Navy Adm. Michael Rogers, chief of U.S. Cyber Command, said Cybercom has seen an escalation in cyber operations by other countries and nonstate actors against U.S. government and private sector networks over the past year, DoD News reported Friday.

Terri Moon Cronk writes Rogers gave the remarks Wednesday as he testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities panel on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2017 budget request for Cybercom.

“They steal intellectual property, citizens’ personal information, and they have intruded into networks ranging from the Joint Staff’s unclassified network to networks controlling our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Rogers said.

Rogers, who is also director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service, noted that Cybercom is on the lookout for signs of how Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as well as the Islamic State militant group work to improve their cyber capabilities.

Rogers, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2016, told subcommittee members the 133 teams that comprise the command’s cyber mission force work to support the U.S. Central Command’s campaign against the Islamic State group.

He also cited the efforts of the Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Networks to protect the Pentagon’s computer networks and data from potential cyber threats, according to the report.

The First Responder Network Authority has reported updates on its strategic road map toward the initial launch of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network.

Officials from FirstNet discussed completed activities under the road map — such as the request for proposal process, consultation, standards development and state plans — during the quarterly board and committee meetings, the group said Wednesday.

“As we enter the next phase of the road map, continued collaboration will be crucial to delivering the best, most cost effective nationwide network to public safety as quickly as possible,” said FirstNet President TJ Kennedy.

FirstNet also unveiled the Band 14 Spectrum Relocation Grant Program, which seeks to provide financial help to select public safety groups ahead of the NPSBN deployment.

The FirstNet board established the strategic road map during a board meeting in March 2014 to create a timeline for the network deployment.

The U.S. Army has deployed a new tool that works to help users screen the service branch’s network infrastructure for vulnerabilities and implement patches to protect the networks from potential cyber attacks, GCN reported Thursday.

Mark Pomerleau writes the Assured Compliance Assessment Solution Reporting Toolkit is designed to transmit cyber threat data to the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Scorecard system.

“As the Army continues to add more capability to the network to ensure soldiers at every echelon remain connected and engaged, we must give them the tools to stay on top of these capabilities, especially from a cyber perspective.” said Col. Ward Roberts, product manager for WIN-T Increment 3,” said Col. Ward Roberts, product manager for WIN-T Increment 3.

ART also works to perform system identification and desktop reporting functions to detect and evaluate software vulnerabilities.

The service branch plans to field the ART platform at its service units in the Pacific and Europe over the coming months, according to the report.