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Gen. Michael Guetlein: Space Force Eyes Commerce’s Collected Data to Improve Space Domain Awareness
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Gen. Michael Guetlein: Space Force Eyes Commerce’s Collected Data to Improve Space Domain Awareness

Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, said the U.S. Space Force is considering using data collected by the Department of Commerce to improve its initiative to enhance space domain awareness, or SDA, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

DOC is working on a new space tracking system designed to help commercial satellite operators address the risk of on-orbit smashups.

“I can’t comment on what the Department of Commerce is doing, that’s kind of out outside of my lane. But under space domain awareness … we are really trying to take advantage of all data. So, if the Department of Commerce or any other agency or international partner, whatever, has data that we think has value, we want that data,” Guetlein said at an event.

“So, I would imagine that as Department of Commerce continues to mature this concept, we will definitely want to take advantage of what they’re doing.”

The general noted that U.S. Space Command’s Joint Commercial Operations Cell, formerly the Joint Task Force-Space Defense Commercial Operations Cell, is trying to gain access to any SDA data.

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Weaknesses in Ivanti’s Connect Secure, Policy Secure Platforms Prompt CISA Emergency Directive; Jen Easterly Quoted
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Weaknesses in Ivanti’s Connect Secure, Policy Secure Platforms Prompt CISA Emergency Directive; Jen Easterly Quoted

A new emergency directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is urging all federal civilian agencies to implement measures to mitigate online threats associated with vulnerabilities found in Ivanti’s Connect Secure and Policy Secure platforms.

CISA on Friday published the directive after Ivanti disclosed two vulnerabilities that malicious cyber actors use to infiltrate and move laterally through a target network, exfiltrate data and set up a persistent system access.

The agency has laid out a mitigation guidance that includes a downloadable and importable .xml file into the affected Ivanti Secure appliance. Federal departments should also run the Ivanti External Integrity Checker Tool to reboot the product. Suspected compromised appliances should be reported to CISA’s central e-mail address at central@cisa.dhs.gov.

Agencies can still restore and revive compromised platforms using Ivanti’s instructions in the emergency directive.

“The vulnerabilities in these products pose significant, unacceptable risks to the security of the federal civilian enterprise,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. “Even as federal agencies take urgent action in response to this Directive, we know that these risks extend to every organization and sector using these products. We strongly urge all organizations to adopt the actions outlined in this Directive,” the three-time Wash100 awardee added.

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Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Streamline Procurement Process for Federal Agencies, Contractors
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Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Streamline Procurement Process for Federal Agencies, Contractors

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, have proposed a bill that seeks to streamline the solicitation process and procedures for awarding delivery and task orders for federal agencies.

The bipartisan Conforming Procedures for Federal Task and Delivery Order Contracts Act seeks to accelerate the awarding process by simplifying the procedures for vendors, including small businesses, that bid on government contracts, the Senate panel said Friday.

The proposed legislation also aims to address duplication of documentation requirements and streamline the evaluation of offers.

“This bipartisan bill streamlines the contracting process for federal government agencies, and as a result will boost small businesses trying to stay competitive and will increase efficiency for all government agencies, benefitting people across the nation,” said Peters.

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GovCon Index Rebounded After Losses Early Last Week
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GovCon Index Rebounded After Losses Early Last Week

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index closed last week with a 0.04% uptick to $4,609.49 after a decline earlier in the week. The S&P 500 Index shattered its all-time high with a 1.23% increase to 4,839.81 points while the Dow Jones climbed by 1.05% and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.70%.

GovCon Index is an aggregate index that tracks real-time data from 30 major government contractors, offering users a look into the performance of individual companies and the wider trends characterizing the industry today. This groundbreaking tool enables users to evaluate the financial success of the GovCon market.

By the end of the week, top gainers included the Carlyle Group and Palantir Technologies, which saw increases of 2.37% and 2.32%, respectively. Boeing followed with an uptick of 1.61%, and the next two spots were taken by CGI (+1.30%) and CACI (+1.26%).

These gains follow a slump that began on Tuesday and ended with the GovCon Index increasing by 1.04% to $4.607.73 on Thursday. This rise was led by Boeing (+4.21%) and HII (+2.11%).

Check out last week’s market reports for more information on daily GovCon Index performance. To access the extended list of tracked companies, click here.

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New DOE Funding Opportunity Seeks New Cybersecurity Technologies for Clean Energy Delivery Infrastructure
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New DOE Funding Opportunity Seeks New Cybersecurity Technologies for Clean Energy Delivery Infrastructure

The Department of Energy unveiled a $30 million funding opportunity for research, development and demonstration projects that can produce cybersecurity tools to defend clean energy delivery infrastructure against online threats.

DOE said Wednesday that its Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response plans to grant an estimated 10 awards as part of the Biden administration’s initiative to strengthen both the energy sector and national security.

The agency is looking for proposals that involve bolstering virtual power plant cybersecurity as well as enhancing communications security between distributed energy resources and distributed energy resource aggregations.

Projects may also focus on identifying and reducing the risk of attacks on inverter-based energy generation such as wind and solar and novel forensic approaches for infected renewable energy field devices.

“This funding will drive the development of next generation cyber technologies that keep our nation at the forefront of innovation, while protecting our energy infrastructure from increasing cyber threats,” DOE Undersecretary for Infrastructure David Crane remarked. “This work could not be more important or timely as our nation transitions to the clean energy economy.”

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Internal Revenue Service Appoints 12 New Members to 2024 IRS Advisory Council
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Internal Revenue Service Appoints 12 New Members to 2024 IRS Advisory Council

The Internal Revenue Service has named 12 new members to the IRS Advisory Council to provide the agency and its leaders with recommendations and insights on various issues related to tax administration.

Starting this month, the newly appointed members will serve three-year terms on IRSAC, which will present its annual report at a public meeting scheduled in November, the IRS said Wednesday.

Annette Nellen, a certified public accountant and professor of accounting and taxation and Master of Science in Taxation program director at San Jose State University in California, will serve as chair of 2024 IRSAC.

The new IRSAC members are:

  • Andrew Bloom, head of tax strategy, Golub Capital
  • Beatriz Castaneda, director of tax information reporting, Coinbase
  • Cory Steinmetz, IRS compliance officer and principal assistant attorney general, Office of the Ohio Attorney General
  • Elizabeth Boonin, CPA and managing member, Sound Accounting
  • Hussein Tarraf, president, Tarraf & Associates
  • Lawrence Sannicandro, partner, McCarter & English
  • Lucinda Weigel, CPA, enrolled agent and owner, Weigel Tax & Accounting Services
  • Nicholas Yannaci, director in group tax, UBS
  • Peter Smith, senior manager, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership
  • Robert Barr, vice president of business engineering, CGI Federal
  • Steven Grieb, senior compliance counsel, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
  • Thomas Wheadon, head of international tax and transfer pricing, MAHLE Industries
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CISA, Partners Release New Guidance to Enhance Cyber Resilience of Water & Wastewater Systems Sector
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CISA, Partners Release New Guidance to Enhance Cyber Resilience of Water & Wastewater Systems Sector

New guidance has been issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the FBI to help water and wastewater systems — dubbed WWS — sector owners and operators in responding to cyber incidents.

The Incident Response Guide, which was developed with the help of 25 partners from the WWS industry, state and local governments and the nonprofit sector, tackles all the stages of the incident response lifecycle and the federal roles, resources and responsibilities associated with each step, CISA said Thursday.

The guide, whose use does not require technical expertise, also discusses cyber incident response best practices.

CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein notes how the WWS sector “is under constant threat from malicious cyber actors” and says the newly released guide is “timely and actionable” and is reflective of “an outstanding partnership” between various stakeholders to safeguard WWS.

For his part, FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran said his agency “will continue to combat cyber actors” who pose a threat to the WWS sector, which he described as “a vital part of our critical infrastructure.”

On the part of the EPA, Radhika Fox, the assistant administrator for water, said the agency is committed to improving the cyber resilience of the WWS sector, noting that threats to it “represent a real and urgent risk to safe drinking water and wastewater services that our nation relies on.”

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NASA, Johns Hopkins APL to Demo Wideband Terminal Technology for Satellite Communications
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NASA, Johns Hopkins APL to Demo Wideband Terminal Technology for Satellite Communications

NASA has collaborated with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to test a wideband polylingual terminal prototype for use in the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation program.

The Polylingual Experimental Terminal, or PExT, will be integrated with a York Space Systems-built S-class spacecraft bus and fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-11 mission in June 2024 for a six-month testing period, NASA said Thursday.

During the test, PExT will showcase contact and link management, forward and return link data flow and roaming between NASA’s legacy Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network and three commercial relay networks.

The terminal will also be assessed in mission scenarios such as self-pointing capabilities, long-term schedule execution, waveform adaptation and reloading, link fault recovery and command stack protection.

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New Working Group Intends to Make Commerce Department’s Public Data AI-Ready
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New Working Group Intends to Make Commerce Department’s Public Data AI-Ready

The Commerce Data Governance Board has formed a new working group that intends to determine how generative artificial intelligence could help the Department of Commerce advance its goal of expanding discovery and opportunity through data.

Sallie Ann Keller, chief scientist at the U.S. Census Bureau, has been named chair of the newly established AI and Open Government Data Assets Working Group, according to a blog post published Thursday on the department’s website.

The working group will develop technical guidelines for publishing AI-ready open data that can be used by generative AI and other emerging AI technologies and expects to publish the document by the end of 2024.

The group will also work with academia, industry and other partners in the public data ecosystem to help make the Commerce Department’s public data AI-ready.

The new organization consists of AI and data management experts across the department’s 13 bureaus.

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VA OIT Plans to Hire More AI Experts to Support Digital Services Overhaul
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VA OIT Plans to Hire More AI Experts to Support Digital Services Overhaul

Kurt DelBene, assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the VA’s Office of Information and Technology is planning to hire artificial intelligence experts to enhance the delivery of healthcare and benefits to veterans online, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“Especially with the PACT Act, adding new people who can get health care and benefits from us, it really puts a higher premium around being able to do things like automation,” DelBene said.

DelBene has called on Congress to pass a comprehensive funding bill for fiscal year 2024, noting that the VA OIT’s hiring effort would become a challenge under the continuing resolution passed Thursday to avoid a government shutdown.

“Obviously, the applied-for budget in 2024 is larger than our existing budget, and that’s what’s necessary to add more headcount,” DelBene said.

VA seeks to use AI tools to expedite healthcare enrollment for veterans by removing repetitive questions during the sign-up process.

“When we know who the person is applying for health care, we’re able to cut down the length of time that form takes, by avoiding asking questions that we might already know the answer to,” said Charles Worthington, chief technology officer at VA.

The department also launched a tech sprint to develop AI-powered speech-to-text tools and document processing platforms to enhance patient care and experience.

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