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ONCD Seeks Public Input on Cybersecurity Regulatory Harmonization
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ONCD Seeks Public Input on Cybersecurity Regulatory Harmonization

The White House Office of the National Cyber Director is soliciting public comments as it seeks to determine opportunities and challenges to harmonizing cybersecurity regulations for critical infrastructure and explore a framework for regulatory reciprocity.

The request for information supports one of the 69 federal initiatives under the National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan, the White House said Wednesday.

ONCD wants respondents to provide examples of conflicting, mutually exclusive or inconsistent regulations affecting cybersecurity that apply to the operational technology and information technology infrastructure of the same regulated entity.

Interested stakeholders have been asked to respond to several questions related to the use of common guidelines, existing standards or frameworks, third-party frameworks and tiered regulation.

ONCD is also asking the public to provide examples of cybersecurity oversight by multiple regulators of the same entity and describe whether the oversight involved IT or OT infrastructure.

Responses to the RFI are due Sept. 15.

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DCS, Odyssey Team to Provide Program Lifecycle Assistance to Air Force Center
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DCS, Odyssey Team to Provide Program Lifecycle Assistance to Air Force Center

DCS will help Odyssey Systems Consulting Group provide advisory and assistance services to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center under a subcontract.

The professional services firm said Wednesday it will assist the Odyssey team in supporting the development, production, testing, fielding, modernization and sustainment of the AFLCMC Digital Directorate segment in support of the Air Force Material Command mission.

Work will be performed in different locations across the U.S. and its territories.

AFLCMC/HB consists of more than 130 programs for the U.S. Air Force and international allies. The programs involve enhancement efforts at every stage of the life cycle, including engineering change proposals, technology refreshes and upgrades.

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GSA Publishes Guide to Public Key Infrastructure Shared Service Providers Program
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GSA Publishes Guide to Public Key Infrastructure Shared Service Providers Program

The General Services Administration has released a guide for its Public Key Infrastructure Shared Service Providers Program.

The document provides step-by-step instructions and eligibility information for digital services providers looking to certify their PKIs, which are used to protect sensitive and confidential data, GSA said Wednesday.

The PKI SSP Program was launched earlier this month to boost vendors’ credentials in competing for digital exchange contracts. The guide, which was created by GSA’s Identity Assurance and Trusted Access Division, will help vendors secure and maintain federal certification for their PKI services.

The program guide is divided into three sections. The first covers management and acquisition controls in accordance with the Identity, Credentialing and Access Management memorandum issued by the Office of Management and Budget.

Section 2 details the application and membership maintenance process, while section 3 is a list of services that an SSP should offer to federal agencies. This includes personal identity verification cards, digital signatures and key management services.

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NSWC Dahlgren Division Reaches $1B Milestone in OTA Awards
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NSWC Dahlgren Division Reaches $1B Milestone in OTA Awards

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division has awarded $1 billion in total worth of other transactional authority agreements since it used the contracting vehicle in 2019 to enable rapid acquisition and development of prototype technologies.

NSWCDD’s OTA vehicle has 22 technology areas that support the Department of Defense’s capability requirements in cyber, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, unmanned systems and other functions, Naval Sea Systems Command reported Wednesday.

“Faced with the compounding problem of needing to accelerate weapon systems development, increase flight testing complexity and cadence and modernize range test and evaluation assets, the DOD has begun to increasingly rely on the utility, timeliness and flexibility of Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contracts,” said Cindy Montrief, OTA program lead at NSWCDD.

In June 2019, NSWCDD issued an OTA agreement with an industry consortium to advance naval surface technology innovation.

The Naval Surface Technology and Innovation Consortium OTA comprises 956 members representing 46 states.

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Tim Grayson: Air Force Moves Forward on SD-WAN to Back Advanced Battle Management System, JADC2
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Tim Grayson: Air Force Moves Forward on SD-WAN to Back Advanced Battle Management System, JADC2

Tim Grayson, special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force for mission-centered analysis and operational imperatives, said the service branch has been assessing software-defined wide area networking capabilities after the department issued a call in January for white papers on SD-WAN for the Advanced Battle Management System as part of the Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.

Grayson said the Air Force is working with other service branches as it advances SD-WAN capabilities for ABMS.

He noted that the Air Force is “looking around and saying, ‘I’ve got to have physical layer conductivity. There’s some of the other services that frankly have better options for waveforms and radios [than] we have.”

Grayson said the U.S. Space Force is also introducing similar capabilities to SD-WAN that would allow the Joint Force and coalition partners to connect to the network architecture.

“It becomes truly a transport layer to move data from point A to point B, which is going to be critically important for the whole, broader [combined] JADC2 concepts,” he added.

He stated that industry will play a role since JADC2 will require a “federated approach.”

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House Select Committee Looks Into US Venture Firms’ Chinese Tech Investments
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House Select Committee Looks Into US Venture Firms’ Chinese Tech Investments

A House select panel is investigating a number of U.S. venture capital firms over their investments in Chinese semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence companies, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party asked GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Walden International to respond by July 27 to its inquiry, including details about the role of CCP in tech companies they have invested in and the management advice they have shared with such businesses.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., member of the House select committee, said U.S. expertise and funding should not be used to support China’s “advancements in the technologies that could undermine our national security or American values.”

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, said the investigation seeks to collect data that would help Congress advance a bill that would limit investments in such companies.

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Hyperspace Challenge Seeks to Manage Evolving Threats in Space
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Hyperspace Challenge Seeks to Manage Evolving Threats in Space

The U.S. Space Force’s business accelerator has partnered with the Space Rapid Capabilities Office to advance the development and maturation of technologies designed to make space assets more resilient to threats.

The 2023 Hyperspace Challenge is inviting companies from space, aerospace, defense, cybersecurity and manufacturing industries to submit technology proposals to boost space visibility and awareness, modernize space analysis and vehicle autonomy and increase space vehicle lifespan and maneuverability, Central New Mexico Community College announced Wednesday.

Space RCO also seeks to facilitate collaboration among the 2023 cohort to pursue new opportunities in space, enable readiness and training activities and develop new operating concepts.

Hyperspace Challenge was established in 2018 by the Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory in collaboration with CNM Ingenuity.

Companies interested in participating in the challenge have until Aug. 15 to submit an initial interest form.

Hyperspace Challenge Seeks to Manage Evolving Threats in Space

On Aug. 29, ExecutiveBiz is hosting its Space Technologies Forum. Register now to hear insights from key change-makers like Space Development Agency Technical Director Frank Turner, who will be delivering the keynote address.

Akima & 4 Subsidiaries Meet Requirements for ISO 27001 Certification; Bill Monet Quoted
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Akima & 4 Subsidiaries Meet Requirements for ISO 27001 Certification; Bill Monet Quoted

Akima has received ISO 27001 certification, a reflection of the company’s work to protect its customers’ information.

NQA, an independently accredited certification body, conducted the audit, which determined that Akima and four of its subsidiaries – Akima Global Technology, Akima Data Management, Cloud Lake Technology and Compass Point – have met security guidelines set by the International Organization for Standardization, the Herndon, Virginia-based company announced on Thursday.

“Akima has always placed a high value on secure management of data and information systems,” said Bill Monet, president and CEO of Akima and a four-time Wash100 Award recipient.

“This certification embodies our commitment to ensuring the best protection possible for us and our customers against ever-present – and always evolving – security threats,” he added.

Being granted this certification means that Akima’s Information Security Management Systems meet the requirements of confidentiality, integrity, availability of information and legal compliance put in place by ISO. During the audit, Akima demonstrated that its implementation of processes and security controls kept information protected and met these standards.

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GSA Brings Nearly 50 New Fellows Into Government via US Digital Corps
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GSA Brings Nearly 50 New Fellows Into Government via US Digital Corps

The General Services Administration has announced the addition of 48 early-career technologists to the U.S. Digital Corps as the second cohort of fellows that will work with 13 federal agencies to help the Biden administration advance key government priorities.

The fellows, who boast skills in data analytics and data science, cybersecurity, product management, design and software engineering, will back agency projects that support the President’s Management Agenda of delivering secure and equitable customer experiences and provide public access to government research over a two-year period, GSA said Tuesday.

“Growing this corps is another way we’re driving innovation and modernization while ensuring that Americans get the services they need – when they need them – from their government,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan.

GSA selected the second cohort of fellows from 1,355 applicants. The agency plans to open the application process for the third cohort in the fall and expects the fellows to begin in the summer of 2024.

USDC welcomed the first cohort of fellows in June 2022.

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GE Research, Boston Fusion Among 5 Organizations Selected for DARPA’s Human-AI Teaming Program
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GE Research, Boston Fusion Among 5 Organizations Selected for DARPA’s Human-AI Teaming Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has chosen five teams to participate in its human-artificial intelligence teaming program focused on multimedia analytics.

Boston Fusion, GE Research, Systems & Technology Research, the University of California San Diego, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will lead research projects under the Environment-driven Conceptual Learning program, DARPA announced Tuesday.

ECOLE aims to develop AI agents that can continuously gain knowledge from machine learning-based algorithms in order to analyze massive amounts of video, image and other multimedia data for national security missions. The program’s first and second phases will each take 18 months to complete, while a third phase specializing in geospatial intelligence is expected to take 12 months.

The research projects chosen for ECOLE include Boston Fusion’s exploration of the “masking” technique to test AI agents’ recognition of an object despite the absence or removal of some of its properties.

GE Research, meanwhile, will devise automated object and action curricula generation that would help AI discover an object’s properties. The company will also create methods to address user input and knowledge structure conflicts.

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