Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper Conducts 1st Dirt Landing
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Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper Conducts 1st Dirt Landing

The U.S. Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft has carried out its first landing on a dirt landing zone as part of a training exercise held at the Nine Mile Training Center near Fort Stockton, Texas.

During the event, the unmanned aerial vehicle, which was traditionally operated using line-of-sight antennas, demonstrated its ability to take off and land from anywhere in the world and support missions in austere environments, the Air Force said Wednesday.

“This capability will be critical in ‘tomorrow’s fight’ and nests perfectly with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept that focuses on smaller footprints, distributed operations and increased survivability while generating combat power,” said Lt. Col. Brian Flanigan, director of operations of the 2nd Special Operations Squadron.

The Air Force Special Operations Command exercise involved the participation of airmen from the 26th Special Tactics Squadron from Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.

MQ-9 Reaper is built by General Atomics’ aeronautical systems division to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; close air support; combat search and rescue; and precision strike operations.

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GAO Report Cites Inconsistency in Cybercrime Reporting Mechanisms Among Federal Agencies
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GAO Report Cites Inconsistency in Cybercrime Reporting Mechanisms Among Federal Agencies

A report by the Government Accountability Office found that federal agencies have different approaches to reporting cybercrime, due in part to their varying definitions of the criminal activity.

In a report published Tuesday, GAO said that the lack of connection among the reporting mechanisms poses a challenge to establishing shared metrics, which could be addressed through the Better Cybercrime Metrics Act of 2022.

The study focused on 12 agencies including the FBI, Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service and Department of the Treasury. GAO learned that these agencies have no standardized definition of cybercrime or approach to identifying, investigating and prosecuting such violations.

Eight of the 12 departments admitted to having difficulty in measuring the extent or impact of online criminal incidents. They also said they needed guidance in defining metrics for evaluating the impact of efforts to avoid or address the criminal cases.

GAO emphasized that the development of a cybercrime taxonomy under the Better Cybercrime Metrics Act could help the federal offices overcome their challenges. The Department of Justice is tasked with creating the taxonomy and notification categories in its national incident-based reporting system, expected for completion in May 2024.

EXPANSIA Enters DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership; Adam Jarnagin Quoted
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EXPANSIA Enters DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership; Adam Jarnagin Quoted

Strategy and integration consulting firm EXPANSIA, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, has joined hundreds of organizations participating in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership.

As a member, EXPANSIA will support the MSEP mission to connect military spouses with member employers working to provide the demographic with employment opportunities, the Nashua, New Hampshire-based company announced on Monday.

“EXPANSIA is honored to join MSEP’s elite group of employers-partners that recognize the contribution, service and sacrifice those military spouses and their families make every day,” said Adam Jarnagin, CEO of EXPANSIA.

He said that since its establishment, the firm has been committed to creating well-paying jobs for military spouses.

“We did it not just because it was the right thing to do for those who faced constant challenges in maintaining employment but also because these employees are highly skilled, diverse and excel at problem-solving, which is the DNA of any successful employee,” Jarnagin continued.

EXPANSIA, said Jarnagin, views MSEP as a strategic partner in its continued growth.

The company’s entry into the program brings the number of member organizations to over 660. In total, over 250,000 military spouses employed by MSEP partners have been reported since its launch in 2011.

Tynel Jarnagin, EXPANSIA co-founder and a former military spouse, noted her personal experience with the unique challenges in transitioning to civilian life and the difficulties faced by the families of active-duty service members.

That understanding, she said, is why she is proud to connect with MSEP and offer meaningful employment opportunities to military spouses to boost their professional careers.

“Investing in our military families strengthens our workforce and our nation as a whole,” she emphasized.

FedRAMP Adds New Features to Cloud Product Marketplace
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FedRAMP Adds New Features to Cloud Product Marketplace

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has debuted the upgraded version of its searchable database of cloud products and services approved for use across the federal government.

The upgraded FedRAMP Marketplace features a human-centered design and implements accessibility best practices enabling users to find information about cloud service offerings more quickly, the compliance organization announced.

Users can now locate CSOs by FedRAMP ID number and provider, search cloud service providers by business categories and visualize where the offerings are in the FedRAMP authorization process.

FedRAMP’s Program Management Office held a series of feedback sessions to gather user insights and identify needed improvements. The PMO also considered capabilities requested over the past years.

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National Energy Tech Lab Uses Cerebras AI Processor to Make Research Simulation Energy-Efficient
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National Energy Tech Lab Uses Cerebras AI Processor to Make Research Simulation Energy-Efficient

The National Energy Technology Laboratory collaborated with Cerebras Systems, a startup that develops artificial intelligence computing technology, to create a wafer scale-based programming interface for research project simulations.

NETL said Tuesday the Wafer-scale Engine Field Equation Application, or WFA, has the potential to expedite the generation of simulation data using less amounts of energy.

Cerebras is the designer of this wafer-scale engine, which has proven to be 1,500 times more energy efficient than existing computing technologies used in research.

Laboratory scientists were able to demonstrate that the WFA can streamline computational fluid dynamic projects by helping to break down memory and network firewalls during the process.

“We began to make a general-purpose tensor algebra library that could support CFD on the WSE. This library eventually became known as the WFA,” said Dirk Van Essendelft, an NETL researcher.

“Applications for WFA include materials modeling, molecular dynamics and AI-accelerated scientific modeling, among others,” Essendelft informed.

The partnership is working to implement the WFA in commercial applications.

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President Biden Highlights Need to Manage AI-Related Risks
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President Biden Highlights Need to Manage AI-Related Risks

President Joe Biden has stressed the need to manage the risks posed by artificial intelligence to national security, the economy and society as the U.S. sees the technological changes driven by AI and further explores the opportunities the technology offers.

“My administration is committed — is committed to safeguarding America’s rights and safety, from protecting privacy, to addressing bias and disinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said Tuesday prior to the start of a meeting with a group of tech leaders in San Francisco.

The president mentioned some of the efforts of his administration to advance ethical AI development, including the proposed AI Bill of Rights, an executive order to address bias in AI design and use and a strategy to fund responsible development of the technology.

Biden said Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with civil rights leaders and consumer protection groups in July to further facilitate engagement on AI.

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Commerce Dept Team Unveils Selection Committee for Board of National Semiconductor Tech Center
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Commerce Dept Team Unveils Selection Committee for Board of National Semiconductor Tech Center

The Department of Commerce’s CHIPS for America team has named five industry leaders to a committee that will select the board members of a nonprofit organization charged with operating the proposed National Semiconductor Technology Center.

NSTC is a key component of the CHIPS and Science Act’s research and development program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology said Tuesday.

“We want the NSTC to be an engine of innovation, supporting and extending U.S. leadership in semiconductor research, design, engineering and advanced manufacturing for decades to come. This selection committee is the next step to helping us stand up the NSTC and ensure it succeeds for generations,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The members of the selection committee are:

  • Brenda Wilkerson, president and CEO of global nonprofit AnitaB.org
  • Don Rosenberg, a fellow in residence at the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and a venture partner at Anzu Partners
  • Janet Foutty, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and former executive chair of the board of Deloitte US
  • Jason Matheny, president and CEO of RAND Corp.
  • John Hennessy, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University and chairman of Alphabet

The selection panel will act independently of the Commerce Department and will end no later than Aug. 31.

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FCC Changes Rules on Spectrum Sharing Among Satellite Systems
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FCC Changes Rules on Spectrum Sharing Among Satellite Systems

The Federal Communications Commission amended its policy on spectrum sharing among non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems.

In a Federal Register notice posted Tuesday, FCC said the changes were made to regulate the growing number of satellite and NGSO FSS systems launched into space.

The agency noted that it has received an unprecedented number of lead and competing applications for commercial communication systems to be launched into orbit. NGSO FSS technology owners are required to abide by spectrum sharing rules and coordinate with each other in terms of using commonly authorized frequencies—otherwise, a spectrum-splitting procedure would take effect.

In the new ruling, FCC limits the spectrum-splitting threshold to systems that received approval in the same processing round, before the sunset period. The policy also reinforces coordination and mutual protection between systems despite obtaining approval in different processing periods.

The amendments were based on the comments received from the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking, which was issued in Dec. 2021.

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IARPA Program Aims to Protect Privacy for Speech Recorded in Smart Devices
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IARPA Program Aims to Protect Privacy for Speech Recorded in Smart Devices

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity is inviting interested vendors to a proposers’ day for its Anonymous Real-Time Speech program.

IARPA said Tuesday the new program is seeking new technologies capable of protecting the identity of consumers whose speech is being recorded on smart devices or by companies for marketing research purposes.

The 36-month effort will explore novel software-based transformational speech technologies to address privacy threats. For instance, new software may be designed to instantaneously alter a speech to prevent its attribution to the original speaker.

IARPA identified artificial intelligence and machine learning assessments of human emotion, speaker identification software and human evaluation of user age and dialect as threats to the privacy of speech owners.

“Anonymity and discretion are vital to the [Intelligence Community’s] mission success, and the ARTS program will give the IC an important new tool to help facilitate mission priorities,” explained Mark Becker, a program manager at IARPA.

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DOJ Creates National Security Cyber Section to Prosecute State-Sponsored Cyberattacks
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DOJ Creates National Security Cyber Section to Prosecute State-Sponsored Cyberattacks

The Department of Justice has established a cyber section within its National Security Division that will focus on prosecuting nation-state and state-sponsored cyberthreat actors.

DOJ said Tuesday the National Security Cyber Section will coordinate department-wide efforts against malicious cyber activities while promoting strategic collaborations with partners, including the FBI’s Cyber Division and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section.

“This new section will allow NSD to increase the scale and speed of disruption campaigns and prosecutions of nation-state threat actors, state-sponsored cybercriminals, associated money launderers, and other cyber-enabled threats to national security,” said Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general of DOJ’s National Security Division.

NatSec Cyber will support prosecutors in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and FBI Field Offices nationwide.

Olsen added that the new center will “serve as an incubator, able to invest in the time-intensive and complex investigative work for early-stage cases.”

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