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Los Alamos National Laboratory, OpenAI Partner to Assess Biosecurity Risks Involving Artificial Intelligence
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Los Alamos National Laboratory, OpenAI Partner to Assess Biosecurity Risks Involving Artificial Intelligence

A study will be conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory and OpenAI that seeks to evaluate the risks of advanced artificial intelligence being used to bring about biological threats.

The study will assess how well frontier AI models could assist in the successful completion of real-world biological tasks, LANL said Wednesday.

The work will involve the use of ChatGPT-4o and OpenAI’s Preparedness Framework, which helps with the tracking, evaluation and forecasting of emerging biological risks. The framework also helps with protecting against such threats.

Also, whereas previous similar efforts only involved text-based model inputs and outputs, the upcoming study will feature multimodal data.

Commenting on the partnership, Erick LeBrun, research scientist at Los Alamos noted that “measuring and understanding any potential dangers or misuse of advanced AI related to biological threats remain largely unexplored.”

“This work with OpenAI is an important step towards establishing a framework for evaluating current and future models, ensuring the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies,” LeBrun said.

The evaluation will also support the Biden administration’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.

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OUSD R&E Holds AI Defense Technical Review
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OUSD R&E Holds AI Defense Technical Review

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering hosted an Artificial Intelligence Defense Technical Review to facilitate strategic cooperation on automated tech and AI throughout the joint global forces.

The second annual DTR event provided breakout sessions on joint command and control, or C2, at the tactical edge, AI orchestration at operational scale, reliance on federated AI and what lies ahead for federated AI in defense, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Kim Sablon, OUSD’s principal director for trusted AI and autonomy, discussed some of the conference’s notable achievements.

“One of significant outcomes from this year’s event included the roll out of the AI Passport concept as a new distributed Artificial Intelligence federation framework, which enables multi-party software co-development,” said Sablon.

The DTR event introduced multi-agent-based C2 on-demand construction to support interconnected and coalition C2 AI programs. The conference also emphasized the need for continuous loop oversight and modernization of AI archetypes.

On the opening day of the conference, Radha Plumb, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, gave opening remarks. This was followed by a fireside chat with Michael Foster, chief data officer of U.S. Central Command, and Maynard Holiday, assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, to discuss the benefits and challenges of joint AI.

“DTR provided an opportunity for the community to participate in a discussion on the future of AI integration in defense operations and implementing a networked force powered by scalable AI solutions,” said Sablon. “The discussions are of critical importance to national security, informing the development of responsible and ethical use of AI in defense operations.”

Speakers included experts, researchers and leaders from organizations like Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IBM and CENTCOM.

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FedRAMP Unveils Agile Delivery Pilot Program
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FedRAMP Unveils Agile Delivery Pilot Program

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has launched a new pilot program as part of efforts to enable agencies to quickly gain access to the latest security features to existing cloud service offerings and eliminate the challenges facing cloud service providers when it comes to bringing such improvements to market.

According to a blog post published Wednesday, FedRAMP will use the data from the Agile Delivery pilot program to help inform changes aimed at streamlining existing change management processes.

“Our long-term goal is to shift the FedRAMP process to one that is based on continuous assessment rather than assessing point-in-time snapshots,” the blog post reads.

Cloud providers that have new security features they plan to launch before Dec. 31 are encouraged to participate in the pilot. They should have change management and automated configuration management processes.

FedRAMP is interested in new opt-in features and is eyeing around 20 pilot participants, which should provide self-assessment artifacts and go through independent testing by the end of January.

“Additionally, changes to the fundamental underlying architecture, or new security control implementations that apply to the entire offering, will be excluded from the pilot,” the blog post states.

The program will accept applications through July 26 and select pilot participants by Aug. 16.

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NSA Issues Info Sheet on Final Pillar of DOD Zero Trust Framework
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NSA Issues Info Sheet on Final Pillar of DOD Zero Trust Framework

The National Security Agency has released the cybersecurity information sheet on the seventh and final pillar of the Department of Defense’s zero trust framework.

The CSI, titled “Advancing Zero Trust Maturity Throughout the Automation and Orchestration Pillar,” is also the eighth in a series of documents that offer guidance to various network owners, including the DOD, in implementing cybersecurity measures like zero trust, the NSA said Wednesday.

The document highlights three areas where automation and orchestration should be put to use: in repetitive, predictable tasks; when enhancing critical functions; and when coordinating security operations and incident response.

The six other ZT framework pillars are the following:

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CDAO Adopts New Acquisition Approach for Advana Platform
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CDAO Adopts New Acquisition Approach for Advana Platform

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office has announced that it will partner with additional vendors under a new acquisition approach as part of efforts to scale Advana — DOD’s big data platform for advanced analytics — to meet the increasing needs and mission requirements of DOD customers.

CDAO said Tuesday that since 2021, the Advana platform has acquired the majority of lifecycle IT support services through the General Services Administration’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, or FEDSIM.

According to CDAO, opening Advana to more DOD-assisted acquisition providers will help facilitate the competition and vendor diversity needed to support prototyping efforts, improve access to high-quality data and enable the platform to accommodate future artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

“As the Advana platform scales to meet growing needs of the Department, CDAO’s acquisition approach is evolving in parallel to allow for increased creativity, innovation, and flexibility to meet unique customer needs,” CDAO’s statement reads.

CDAO said Advana has more than 100,000 users supporting data products and business analytics applications across DOD and serves as the foundation of the Pentagon’s Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories — or Open DAGIR — framework.

Open DAGIR Framework

In May, CDAO launched Open DAGIR as a multivendor ecosystem to help protect industry’s intellectual property and government data ownership and scale AI, data and analytics capabilities.

“Open DAGIR brings the best industry has to offer to the Department. It allows us to ensure enduring access to government-owned, contractor-operated technology stacks and infrastructure and retain data rights while also maximizing the ability of other companies to develop applications with government data,” said CDAO head Radha Plumb.

CDAO will provide additional details on the Advana update at the Global Information Dominance Experiments, or GIDES, Insight Day, on Tuesday, July 16, in Reston, Virginia, and will soon announce the Advana Insight Day that it intends to host in early September.

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NSA Releases Advisory on Cyber Threat Group Associated With China’s Ministry of State Security
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NSA Releases Advisory on Cyber Threat Group Associated With China’s Ministry of State Security

The National Security Agency, alongside other U.S. and international government agencies, has released a cybersecurity advisory titled “PRC MSS Tradecraft in Action.”

The advisory seeks to help cybersecurity practitioners prevent network intrusions or identify and remediate ongoing intrusions caused by a cyber actor group called APT 40, the NSA said Monday.

Also known as Kryptonite Panda, Gingham Typhoon and Bronze Mohawk, APT 40 is associated with the People’s Republic of China Ministry of State Security. Various organizations around the world have already been targeted by the group, including those from the U.S. and Australia.

Regarding the cyber actor, NSA Director of Cybersecurity Dave Luber said, “APT 40 is a known cyber actor group that continues to practice cyber espionage and evolve its tradecraft to target government networks.”

To support the work of cyber defenders, the advisory contains, among other things, details about APT 40’s tradecraft, the results of investigations on successful intrusions by the group and steps that can be taken to secure networks from the group.

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DSCA Names Shelby Reissman Its Chief Data Officer
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DSCA Names Shelby Reissman Its Chief Data Officer

Shelby Reissman, a data governance specialist and software technician, has joined the Defense Security Cooperation Agency as chief data officer.

Reissman announced his appointment at DSCA in a LinkedIn post.

According to his profile on the professional networking site, he brings to the position over 15 years of experience architecting, managing and deploying enterprise security platforms for private and military network architectures.

Prior to DSCA, Reissman was a principal software engineer at Advanced Technology Leaders.

His industry career included time holding software engineering and cyber leadership roles at Ad hoc Research and Pluribus International.

Before joining the private sector, he was a cyber technical surveillance countermeasures technician at the Department of Energy.

Reissman also served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence agent.

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Dmitry Poisik Installed as Inaugural TraCSS Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce
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Dmitry Poisik Installed as Inaugural TraCSS Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce

The Office of Space Commerce within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has named Dmitry Poisik as the first program manager for the Traffic Coordination System for Space, a.k.a. TraCSS.

NOAA said Monday Poisik joined the TraCSS program bearing experience in program and project management after serving in the U.S. Navy for more than three decades.

“Dmitry Poisik brings the right mix of technical, management, and leadership skills and federal acquisition experience to lead our growing TraCSS team,” said Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce.

Effective July 1, Poisik is responsible for spearheading TrasCSS as the program is being continuously developed to provide a modern, cloud-based information technology system that private and civil space operators could use to obtain basic space situational awareness, or SSA, and space traffic coordination services.

Poisik will build on his experience in previous leadership and engineering management positions in the Navy. He most recently oversaw the development and delivery of advanced capabilities as a missile systems requirements officer at the service branch.

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Marines Participate in Maintenance Demo for ARV Prototypes From Textron, GDLS
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Marines Participate in Maintenance Demo for ARV Prototypes From Textron, GDLS

Advanced reconnaissance vehicle vendor Field Service Representatives has demonstrated field-level maintenance for ARV prototypes built by Textron and General Dynamics Land Systems.

Marines from the Light Armored Reconnaissance community and logisticians and engineers from other government organizations observed the demo event held at the Detroit Arsenal and gained first-hand experience performing preventive maintenance checks and services, field-level repair parts replacement and diagnostic testing, the U.S. Marine Corps said Monday.

The demonstration followed the awarding of contracts to Textron and GDLS in May to produce and deliver 30 mm autocannon ARV prototypes by September, Inside Defense reported.

The vehicles are expected to provide the Marines with command, control, communications and computer and uncrewed aerial systems capabilities, along with mobile protected firepower.

According to Andrew Przybylak, logistics branch chief for the ARV within the Program Manager Light Armored Vehicles team, the demonstration enabled participants to spot potential maintenance challenges and propose design changes to improve vehicle maintainability.

“ARV is a critical component of the Marine Corps’ transformation of their LAR Battalions into the objective Mobile Reconnaissance Battalions and will act as the hub for the fusion of data to form the overall battlefield picture,” said Steve Myers, program manager of Light Armored Vehicles.

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DHS Selects 6 Startups to Develop Digital Wallet Tech for Enhanced User Privacy
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DHS Selects 6 Startups to Develop Digital Wallet Tech for Enhanced User Privacy

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has selected six startups to develop technologies capable of ensuring user privacy through digital credentials.

The awardees—namely, Credence ID, Hushmesh, Netis, Procivis, SpruceID and Ubiqu—will identify, develop and implement digital wallet technologies to enhance the privacy and security of U.S. residents, DHS said Monday.

Each of them will receive nearly $200,000 in funding to deliver innovative tech that could potentially provide immediate impact to DHS. Their selection is part of the first phase of DHS S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation program, according to the department.

Anil John, technical director of S&T’s SVI program, said the selected startups will use globally recognized standards to develop capabilities that can store credentials securely and safeguard the privacy of individuals.

DHS awarded the contracts through its Privacy Preserving Digital Credential Wallets & Verifiers solicitation, which underscores the department’s resolve to improve its services while protecting privacy and increasing ease of use.

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