Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that regional security issues, malicious intrusion, transnational terrorism and hostile foreign intelligence activities remain as the biggest threats to the U.S. and its allies.

He said in his testimony Wednesday the security challenges in the Middle East have increased over the past five years and the region’s threat environment has become more unpredictable and dangerous due to the emergence of Islamic State militants.

Stewart also observed that Russia uses military power to dominate smaller regional states as well as prioritizes force modernization, space-based ISR and nuclear weapon programs.

China has launched a multi-year effort to secure sovereignty in the South China Sea, while North Korea continues to grow its stockpile of fissile materials for nuclear weapon development, he told SASC members.

He also reported various security threats in South Asia, Africa and Latin America to the committee.

According to Stewart, DIA is also worried about state actors who aim to access Defense Department systems and networks to gain asymmetric advantage.

“International progress toward agreement on accepted and enforceable norms of behavior in cyberspace may provide an opportunity to limit the scope and scale of nation-state cyber activities and establish parameters for deterrence of malicious cyber operations,” he added.

He believes the Islamic State organization can increase the lethality and pace of the group’s transnational attacks and noted that some U.S. adversaries collect intelligence in order to counter DoD’s strategic and operational missions.

The former Navy Information Dominance Forces will now be known as the Naval Information Forces as part of an effort to align missions.

Rear Adm. Matthew Kohler, commander of the Naval Information Forces, announced the name change in January based on the adoption of the “information warfare” concept, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

“The name change is consistent with the naming conventions in place with the other type commanders and also reflects our efforts to further advance and ingrain information warfare readiness and capabilities across the fleet and Navy,” said Kohler.

The new name has been implemented in response to a document released by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson that describes the Navy’s approach to coping with the security environment changes.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said the U.S. continues to face cyber espionage-related threats from countries such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia.

Clapper said in his testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Islamic State organization also poses cyber threats to the U.S.

“ISIL has used cyber to its great advantage, not only for recruitment and propaganda, but also to hack and release sensitive information about U.S. military personnel,” he noted.

“The increased use by violent extremists of encrypted and secure Internet and mobile-based technologies enables terrorist actors to ‘go dark’ and serves to undercut intelligence and law enforcement efforts.”

He told the Senate panel that the increasing adoption of Internet of Things and artificial intelligence could bring new challenges to security.

Clapper also cited the involvement of approximately 80 countries in the space domain as well as the efforts of Russia and China to develop anti-satellite missile programs.

He also mentioned other global threats such as the rising number of Sunni violent extremist groups and foreign fighters who travel to Syria and Iraq and the efforts of North Korea, China and Russia to modernize their nuclear missile forces.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work believes that the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center will play a key role to identify needed capabilities that will drive the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“The JICSPOC in our view is the first operational and organizational construct of the Third Offset Strategy,” Work told the publication, according to Sydney Freedberg Jr.

JICSPOC, which the Defense Department established last year, works to connect the military and Intelligence Community to share information on space operations and develop measures that safeguard the U.S. space infrastructure.

Freedberg reports that Work also highlighted the human element in the Third Offset Strategy, which seeks to leverage technology such as artificial intelligence and autonomy to support human decision-making and actions as part of a human-machine collaborative combat network.

Work said the strategy is built on the U.S. military’s joint programs, industrial base and people or personnel rather than the technology.

The White House has requested $50.4 billion for fiscal year 2017 to fund civilian agencies involved in homeland security efforts, Federal Times reported Tuesday.

Aaron Boyd writes the budget plan for civilian agencies’ homeland security programs represents an increase of 11.5 percent over fiscal year 2016 and allocates more than $36.8 billion for the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS said in a fact sheet the budget request would allow the department to further support Unity of Effort programs and make investments in border security platforms and a cybersecurity initiative under the national protection and programs directorate.

The White House has requested $70.5 billion in total appropriations for homeland security initiatives run by civilian agencies and the Defense Department, according to budget documents obtained by Federal Times.

The Obama administration’s budget plan proposes $36.6 billion for the prevention of terrorist attacks, $27.7 billion for protection of critical infrastructures and $6.2 billion for natural disaster recovery efforts, according to the report.