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NASA Space Technology Head James Reuter Retires
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NASA Space Technology Head James Reuter Retires

James Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate since February 2018, is retiring on June 30 after four decades of service with the agency, NASA announced Tuesday.

In his current role, Reuter oversees the development and implementation of NASA’s space technology investment strategies and coordinates the agency’s activities with industry and government partners.

“During Jim’s tenure, he created new innovative partnerships with industry and other government agencies to accelerate NASA’s technology work, with a special focus on innovating for the lunar surface,” said Bill Nelson, administrator of NASA.

He also established new initiatives to attract talent from academia and retain NASA’s early-career workforce, according to Nelson.

Reuter previously served as deputy associate administrator of STMD and held various leadership roles at Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center.

He has also supported the International Space Station, Constellation and Space Shuttle programs.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks: Innovation Is in America’s DNA
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Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks: Innovation Is in America’s DNA

Innovation has historically enabled the United States to be at the forefront of warfighting capabilities, Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks stated.

The remarks were part of her keynote speech on Tuesday at the 2023 Ash Carter Exchange on Innovation and National Security in Washington, D.C.

During the address, she highlighted the contributions of former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to the advancement of innovation within the department. This includes early stage development of the B-12 stealth bomber and the conversion of the Standard Missile-6 interceptor into an offensive anti-ship missile.

Defense innovation always involves taking advantage of change to add military value, she noted.

“Innovations are often shaped by who’s in the room, and who has a seat at the table,” Hicks said. “It isn’t just about which tech sectors get R&D dollars. It’s also about having a warfighter-centric culture, and making sure we bring together operators, intel analysts, and technologists routinely and systematically. Because it’s the interaction among these diverse communities that often sparks and catalyzes innovation, and keeps an innovation ecosystem vibrant and fresh and effective,” the Wash100 awardee emphasized.

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CYBERCOM Releases Changes to 2023 Command Challenge Problem Set; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted
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CYBERCOM Releases Changes to 2023 Command Challenge Problem Set; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted

The U.S. Cyber Command published a revised version of its Command Challenge Problem Set, which details areas of improvement that the branch can address through collaboration with commercial and academic partners, CYBERCOM said Tuesday.

The document is based on the 2020 Technical Challenge Problem Set, and is available on the Technical Outreach Division page of CYBERCOM’s website.

The branch is looking for novel and innovative technologies in six problem categories: vulnerabilities and exploits; network security, monitoring and visualization; modeling and predictive analytics; persona and identity; permeability and agility across domains; and infrastructure and transport.

Solutions to vulnerabilities and exploits include reverse engineering, defensive patching, and malware fingerprint and signature detection. Meanwhile, challenges in network security range from knowledge and awareness, to defendable network approaches.

In the predictive analysis category, issues include data environment forecasting and automation of threat discovery and anomaly detection.

Problems that need to be addressed in the identity category are misrepresentation, cryptocurrency, malign influence and multi-factor authentication vulnerabilities.

“As we work to defend the nation against some of the most challenging threats today and look forward to using them to increase our dialogue and collaboration with industry, academia, and foreign partners,” said Gen. Paul Nakasone CYBERCOM Commander and Wash100 award recipient.

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US & Allies Release Advisory on Russian Cyber Espionage Tool ‘Snake’
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US & Allies Release Advisory on Russian Cyber Espionage Tool ‘Snake’

National security and cybersecurity agencies from the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have released a joint advisory on a malware network used by the Russian government for long-term intelligence collection.

The cyber espionage tool, dubbed Snake, has infected computers in over 50 countries worldwide to gather sensitive information from high-priority targets, including research facilities and government networks, the National Security Agency said Tuesday.

The Hunting Russian Intelligence “Snake” Malware advisory provides technical information and mitigation recommendations to assist network users in detecting and eliminating malicious software and related activities.

“Snake infrastructure has spread around the world. The technical details will help many organizations find and shut down the malware globally,” said Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at NSA and a two-time Wash100 awardee.

NSA collaborated with the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and international allies on the joint advisory.

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SAIC Launches New Data Search & Retrieval Platform; Andy Henson Quoted
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SAIC Launches New Data Search & Retrieval Platform; Andy Henson Quoted

Science Applications International Corp. has released its new encrypted query analytics and data retrieval tool.

Created to provide secure and efficient data search and retrieval, EQADR offers modern, cryptographic, cross-boundary data search, retrieval and analytics, the Reston, Virginia-based company announced on Tuesday.

Andy Henson, vice president of innovation at SAIC, said that agencies depend on data to execute their missions in a secure space.

“We are providing our customers with data encryption solutions to help them reach the next phase of their digital transformation journey. SAIC’s EQADR delivers on providing security and performance to accelerate data-driven decision-making,” said Henson.

The platform’s cross-domain approach is intended to provide precise, on-demand queries from higher-side to lower-side networks while securing sources, methods and analytical tradecraft. Designed to support the transfer of sensitive data, EQADR conceals search terms and can quickly sort open-source data, minimize classified data storage costs and share intellectual property.

Within the past year, SAIC has introduced multiple new products, including the Software-as-a-Service edition of its Koverse security-first data management and governance platform. Launched in June 2022, the technology uses attribute-based access controls to offer zero trust for data.

More recently, SAIC released Tenjin, a novel data platform that supports low-code to full-code artificial intelligence and machine learning development and operation.

SAIC Launches New Data Search & Retrieval Platform; Andy Henson Quoted

SAIC is sponsoring the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Annual Air Force Summit — an event that will connect Air Force leaders, private sector experts and other specialists to dig into a variety of Air Force priorities on July 18. To learn more and register to attend the summit, which will feature numerous engaging speeches and rigorous panel discussions, please visit the Potomac Officers Club events page.

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Jim Garrettson Delivers 2023 Wash100 Award to Akima’s Bill Monet
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Jim Garrettson Delivers 2023 Wash100 Award to Akima’s Bill Monet

Bill Monet, president and CEO of Akima, was recently presented with his 2023 Wash100 Award during a meeting with Executive Mosaic CEO and Wash100 creator Jim Garrettson.

Now in its 10th year of life, the Wash100 carries on the tradition of recognizing the most impactful leaders in the government contracting industry. Each year, the award conducts an intense analysis of each nominee’s past triumphs and anticipated momentum to select the strongest executives in the expansive GovCon field.

A four-time winner, Monet once again stood out from the competition. This year, he was honored for his success in securing significant contract awards and making new additions to Akima’s leadership team in pursuit of company growth and stronger mission support. Click here to read his full profile.

Since his induction into the 2023 Wash100 class, Monet has proven the award’s prediction of future success.

In March, Akima won a $194 million U.S. Army contract to provide logistics and engineering technician support for the service branch’s Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania.

Akima also recently selected Robin Dewar as vice president of business development and appointed Ross Berkoff as general manager of its RiverTech subsidiary.

Last month, Akima agreed to acquire training and simulation products provider Pinnacle Solutions to expand its participation in military programs.

Executive Mosaic is excited to see where Monet’s distinguished leadership takes Akima as the year continues.

How Adobe Is Tackling Content Authentication in an AI-Driven World
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How Adobe Is Tackling Content Authentication in an AI-Driven World

With artificial intelligence on the rise, content authentication and verification is becoming more of a challenge than ever. But companies like Adobe are working to create new tools for verifying the attributes and history of images and videos online, which could have significant impact on both the public and private sectors.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” said Brendan Curley, vice president of public sector sales at Adobe, in a video interview with Executive Mosaic. “It’s not just us — 900 companies have committed to installing and allowing basically an icon to be put on a picture or video so that you can validate its authenticity.”

“When more and more companies are committing to that, we can have a better sense of what’s true and what isn’t,” he added.

Adobe has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft — Curley explained that Adobe’s Sign product is built on Microsoft Azure and that the two companies are connected “on a lot of levels.” Now, Adobe and Microsoft are teaming up to solve the growing content authenticity issue plaguing social media and online communities.

In conversation with Executive Mosaic’s video reporter Summer Myatt, Curley acknowledged that while many of Adobe’s commercial products are geared toward creative industries, content authenticity and validation are of paramount importance in today’s climate.

“As the technology continues to grow, we want to encourage people to be creative. But when it comes to people trusting the data that they’re seeing, it’s important that we can look at that and validate it and make our own decisions in terms of the authenticity,” Curley shared.

Watch Brendan Curley’s full video interview here, and don’t forget to connect with Executive Mosaic on LinkedIn.

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White House Meeting Fails to Reach Consensus on Debt Limit
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White House Meeting Fails to Reach Consensus on Debt Limit

The meeting at the White House on Tuesday between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy failed to result in any agreement on the U.S. debt ceiling, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. government could default on its debt as early as June 1 if Congress fails to raise or suspend the borrowing limit.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were also present during the meeting.

After the afternoon meeting, Biden said the U.S. would not default on its obligations and that “politics, posturing and gamesmanship” will continue in the coming weeks.

The president said negotiators should focus their discussions on “how to lower the deficit to put our fiscal house in order, but…we need to take the threat of default off the table.”

The meeting is expected to lead to a series of talks to reach an agreement on government spending, according to the report. Biden and congressional leaders will meet again on Friday.

The White House recently presented analyses of the potential economic impacts of several debt ceiling scenarios, including a brief default and a protracted default.

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Space Force GPS Tech Program Office Completes Technical Requirements Verification of Receiver Card
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Space Force GPS Tech Program Office Completes Technical Requirements Verification of Receiver Card

The Military GPS User Equipment Increment 1 program office within the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command reached an acquisition baseline program milestone with the completion of a technical requirements verification of the aviation/maritime GPS receiver card.

With the TRV milestone, the Department of Defense and allied partners can now update their existing receivers with the use of a Military Code aviation/maritime receiver designed to counter adversaries that deny the U.S. military’s positioning, navigation and timing capabilities, SSC said Monday.

“This achievement brings warfighters closer to having M-Code receivers, which can protect against adversarial threats,” said Col. Matt Spencer, senior materiel leader for SSC’s Military and GPS User Equipment Acquisition Delta.

Aside from completing the GPS Receiver Application Module-Standard Electronic Module/M-Code TRV, the program office finished characterization testing of the GRAM S/M software and hardware, issued security certification for the receiver card and created an integration guide for prospective users.

“With all requirements verified, the MGUE Inc 1 program is closer to its platform integration phase and future development of MGUE,” said Christina Jin, SSC MGUE engineering branch systems engineering lead.

MGUE Inc 1 circuit card receivers have improved anti-spoofing, antitamper and anti-jamming capabilities. SSC said MGUE integration activities are being performed across the Army’s Stryker vehicle, Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the Air Force’s B-2 strategic bomber and the Marine Corps’ Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.

L3Harris Technologies, Raytheon Technologies and BAE Systems have secured MGUE Increment 1 contracts.

In September 2022, the U.S. Space Force and three companies concluded the preliminary review design phase of the MGUE Increment 2 Miniature Serial Interface project, which aims to produce tools that will enable warfighters to use allied satellite PNT signals.

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Col. Richard Kniseley Shares Top Priorities for Commercial Space Office
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Col. Richard Kniseley Shares Top Priorities for Commercial Space Office

Col. Richard Kniseley, head of the Commercial Space Office within the U.S. Space Force, said making deliberate investments in commercial capabilities in support of the needs of warfighters is one of his top priorities for the newly established office, C4ISRNET reported Monday.

“Because the feedback I’ve gotten from the commercial entities is they want to get involved. They want to be good partners. … The best way to do it is through investments. So, aligning contracts and aligning the right funding to do this,” he told the publication in an interview.

Another priority for Kniseley is transitioning the Commercial Satellite Communications Office away from the Defense Information Systems Agency. The office currently uses DISA for contracting.

He said his office plans to set up a working capital fund by the end of September to enable the office to go after other mission areas moving forward.

Kniseley said he also wants to further advance industry engagements as he builds up the Commercial Space Office, which will be headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia.

He cited his plans for the Space Domain Awareness marketplace and highlighted the need to integrate new capabilities during peacetime.

“The way I look at it, especially with this conflict that’s coming [with China], we have got to get these capabilities integrated during peacetime so that the warfighter has a chance to use it, so that we can integrate them into exercises and war games to really make it a part of the architecture,” Kniseley said.

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