibility when it comes to managing supply chain risks.

“Software is a subset of SCRM risk and SCRM is to be conducted on systems throughout their lifecycle. Army Directive 2024-02 (Enabling Modern Software Development and Acquisition Practices) emphasizes the Army’s reliance on software and the importance of understanding the risks systems can introduce to a network and how to mitigate those risks to the greatest extent possible,” he added.

The new policy does not include cloud services.

According to the report, the service expects to have the new rules for the SBOM contract language in place by February 2025.

In late 2022, the Army solicited industry feedback on how to collect and use SBOMs to help improve the security of its software supply chains and comply with the policies codified in the May 2021 executive order on cybersecurity.

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Newly Adopted FCC Rules Allow Drone Operators to Use 5 GHz Band
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Newly Adopted FCC Rules Allow Drone Operators to Use 5 GHz Band

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted initial rules allowing emergency and commercial operations of uncrewed aircraft systems in the 5 GHz spectrum band for wireless communications. 

Under the new rules, drone operators can obtain direct frequency assignments in a portion of the 5030 MHz to 5091 MHz band for non-networked operations to provide UAS flights with reliable two-way communications to ensure safe drone integration into the U.S. National Airspace System, the FCC said Thursday.

The rules rely on dynamic frequency management systems to manage and coordinate access to the spectrum.

To enable operations in the band during the period before the systems are in operation, UAS operators can submit a request to the Federal Aviation Administration for deconfliction and approval.

Upon FAA authorization, applicants should complete an online registration form with the FCC. 

The interim mechanism will be made available to operators after the rules become effective and the FCC announces that it will begin accepting registrations.

The commission adopted the initial rules after it sought feedback on its proposed use of the 5 GHz spectrum for drone operations amid the increasing use of unmanned aircraft in the United States for various applications, including search and rescue missions, infrastructure inspections, medicine delivery and news gathering.

According to the FCC, providing a dedicated frequency band for drones will avoid interference with other wireless devices.

“The FCC is working hard to meet the spectrum needs of remote-piloted aircraft activity,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We will continue to work with our public and private partners to support the best outcomes for public safety, wireless services, consumers, and our economy.”

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CISA Bolsters Cyber Incident Reporting Service With New Web Portal
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CISA Bolsters Cyber Incident Reporting Service With New Web Portal

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has launched a new portal as part of its efforts to improve cyber incident reporting.

The CISA Services Portal and Voluntary Cyber Incident Reporting webpage integrates with login.gov credentials and lets users file, save, update, search and filter reports; share reports with colleagues or clients; and engage in informal discussions with CISA, the agency said Thursday.

A voluntary cyber incident reporting resource has also been issued to guide users through the reporting process.

Commenting on the launch of the webpage, CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Jeff Greene said the agency “is excited to make available our new portal with improved functionality and features for cyber reporting.”

Greene also underscored the importance of incident reporting, saying, “Any organization experiencing a cyber attack or incident should report it – for its own benefit, and to help the broader community. CISA and our government partners have unique resources and tools to aid with response and recovery, but we can’t help if we don’t know about an incident.”

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