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FCC Unveils Spectrum Steering Team; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted
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FCC Unveils Spectrum Steering Team; Jessica Rosenworcel Quoted

The Federal Communications Commission has established a steering team to help FCC implement the National Spectrum Strategy and develop and enforce spectrum policies.

FCC said Tuesday Susan Mort, deputy chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, will co-lead the newly created Spectrum Steering Team.

Krista Witanowski, legal adviser within the commission’s OET, will serve as chief of staff of the new steering team.

The Spectrum Steering Team will work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other federal agencies and solicit insights from stakeholders on how the commission could help advance the implementation of the National Spectrum Strategy, including participation in the study of 2,786 megahertz of spectrum for repurposing across bands.

“Demand for spectrum is growing at a breakneck pace as wireless technology expands and transforms so much in our economy and modern life, so we need to get creative with spectrum policies,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

“The National Spectrum Strategy is a good start, and the Spectrum Steering Team will put its experience, talent and leadership to work helping to shape a bright wireless future,” added Rosenworcel.

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DOD Issues Funds to Canadian Companies to Bolster Critical Mineral Supply Chains; Laura Taylor-Kale Quoted
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DOD Issues Funds to Canadian Companies to Bolster Critical Mineral Supply Chains; Laura Taylor-Kale Quoted

The U.S. Department of Defense has issued funds to two Canadian companies – Fortune Minerals Limited and Lomiko Metals – to help build resilience in the cobalt and graphite supply chains.

Funded activities will align with the U.S.-Canadian Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals and advance the 2024 National Defense Industrial Strategy while growing support for the domestic production of critical materials, the DOD said Thursday.

Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, said these awards “exemplify the critical importance” of Defense Production Act funds, the partnership between the U.S. and Canada and “our shared commitment to strengthening North American material supply chains.”

Fortune received $6.5 million from the DOD as well as $5.6 million from the Canadian government to boost its cobalt sulfate and bismuth metal production capabilities. The awards will finance a feasibility study and enable the company to obtain the permits and authorizations necessary to bring its NICO mineral production project to a construction decision.

Lomiko was granted $8.4 million under the DPA. With those allocations as well as $3.6 million from the Canadian government, the enterprise will progress its La Loutre natural flake graphite project by conducting a pre-feasibility study, carrying out spherical graphite battery testing and value-added studies and performing a definitive feasibility study.

The completion of these tasks will enhance project design and build a technical foundation for the company to achieve a construction decision for a battery-grade graphite anode facility.

In total, the DPA has issued 15 awards valued at a combined total of $336 million in fiscal year 2024.

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NIST Awards Over $1.2 Million to Small Businesses to Advance Cybersecurity, Biopharmaceuticals, Semiconductors and More
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NIST Awards Over $1.2 Million to Small Businesses to Advance Cybersecurity, Biopharmaceuticals, Semiconductors and More

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected 12 small businesses to be recipients of Phase I Small Business Innovation Research awards for 2024.

The awardees will receive funding to support research and development of new products in a variety of critical areas, including quantum computing, cybersecurity and healthcare, NIST said Wednesday.

Under phase I, awardees will work to establish the merits of their projects and determine their feasibility and commercial potential.

The awardees are:

  • AMAG Consulting
  • Applied Imaging Solutions
  • Calimetrix
  • Dapple Security
  • EMode Photonix
  • HighRI Optics
  • Icarus Quantum
  • MyExposome
  • NUTS Technologies
  • ObjectSecurity
  • Tiami
  • Universal Schedule and Booking

 

NIST is releasing more than $1.2 million in funding for the effort.

Once they complete phase I, awardees are eligible to apply for funding under phase II.

Stacey Dixon: Information Sharing Key to Advancing IC’s Supply Chain Risk Management Efforts
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Stacey Dixon: Information Sharing Key to Advancing IC’s Supply Chain Risk Management Efforts

Stacey Dixon, principal deputy director of national intelligence and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, highlighted the need for more supply chain security and risk information sharing to address “growing and evolving” threats to the U.S. supply chain during the National Counterintelligence and Security Center’s 10th Annual Supply Chain Technical Exchange Conference.

“The continued growth and increased participation in this conference is, to me, a demand signal that we need more supply chain security and risk information sharing, and this is something the DNI and I are committed to doing,” Dixon said.

According to Dixon, the intelligence community’s supply chain risk management, or SCRM, integrity efforts focus on areas such as microelectronics, quantum sensing, artificial intelligence and cryptology, warning that these technologies are included in China’s top priorities “to develop and overtake the United States.”

“If we fall victim to the PRC or any adversary that attempts to penetrate our systems, many of the advantages we have not only disappear, but turn into disadvantages. As a consequence, even if we ‘run faster,’ we will find ourselves falling behind, which is why ensuring supply chain integrity for critical capabilities is a no-fail mission,” Dixon said.

ODNI and NCSC have developed new SCRM guidance based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s process risk assessment to help organizations assess supply chain risks from multiple threat vectors, according to Dixon.

“[T]his SCRM guidance encourages organizations to understand supply chain risks when considering their risk tolerance, particularly as they incorporate critical technologies into their ecosystem,” she said.

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Pentagon Releases Regional Sustainment Framework; William LaPlante Quoted
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Pentagon Releases Regional Sustainment Framework; William LaPlante Quoted

The Department of Defense has unveiled a new framework to facilitate collaboration with U.S. allies and international defense industrial base partners to establish a distributed ecosystem of maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities.

DOD said Wednesday the Regional Sustainment Framework is aligned with the National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Industrial Strategy and has three primary goals to support the operations of the Joint and Combined Force in contested environments.

The three goals are prevailing in a contested logistics environment, enhancing military readiness and strengthening regional partnerships.

William LaPlante, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, released the new framework with Chris Lowman, assistant secretary of defense for sustainment.

“The RSF leverages our strong partnerships throughout the global defense ecosystem to deliver enhanced sustainment capabilities in theater,” said LaPlante, a 2024 Wash100 awardee.

“Doing so will create a distributed network of MRO facilities that is global in scale, but regionally aligned to the most relevant platforms and systems,” he added.

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Margaret Boatner: Army to Keep Software in Development Mode
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Margaret Boatner: Army to Keep Software in Development Mode

Margaret Boatner, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategy and acquisition reform, said the military branch will continue running its software offerings under research, development, test and evaluation funding instead of transitioning them to sustainment as part of its software modernization efforts, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

“We really have to retrain ourselves to think about and to acknowledge the fact that software really needs to stay in development all the time,” Boatner told FNN in an interview.

The move is part of a new software policy signed by Army Secretary and 2024 Wash100 awardee Christine Wormuth in March.

“It’s recognizing that a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) model software is never done. That way, our program managers can plan to use the appropriate color of money, which in many cases might be RDT&E, which is the color money you need to do true development,” Boatner said.

“So, that will give our program managers a lot more flexibility to determine the appropriate color money based on what they want to do, such that our software systems can really continue to be developed over time,” she added.

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NASA Appoints Dina Contella as Deputy ISS Program Manager, Bill Spetch as Ops Integration Manager
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NASA Appoints Dina Contella as Deputy ISS Program Manager, Bill Spetch as Ops Integration Manager

Dina Contella will succeed Dana Weigel as deputy program manager of the International Space Station Program at NASA on June 2, following the latter’s appointment in April to lead the orbital laboratory-focused initiative.

The space agency said Contella, operations integration manager of the ISS Program, brings to the role over three decades of experience in supporting the space station and other NASA programs.

“Dina’s depth of experience with the complex and dynamic aspects of the space station mission will be instrumental for leading through future challenges,” Weigel noted.

Aside from Contella’s move, NASA also announced its selection of Bill Spetch, office manager responsible for the health and integrity of the ISS, to assume Contella’s soon-to-be-vacated program post. He has nearly 27 years of experience in providing the lab with assistance through various space agency roles.

“Bill’s extensive experience with space station hardware and transportation systems uniquely position him for the leadership role as the operations integration manager,” Weigel said of Spetch.

The series of leadership movements was triggered by Joel Montalbano‘s transition to the role of deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. He previously served as ISS Program manager.

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CISA Issues Guidance to Strengthen Cyber Posture of Civil Society Organizations; Jen Easterly Quoted
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CISA Issues Guidance to Strengthen Cyber Posture of Civil Society Organizations; Jen Easterly Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its partners have issued a document that seeks to guide civil society organizations in protecting themselves against cybersecurity threats, especially those posed by state-sponsored actors.

The document, titled “Mitigating Cyber Threats with Limited Resources: Guidance for Civil Society,” offers a number of recommendations, including choosing to work with vendors that abide by Secure by Design principles, exercising caution when sharing information via social media and implementing phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, CISA said Tuesday.

Commenting on the release of the document, CISA Director and 2024 Wash100 winner Jen Easterly noted how threat actors have sought “to undermine fundamental democratic and humanitarian values and interests supported by civil society organizations and individuals.” The new guidance can “help these organizations better understand the cyber threats they face and help them improve their cyber safety.”

The guidance was published by CISA in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and partners from Canada, Estonia, Japan and the United Kingdom.

CISA Issues Guidance to Strengthen Cyber Posture of Civil Society Organizations; Jen Easterly Quoted

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OMB Names 7 Members to Newly Created FedRAMP Board
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OMB Names 7 Members to Newly Created FedRAMP Board

The Office of Management and Budget has appointed seven inaugural members to the newly established FedRAMP Board, which will replace the Joint Authorization Board of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.

The General Services Administration said Tuesday OMB created the FedRAMP Board in accordance with the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to advance the adoption of secure cloud offerings within the federal government.

“The board will approve and help guide FedRAMP policies, bring together the federal community to create a robust authorization ecosystem, and be a critical partner to the FedRAMP program in our shared goal of a more streamlined customer experience and stronger federal cybersecurity,” said Eric Mill, executive director for cloud strategy at GSA.

The members of the FedRAMP Board are:

  • Bo Berlas, chief information security officer, GSA
  • Carrie Lee, deputy chief information officer, Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Christopher Butera, senior technical director for cybersecurity division, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency
  • David McKeown, senior information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity, Department of Defense
  • Hemant Baidwan, CISO, Department of Homeland Security
  • Sylvia Burns, CIO and chief privacy officer, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
  • Venice Goodwine, CIO, Department of the Air Force

Goodwine is a 2024 Wash100 awardee and McKeown is a previous Wash100 Award recipient.

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NIST Releases Updated Guidelines for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information
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NIST Releases Updated Guidelines for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has updated its guidance on protecting sensitive government data stored in systems operated by nonfederal organizations and its guidelines for assessing security requirements for controlled unclassified information.

The updates align the terms used in the two publications with NIST’s source catalog of security and privacy controls and assessment procedures to clarify security requirements and eliminate uncertainty in security requirement assessments, the agency said Tuesday.

“For the sake of our private sector customers, we want our guidance to be clear, unambiguous and tightly coupled with the catalog of controls and assessment procedures used by federal agencies,” said Ron Ross, one of the publications’ authors.

The guidance, titled “Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations,” requires federal contractors and other organizations working with the government to protect their systems that host controlled unclassified information from potential adversarial threats.

Meanwhile, its companion publication, SP 800-171A, helps users assess their compliance with the security requirements for the federal government’s non-classified information.

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