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DISA Expands Thunderdome Zero Trust Program Deployment; Brian Hermann Quoted
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DISA Expands Thunderdome Zero Trust Program Deployment; Brian Hermann Quoted

The Defense Information Systems Agency deployed the Thunderdome zero trust program to 15 sites in 2023 and is preparing to field the initiative to 60 additional sites this year, Federal News Network reported Friday.

DISA has also finalized the contracting process to support the U.S. Coast Guard’s network security improvement efforts through Thunderdome.

In July 2023, Booz Allen Hamilton received a follow-on other transaction authority agreement from DISA for the Thunderdome project.

“We just completed the contracting effort to get underway with the Coast Guard work. There are some site surveys and things that need to be done, but that will be additive work on top of the planned work,” Brian Hermann, director of the cybersecurity and analytics directorate at DISA, told FNN.

According to the publication, the follow-on OTA deal is valued at approximately $1.86 billion.

Hermann noted that DISA will advance the rollout by focusing on organizations that are already part of DoDNet, which supports users from DISA and the Defense Technical Information Center, among others.

“Over time, as they come on board to DoDNet, they will get the Thunderdome architecture as a basic part of their commodity IT,” the DISA official remarked. “That’s helpful for them and it’s helpful for the department because then we know that those organizations will have achieved certain elements of zero trust target state, which we’re all required to achieve by the end of fiscal 2027. So we expect there will be more organizations that come on board Thunderdome.”

The Thunderdome project consists of four components: customer security stacks, software-defined wide area networking, secure access service edge capability and application security stacks.

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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HawkEye 360 Expands Satellite Constellation With Clusters 8 & 9 Orbit Deployment
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HawkEye 360 Expands Satellite Constellation With Clusters 8 & 9 Orbit Deployment

HawkEye 360 marked its first dual deployment into a mid-inclination orbit with the recent launch of Clusters 8 & 9 satellites now positioned to boost global coverage and enhance data efficiency in busy maritime regions.

The Herndon, Virginia-based defense technology company said Monday its constellation now has 29 satellites, including Clusters 8 and 9 with upgraded payloads for broader bandwidths, improved data collection and multi-band signal capture efforts.

The recently contacted satellites are equipped with high-speed transmitters and processors for faster data delivery speed.

“These satellites bring sophisticated technology and integrated capabilities that will dramatically enhance our coverage and data collection efficiency over the world’s busiest regions, reinforcing HawkEye 360’s commitment to delivering unparalleled geospatial insights,” said John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360.

Space Flight Laboratory and Exolaunch were HawkEye 360’s partners on the recent activity, according to Rob Rainhart, president of HawkEye 360.

In June 2023, HawkEye 360 began operations of its Cluster 7 satellites.

“As geopolitical tensions continue to increase around the world, Cluster 7 is extending and improving data collection in the 30 MHz – 18 GHz frequency range to meet growing demand,” HawkEye 360 Chief Growth Officer Alex Fox said at that time.

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DHS Chief Information Security Officer Directorate Seeks Providers of Cybersecurity, Risk Management Support Services
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DHS Chief Information Security Officer Directorate Seeks Providers of Cybersecurity, Risk Management Support Services

The Department of Homeland Security’s Chief Information Security Officer Directorate is conducting market research to determine the availability of qualified and interested sources that can provide a variety of support services.

The required services include project management; architecture, engineering, risk management and compliance support for national security systems; cybersecurity support for the Information Technology Acquisition Review process; enterprise cybersecurity governance; and cybersecurity risk and reporting analysis, according to a request for information posted Friday on SAM.gov.

Interested parties have until April 19 to respond.

The DHS CISOD works to ensure that information systems operate at a level of risk that is acceptable. The directorate also works to ensure compliance with various legislative and departmental policies as well as other regulations and guidelines.

DHS Chief Information Security Officer Directorate Seeks Providers of Cybersecurity, Risk Management Support Services

Cyber experts, government leaders and industry visionaries will speak about the dynamic and evolving role of cyber in the public sector at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Cyber Summit, which will take place in June. Register now to attend this important event!

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DAF Officials Working on Implementation Plan for Air Forces Cyber Elevation; Bill Marion Quoted
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DAF Officials Working on Implementation Plan for Air Forces Cyber Elevation; Bill Marion Quoted

Officials at the Department of the Air Force are creating an implementation plan to elevate Air Forces Cyber into a standalone component command, DefenseScoop reported Friday.

Established in 2019, AFCYBER is part of the 16th Air Force, which is under Air Combat Command, and covers cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electromagnetic spectrum operations, information operations and weather, among other capabilities.

According to the service branch’s former cyber officials, AFCYBER could be placed under the supervision of the chief of staff and the secretary like a major command or MAJCOM.

Bill Marion, managing director at Accenture Federal Services, cited the challenge of being under a MAJCOM.

“Being underneath one MAJCOM, frankly, historically has been challenging. Not because they haven’t wanted to support cyber, but it gets into, Air Combat Command flies jets and fighters and Space Command flies satellites. It always was a budgetary challenge,” Marion told DefenseScoop.

According to the report, AFCYBER elevation could increase the profile of non-kinetic and cyber capabilities.

“The writing’s on the wall. Globally, cyber is truly a warfighting capability, it’s truly transcending all the mission areas,” Marion remarked.

“The biggest thing is this much larger aperture of cyber as a warfighting mission in totality, not underneath kinetic effects, but in concert with kinetic effects. Because it is a reality we live in. I mean, you look at the Ukrainian war and as an example, I mean, it’s as much cyber as it is kinetic. We see the bombs drop and you don’t see the non-kinetic but, it’s on par, it’s not above,” the Air Force’s former deputy chief information officer added.

POC - 2024 Air Force Summit

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Air Force Summit in July to hear important updates on peer competition, modernization efforts, technology adoption and more. Click here to register. 

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AFRL to Establish New Center for AI/ML Research Collaboration
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AFRL to Establish New Center for AI/ML Research Collaboration

The Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate has secured funding to establish a new center dedicated to facilitating collaboration on artificial intelligence and machine learning research and development.

The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Research Center Capability Project, or AIMR-2C, will be located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and provide 6,000 square feet of lab space to accommodate AFRL researchers and collaborators, the laboratory said Friday.

Eric Harper, a research materials engineer in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and technical lead of the AIMR-2C project, said the new center will allow AFRL and its partners to assist each other in creating new AI and ML models and apply them to multidisciplinary materials science problems.

“Research co-location with data visualization provides dedicated subject-matter expertise in AI/ML, data analysis, and visualization to assist researchers in accelerating the development of next-generation models, workflows, and visualization pipelines,” said Kurt Lamm, facility engineer at AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate.

The $4 million AIMR-2C funding was awarded by the Office of Secretary of Defense Centralized Laboratory Investment Program.

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CISA’s Jen Easterly & Intel’s Chris George Named 2024 Wash100 Winners
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CISA’s Jen Easterly & Intel’s Chris George Named 2024 Wash100 Winners

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly and Intel Federal President and General Manager Christopher George were highlighted on Monday as winners of Executive Mosaic’s prestigious 2024 Wash100 Award.

Cast your votes for Jen Easterly and Chris George as your favorite GovCon executives at Wash100.com! The beloved Wash100 popular vote competition runs until April 30, and the winner will be announced in May.

The Wash100 Award annually recognizes the top 100 most influential and promising executives working in the U.S. federal government and the government contracting industry. These senior executives are chosen to the elite Wash100 list because of their demonstrated leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Easterly won her third Wash100 Award this year in recognition of her commitment to cybersecurity and her leadership at the helm of CISA.

“In an era marked by increasingly severe and abundant cyber threats, Jen’s cyber leadership and expertise guides CISA and our nation toward a safer, more resilient future,” said Garrettson of Easterly’s leadership.

Read more about why Easterly was selected here.

George earned his first ever Wash100 Award this year. His leadership at Intel, his dedication to advancing innovation efforts and his semiconductor industry expertise have earned him a spot on the list. Read George’s full Wash100 profile here.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Jen Easterly and Chris George on their Wash100 wins!

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5 Federal Agencies Join Pledge to Address Discriminatory Outcomes Related to AI Use; Kristen Clarke Quoted
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5 Federal Agencies Join Pledge to Address Discriminatory Outcomes Related to AI Use; Kristen Clarke Quoted

The departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Education, Labor and Housing and Urban Development have pledged to enforce laws to protect individuals from unlawful discrimination and other harms that may result from the use of artificial intelligence and other automated systems.

“As social media platforms, banks, landlords, employers and other businesses choose to rely on artificial intelligence, algorithms and automated systems to conduct business, we stand ready to hold accountable those entities that fail to address the unfair and discriminatory outcomes that may result,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement published Thursday.

“We are mounting a whole-of-government approach to enforcing civil rights and related laws when it comes to automated systems, including AI,” added Clarke, who also announced the launch of a webpage aimed at centralizing content with regard to her division’s work on civil rights and AI.

Officials from federal agencies on Wednesday attended a meeting hosted by the Civil Rights Division and discussed strategies to improve coordination and enforcement and raise public awareness about the potential discriminary effects of AI and other automated tools.

They also offered updates on their agencies’ guidance and other obligations under the AI executive order.

In April 2023, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pledged to enforce civil rights laws to protect consumers against the misuse of AI and other automated systems.

Fermilab, xLight Partner to Improve Semiconductor Manufacturing in US
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Fermilab, xLight Partner to Improve Semiconductor Manufacturing in US

The Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, with semiconductor manufacturer xLight.

Fermilab said Thursday that the aim of the CRADA is to develop key components that would enhance the manufacturing of semiconductors in the U.S.

Part of the effort involves the development of an extreme ultraviolet light source, which would make the process of making advanced chips require less energy.

The partnership was formally launched on April 4 during a meeting between Fermilab Director Lia Merminga and xLight CEO Nicholas Kelez.

Merminga said the partnership “represents a unique opportunity to transition the technologies that Fermilab develops for our science mission to commercial applications.”

For his part, Kelez expressed his organization’s “deep appreciation for Fermilab’s excellent work and leadership in particle accelerator technologies.”

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Jennifer Swanson Says Innovation Exchange Lab Advances Army-Industry Collaboration on Digital Transformation
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Jennifer Swanson Says Innovation Exchange Lab Advances Army-Industry Collaboration on Digital Transformation

Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for data, engineering and software, said the service branch’s newly established Innovation Exchange Lab — dubbed IXL — will enable faster digital technology adoption by providing a cloud-based environment for facilitating industry collaboration.

The IXL enables industry and software developers to test and evaluate their software tools’ interoperability with the Army’s Unified Data Reference Architecture 1.0, a.k.a. UDRA 1.0, which was co-developed by the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software and the chief information officer, Swanson wrote in a blog post published Thursday.

UDRA 1.0 is the first tool made available to both Army and industry software developers through the IXL to encourage ongoing collaboration while developing new data-based warfighting technologies.

According to Swanson, UDRA utilizes the U.S. government’s modular open systems approach to prevent “vendor lock,” where large platforms become dependent on proprietary designs and systems.

“It is the Army’s first of a series of reference architectures, fully coordinated internally and with industry, to enable us to seamlessly integrate all of our products together regardless of which program manager or industry partner develops them,” Swanson said.

POC - 5th Annual CIO Summit

Swanson is set to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual CIO Summit on April 17. Register here to save your seat and hear about the latest modernization strategies from government and industry CIOs.

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Dave Luber Named NSA Cybersecurity Director
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Dave Luber Named NSA Cybersecurity Director

Dave Luber, a senior executive with over 37 years of experience in the federal government, has taken on the role of director of cybersecurity within the National Security Agency.

He succeeds Rob Joyce, who retired after serving for over three decades within NSA, the agency said Thursday.

Joyce, a two-time Wash100 awardee, assumed the role of cybersecurity director within NSA in 2021.

In this capacity, Luber leads NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate, which helps prevent cyberthreats facing the Department of Defense, national security systems and the defense industrial base.

Luber’s career in government has included time serving as deputy director of cybersecurity within NSA, executive director of U.S. Cyber Command, director of NSA Colorado and program director within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

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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