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Treasury, NSF Seek to Improve Insurance Risk Modeling Related to Cyber Risks, Terrorism
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Treasury, NSF Seek to Improve Insurance Risk Modeling Related to Cyber Risks, Terrorism

The Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office and the National Science Foundation have partnered to form a new research center that will provide research, thought leadership and analysis support to help the insurance sector enhance its insurance risk modeling and underwriting related to terrorism and cybersecurity risks.

The newly established Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, or IUCRC, will consist of stakeholders from the federal government, insurance sector and academia to help improve the U.S. financial system’s resilience through several efforts, the Treasury said Friday.

Efforts include helping insurers estimate risk to improve insurance coverage, pricing and policyholder uptake, contributing to the expansion of capital markets and reinsurance and informing the treatment of catastrophic cyber risks and terrorism in government programs.

Under IUCRC, university faculty and students will work with an industry consortium to perform research focused on the insurance sector’s needs.

The Treasury and NSF released a request for research proposals to provide research analysis and thought leadership on terrorism and catastrophic cyber risk modeling and underwriting.

According to a letter issued by NSF on Wednesday, the partnership expects research efforts that will stem from the new center to result in the development of best practices and tools, assessment of policy reforms that could provide governments, insurers and other stakeholders with new data and creation of improved underwriting and modeling tools, practices and methodologies.

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GSA Unveils Open Government Federal Advisory Committee; Krystal Brumfield Quoted
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GSA Unveils Open Government Federal Advisory Committee; Krystal Brumfield Quoted

The General Services Administration has started soliciting nominations for potential members of a new federal advisory committee, or FACA, that will advise the agency on open government initiatives, efforts to enhance public access to government records and data and advance equity in open government programs.

GSA said Friday the new Open Government Federal Advisory Committee is backed by the Open Government Secretariat Program Management Office and will operate in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

The new advisory panel will consist of representatives from the federal, state and local governments, academia and industry and will be selected based on their qualifications and backgrounds and FACA requirements.

“GSA looks forward to welcoming a diverse group of voices from civil society to this important new federal advisory committee,” said Krystal Brumfield, associate administrator for governmentwide policy at GSA.

“The OG FAC will allow GSA to tackle emerging open government issues, challenges, and opportunities through expert advice from these stakeholders. We look forward to receiving innovative suggestions on the development of the sixth Open Government National Action Plan as well as other efforts to strengthen open government policy and public engagement,” added Brumfield.

The GSA Open Government Secretariat will hold a virtual public meeting on May 10 to respond to questions regarding the timeline and selection process.

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DOD Looks to Develop Transportable Joint Cyber Hunt Kit Prototype
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DOD Looks to Develop Transportable Joint Cyber Hunt Kit Prototype

The Department of Defense is requesting proposals from industry sources capable of providing a joint cyber hunt kit prototype designed to conduct hunt operations on defense networks.

The Defense Innovation Unit said the prototype project aims to develop a next-generation deployable hunt kit with commercial off-the-shelf technologies and open-source software capabilities to detect advanced persistent threats on DOD networks and analyze their tactics, techniques and procedures.

DOD expects the cyber hunt kit to function as a transportable “security operations center (SOC) in a box” and include applications for case management and workflow management and extended detection and response operations.

The Pentagon aims to award an other transaction agreement to a vendor to build a prototype hunt kit within four months. During this phase, the vendor must deliver a fully integrated and configured software tool designed to enhance workflows, dataflows and user experience.

POC - 2024 Cyber Summit

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 2024 Cyber Summit on June 6 to hear from government and industry experts about the dynamic and ever-evolving role of cyber in the public sector. Register here!

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Young Bang: Army Acquisition Community Working to Identify, Address Obstacles to AI Adoption
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Young Bang: Army Acquisition Community Working to Identify, Address Obstacles to AI Adoption

Young Bang, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said the service branch’s acquisition community is working to identify factors that could hamper the adoption of artificial intelligence and address those as part of the 100-day implementation plan, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“We’re aligning with everybody to look at the table stakes stuff, but we’re also looking at the obstacles that are going to make adoption of AI a little bit harder for the Army or the DoD at large,” Bang, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, told reporters.

“That also aligns with the fact that the Army is probably the first service to look at [creating a program of record] for AI. So there’s been a lot of interest from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other services that are asking, ‘Hey, are there things that we can work together on?’ and glean lessons learned,” he added.

Bang cited the need for the military branch to consider adversarial attacks, poisoned datasets, trojans and other risks surrounding AI.

“That’s easier to do if you’ve developed it in a controlled, trusted environment that DoD or the Army owns, and we’re going to do all that. But this really looks at how we can adopt third-party or commercial vendors’ algorithms right into our programs, so that we don’t have to compete with them. We want to adopt them,” he added.

The principal deputy assistant secretary noted that the Army is building a “layered” framework for risk reduction, which will be used in future commercial AI applications.

POC - 9th Annual Army Summit

Bang will serve as one of the keynote speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Army Summit on June 13. Register now.

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Northrop Secures $388M Air Force Award for Continued Global Hawk Aircraft Sustainment
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Northrop Secures $388M Air Force Award for Continued Global Hawk Aircraft Sustainment

Northrop Grumman will continue providing logistics services in support of RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft under a $387.5 million definitized contract action from the U.S. Air Force.

The company will perform sustainment work on the high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft at its San Diego, California sites and other locations for global customers through April 30, 2025, the Department of Defense said Friday.

NATO, South Korea and Japan procure the services through the Foreign Military Sales program, and Northrop is expected to conduct aircraft support at Sacheon and Osan Air Bases in South Korea, Misawa Air Base in Japan and Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy.

Northrop has been providing services for South Korea’s Global Hawks since it received a $158.4 million undefinitized contract in November 2020. The company secured a $108.8 million contract modification the following year for the aircraft’s continued logistics support.

For the current action, Northrop is being obligated $33.7 million FMS funds at the time of award.

NTIA’s Charles Cooper Provides Updates on National Spectrum Strategy Implementation
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NTIA’s Charles Cooper Provides Updates on National Spectrum Strategy Implementation

Charles Cooper, associate administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Office of Spectrum Management, said the agency is initiating technical studies of spectrum bands as part of its efforts to implement the National Spectrum Strategy.

NTIA is working to streamline the process for federal agencies to obtain funding from the Spectrum Relocation Fund for their studies of the lower 3 GHz and the 7/8 GHz bands.

“We expect that more than 10 federal agencies will seek funding, and our hope is this streamlined process will make the application process easier and quicker for these agencies,” Cooper said.

Participating agencies will have two years to complete the band studies following the distribution of the “pipeline” funds by October.

NTIA is also exploring advanced spectrum management techniques, including Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, in collaboration with the Department of Defense.

“Although this effort hopefully will inform spectrum sharing in the future for this band and others, it is separate and apart from the Lower 3 GHz band study discussed above,” according to Cooper.

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NAVSUP Releases New Naval Sustainment System-Supply Framework to Improve Fleet Readiness
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NAVSUP Releases New Naval Sustainment System-Supply Framework to Improve Fleet Readiness

Naval Supply Systems Command has released a new version of its Naval Sustainment System-Supply, or NSS-Supply, framework focused on improving fleet outcomes and strengthening NAVSUP’s fleet readiness support initiatives, DVIDS reported Wednesday.

The NSS-Supply 2.0 framework shifts to a readiness calculation from a monetized-value calculation to assess the Surface Warfare community’s progress in reaching their fleet readiness goals.

NAVSUP focuses on the three categories of the Navy’s fleet readiness goals — subsurface, surface and aviation.

NSS-Supply is a multi-year Navy-wide initiative aimed at transforming the end-to-end supply chain and sustaining the naval fleet’s mission needs.

The effort utilizes an Agile approach to assessing problem areas in the supply chain and deploying innovations that can accelerate the Navy’s warfighting advantage.

Since 2021, NSS-Supply has launched 33 initiatives, including building the E2E Naval Shipyard Supply Chain Management tool to improve submarine material support and increasing nuclear submarine capabilities through enhanced policies and improved spares pool health.

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Commerce Department Proposes $6B in Funding to Back Micron’s Domestic Memory Chip Production; Gina Raimondo Quoted
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Commerce Department Proposes $6B in Funding to Back Micron’s Domestic Memory Chip Production; Gina Raimondo Quoted

The Department of Commerce has proposed to provide Micron Technology with approximately $6.14 billion in funding through the CHIPS and Science Act to help the company expand its dynamic random-access memory — or DRAM — chip production in New York and Idaho.

The department said Thursday the proposed funding under a nonbinding preliminary memorandum of terms signed with Micron would support the construction of two DRAM fabs in New York and another facility in Idaho.

The plan would support Micron’s plans to onshore about 40 percent of its DRAM chip production in the next 20 years.

“With this proposed investment, we are working to deliver on one of the core objectives of President Biden’s CHIPS program – onshoring the development and production of the most advanced memory semiconductor technology which is crucial for safeguarding our leadership on artificial intelligence and protecting our economic and national security,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“With these proposed investments, coupled with Micron’s historic private investment of up to $125 billion in New York and Idaho over the next 20 years, President Biden is working to revitalize U.S. technological leadership and creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs,” added Raimondo.

Over the next six years, Micron plans to spend $50 billion on the construction of the first three fabs in the U.S.

In the next two decades, the company’s fab construction projects are expected to generate over 13,500 construction and facility jobs in New York and about 6,500 construction and manufacturing jobs in Idaho.

The projects in the two states will operate under project labor agreements, which focus on workforce training.

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CISA Helps Critical Infrastructure Organizations Prevent Ransomware Attacks Through Pilot Program
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CISA Helps Critical Infrastructure Organizations Prevent Ransomware Attacks Through Pilot Program

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency completed 1,754 notifications to critical infrastructure organizations in calendar year 2023 through its Ransomware Vulnerability Warning Pilot program.

Launched in March 2023, the RVWP program seeks to help federal government, state and local agencies and critical infrastructure organizations mitigate vulnerabilities and protect their networks and systems from ransomware attacks through notifications, CISA said Thursday.

Of those more than 1,700 notifications, CISA found that 852 resulted in patching of vulnerable devices, implementation of a compensating control and actions to take those devices offline after receiving notifications.

CISA has called on organizations to adopt its Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning, a no-cost service that tracks internet-connected devices for known vulnerabilities and informs organizations of vulnerabilities commonly linked to ransomware exploitation.

According to the agency, organizations implementing the vulnerability scanning service could reduce their exposure by 40 percent within the first year.

POC - 2024 Cyber Summit

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Cyber Summit on June 6 and hear cyber experts, government and industry leaders discuss the latest trends and the dynamic role of cyber in the public sector. Register here.

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DLA Chief Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly on Importance of Data Acumen, Need to Promote Small Businesses
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DLA Chief Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly on Importance of Data Acumen, Need to Promote Small Businesses

Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, highlighted the importance of data within DLA and the need for industry partners to address the data acumen of their workforce.

“Data is the most decisive commodity we manage, and DLA’s role within the DoD is unique when it comes to delivering and connecting logistics data,” Simerly said during his keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday.

“Our responsibility to effectively employ data to drive decisions and achieve advantages depends on the data acumen of our workforce and the leaders who support them,” he added.

Simerly told conference attendees that advancing defense socioeconomic goals is one of DLA’s primary focus areas. He also stressed the importance of promoting small businesses in the defense ecosystem.

“Together, we stand committed to fostering an environment where small businesses thrive, collaborating seamlessly with prime contractors to ensure collective success and sustainability across the defense industrial base,” he said.

“We recognize that by nurturing our small businesses, we not only bolster our industrial base but promote economic vitality and inclusivity within our communities,” the DLA director added.

His remarks also touched on DLA’s transformation framework, which focuses on enhancing the agency’s workforce, precision, posture and partnerships.

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