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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Senate Bill Seeks to Address Foreign Adversaries’ Influence in National Security Contracting
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Senate Bill Seeks to Address Foreign Adversaries’ Influence in National Security Contracting

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has proposed a bill that would preclude the Department of Defense from awarding national security contracts to consulting firms that also offer services to foreign adversaries and sanctioned entities.

The proposed Combating Obstructive National Security Underreporting of Legitimate Threats Act would set disclosure requirements on vendors bidding on consulting services contracts and establish an enforcement mechanism for DOD to end contracts that are not disclosed, Ernst’s office said Tuesday.

“While our adversaries are aggressively working against our national security interests, government contractors closely tied to China and Russia are allowed to advise our military and Pentagon officials. This is a clear conflict of interest,” said Ernst, a Senate Armed Services Committee member.

“It’s past time we put safeguards in place to ensure no firms hired by the federal government are working simultaneously to support the agenda of our adversaries,” the lawmaker added.

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Lockheed’s Maria Demaree Accepts 1st Wash100 Award from Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson
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Lockheed’s Maria Demaree Accepts 1st Wash100 Award from Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson

Executive Mosaic CEO Jim Garrettson recently presented Maria Demaree, a vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin‘s space segment, with her first Wash100 Award.

Her inclusion in the 2023 Wash100 roster of leaders was prompted by her efforts to drive innovations in the space sector, as well as her advocacies to ensure the well-being and growth of Lockheed Martin’s workforce.

Demaree has been with Lockheed for almost 33 years, even before its merger with Martin Marietta in 1995. She has worked in different departments within the company, serving in roles such as senior engineering manager, director of mission systems, vice president of ground systems and solutions and head of the national security space team.

One of her many accomplishments was to lead the modernization activities for the defense contractor’s Joint All Domain Command and Control corporate initiative. She also repeatedly emphasized the importance of customers’ input in Lockheed’s business objectives, especially in emerging technologies.

“I’d like to highlight the importance our customers place in terms of multi-domain convergence. At Lockheed Martin, we’re looking at how to advance the ability to link highly capable platforms into a network that truly provides that awareness as well as command and control access across all security domains,” she said in an interview with ExecutiveBiz.

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House Bill to Create National Commission on AI Policy
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House Bill to Create National Commission on AI Policy

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.; Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., have introduced a bill that would establish a national commission to assess the nation’s current approach to artificial intelligence regulation.

The National AI Commission Act would create an independent body to make recommendations on any governmental structures that may be necessary to oversee AI systems, Buck’s office said Tuesday.

The proposed commission is envisioned to comprise government and industry experts who will collaborate on developing a comprehensive AI policy framework.

Lieu said the commissioners would “make recommendations on the best ways to move forward on AI regulation.”

“Our bill forges a path toward responsible AI regulation that promotes technological progress while keeping Americans safe,” he added.

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