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CISA Pursuing Partnership, Launches Webpage for CyberSentry Program
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CISA Pursuing Partnership, Launches Webpage for CyberSentry Program

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is pursuing vendors to help protect the national critical functions through CyberSentry, a public-private threat monitoring and detection program for U.S. critical infrastructure.

In a blog post published Thursday, Jermaine Roebuck, associate director for threat hunting at CISA, introduced a webpage for the program meant to integrate agency IT defense operations with that owned by industry partners.

The Biden administration requested $48.2 million in its 2024 budget for CyberSentry. Ever since the program began, it has been able to detect infection on human-machine interface equipment and unintentional exposure of partners’ networks to threats.

CISA was able to use CyberSentry for information sharing and adverse activity monitoring in situations such as the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined oil system in the country. The threat detection tool was also used in warning partners who were impacted by the SolarWinds supply chain disruption.

The agency is committed to enlisting more partners to identify and track threat activity in healthcare, energy, banking, utilities, public safety and other NCFs.

Interested organizations may contact CISA’s CyberSentry Program Management Office.

Farooq Mitha: DOD’s Small Business Programs Office to Maximize Funding to Revive Initiatives
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Farooq Mitha: DOD’s Small Business Programs Office to Maximize Funding to Revive Initiatives

The Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs will strengthen financial support of its projects, including the Rapid Innovation Fund and Project Spectrum, Farooq Mitha, director of the DOD’s Office of Small Business Programs, said in an interview with Forbes magazine, published Thursday.

Mitha discussed the unit’s small business strategy for 2023, as well as other opportunities and resources that small enterprises can use to grab a share of the defense contracting market.

DOD created a small business office in each service and branch within the agency, which exceeds 25 divisions. Mitha said that OSBP is working to make it easier for companies to communicate and partner with those branches.

The office established the business.defense.gov website, which integrates SB industry and government entities for information sharing and acquisition opportunities.

This year, OSBP will ramp up activities of the Rapid Innovation Fund to increase the commercialization rate of technologies or prototypes developed from DOD’s small business contracts, Mitha explained. The program had a 60 percent commercialization rate for eight years before it stopped receiving funding in 2019, and OSBP intends to revive it by taking advantage of the budget earmarked by the Biden administration.

Under his leadership, Project Spectrum will also become a one-stop cybersecurity shop for SBs, helping them protect intellectual property and sensitive government data.

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Artemis II SLS Mission Flight Software Passes 1st Phase of Qualification Testing
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Artemis II SLS Mission Flight Software Passes 1st Phase of Qualification Testing

NASA software engineers have so far completed 58,000 test cases as part of formal qualification of the flight software to be used on the Artemis II Space Launch System.

Formal qualification testing is being conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Software Development Facility in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA said Tuesday.

Test cases involve simulations of normal and off-nominal scenarios on the SLS rocket and its surrounding environment. The SDF team performed 58,000 cases, which are part of 179 test procedures, over a two-week period to make sure that the software met flight requirements.

The next and final phase of trials will begin in July, while integrated system testing of the SLS software and avionics hardware will commence in the fall.

“The SLS flight software team integrated operational improvements and new test scenarios in preparation for Artemis II based on lessons learned from the successful launch of Artemis I in November 2022,” said Dan Mitchell, NASA’s lead engineer for the SLS integrated avionics and software.

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Defense Acquisition University Upskills DOD Workforce on AI & Data Analytics
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Defense Acquisition University Upskills DOD Workforce on AI & Data Analytics

The Defense Acquisition University is looking to upskill over 3,000 military and civilian professionals on artificial intelligence and data analytics to support the Department of Defense’s technology acquisition initiatives, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

David Pearson, director of the DAU’s Engineering and Technology Center, said the university is working to tailor its data and AI skills training courses to an acquisition professional’s specific role and career trajectory.

“The emerging technology that’s going to be driving the performance of our defense systems that we send out to the field increasingly rely upon those who have the technical skills to properly manage and acquire them in the future,” Pearson said.

DAU is partnering with online course provider Coursera to offer training courses to defense acquisition workforce members from top universities and industry leaders.

The university is also adding DOD-specific context to its commercial training courses and is collaborating with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to address the future skills requirements of the Pentagon’s acquisition workforce.

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Hughes Delivers Jupiter 3 Communications Satellite to Cape Canaveral
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Hughes Delivers Jupiter 3 Communications Satellite to Cape Canaveral

Hughes Network Systems has shipped Jupiter 3, an ultra-high-density communications satellite manufactured by Maxar Technologies, to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in preparation for its launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Dubbed EchoStar XXIV, the Ka-band spacecraft is set to deploy to the geostationary orbit and expand Hughes’ high-speed internet plans across the Americas region, the company said Friday.

Upon deployment, Jupiter 3 will provide HughesNet Fusion internet services that deliver more capacity than traditional broadband satellites to customers in the U.S. and Latin America.

“Doubling the capacity of our satellite fleet with an additional 500 Gbps, JUPITER 3 will enable us to serve more customers, especially where cable and fiber can’t, so they can do everything they want—including work at home, study online, play games, engage in their communities, and stay in touch with family and friends,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO of Hughes’ parent company EchoStar.

The satellite will also support enterprise networking, in-flight Wi-Fi and cellular backhaul for mobile network operators.

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Former White House Staffer Christian Tom Named Office of Digital Strategy Director
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Former White House Staffer Christian Tom Named Office of Digital Strategy Director

Christian Tom, former special assistant to the president and deputy director of digital strategy, has been appointed head of the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy.

Tom will also serve as an assistant to the president and oversee the Biden administration’s online communications with digital influencers and creators and overall digital strategy.

“Christian is an innovator. He helped develop a first-of-its-kind digital strategy in 2020 — one that has continued to be a key part of this Administration’s approach to reach Americans in new, creative, and authentic ways,” Biden said in a statement published Friday.

Tom previously worked as head of digital partnerships during Biden’s presidential campaign and digital director of the presidential inaugural committee.

He worked at the White House from Jan. 2021 until his resignation in Aug. 2022 to join the digital governance organization McCourt Institute as head of Americas.

Biden also tapped Patrick Stevenson to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior digital strategy adviser and Tericka Lambert as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of digital strategy.

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Gina Raimondo: US Meets Commitments for EU-US Data Privacy Framework Implementation
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Gina Raimondo: US Meets Commitments for EU-US Data Privacy Framework Implementation

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has announced that the U.S. satisfied its commitments to executing the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Her statement comes after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland moved to designate the EU and three additional countries that comprise the European Economic Area as “qualifying states” for implementing the redress mechanism under an executive order that seeks to improve safeguards for U.S. signals intelligence activities.

“This represents the culmination of months of significant collaboration between the United States and the EU and reflects our shared commitment to facilitating data flows between our respective jurisdictions while protecting individual rights and personal data,” Raimondo said in the issuance, published Monday.

The U.S. intelligence agency also moved to implement procedures and policies in accordance with the executive order on SIGINT activities.

Raimondo said the designation will take effect once the EU adopts an adequacy decision for the framework.

In December, the European Commission released its draft adequacy decision on the framework, which aims to promote and ensure safe transfers of personal data from the EU to U.S. companies.

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Deltek Projects Federal IT Spending Will Hit $137.5B in FY 2027
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Deltek Projects Federal IT Spending Will Hit $137.5B in FY 2027

A new Deltek report forecasts the federal government’s spending on information technology products and services supplied by contractors to increase from $116.4 billion in fiscal year 2023 to $137.5 billion in FY 2027.

Deltek said Friday it expects the federal IT market to continue to see moderate growth as agencies invest in IT platforms and work to address the current administration’s technology mandates and priorities.

Federal agencies will continue to prioritize investments in cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, health IT, cyber, 5G and other critical technology areas and advance the adoption of DevOps, DevSecOps, microservices and application programming interfaces in software development and modernization initiatives, according to the company’s Federal IT Market, 2023-2027 report.

The analysis shows that zero trust policies, cloud security, software supply chain security, vulnerability and incident response and cyber data collection and sharing are prompting agencies to further invest in cybersecurity platforms.

Federal adoption of enterprise-scale analytics tools will continue to rise in the next five years, according to the report.

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DOD’s Foreign Entities List Seeks to Safeguard Department-Funded Research; Heidi Shyu Quoted
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DOD’s Foreign Entities List Seeks to Safeguard Department-Funded Research; Heidi Shyu Quoted

The Department of Defense has released a list of foreign entities that have been found to be involved in activities and practices that could pose a threat to economic or national security by increasing the chances of DOD-funded research and development initiatives at higher education institutions being misappropriated.

DOD said Friday the publication of the list was in compliance with Section 1286 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019.

“Protecting and maintaining the integrity of our research enterprise is integral to national security,” Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said in a statement published Friday.

“The publication of these foreign entities underscores our commitment to ensuring the responsible use of federal research funding and safeguarding our critical technologies from exploitation or compromise,” added Shyu, a 2023 Wash100 awardee.

In early June, Shyu signed a policy that directs fundamental research projects selected by DOD for award to undergo an evaluation for potential conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment related to foreign influence.

The Policy for Risk-Based Security Reviews of Fundamental Research, which was signed in compliance with a national security memorandum, comes with a guide to help the department’s program managers review proposed research projects for potential foreign influence.

CFTC Forms Task Forces to Defend Derivatives Markets Against Cyberthreats, Environmental Fraud
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CFTC Forms Task Forces to Defend Derivatives Markets Against Cyberthreats, Environmental Fraud

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission created two task forces for environmental fraud as well as cybersecurity and emerging technologies in the derivatives market.

CFTC’s Division of Enforcement delegated in-house lawyers and investigators who will serve as litigators and subject matter experts to address issues relevant to IT and environment-related misconduct, the commission said Thursday.

The Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies Task Force will investigate the potential exploitation of artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging technologies to violate CFTC regulations and the Commodity Exchange Act. The team will be responsible for overseeing registrants’ use of such tools, particularly in the protection of consumer information.

The Environmental Fraud Task Force will examine and prosecute, if necessary, violations in derivatives and spot markets focused on addressing climate change. The team will look into misleading claims about the benefits of carbon credit purchasing, as well as environment, social and governance strategies.

“We must be dynamic and proactive in protecting derivatives markets against evolving threats,” CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam stated. “Recent events that directly impacted derivatives markets highlight the concerns that cybersecurity breaches raise in our markets. Meanwhile, as more firms tout their environmental credentials and as voluntary carbon markets grow, there exists the potential for fraud and manipulation.”

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