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DISA Opens Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill in Utah; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted
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DISA Opens Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill in Utah; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

The Defense Information Systems Agency has unveiled an active-active site located on Hill Air Force Base in Davis County, Utah, that will provide security capabilities for the Department of Defense Information Network.

DISA said the Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill is part of the agency’s broader command and control modernization efforts and will work to enable improved data resilience during emergencies.

“The Orion Cyber Operations Center’s active-active capability is another indicator that DISA is postured and prepared for any crisis, conflict or competition,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA and a 2023 Wash100 awardee.

The facility is located within the Ogden Data Center, which houses other DISA offices and is intended to foster a shared environment and stronger team collaboration.

“The Orion Cyber Operations Center-Hill is a first within DISA where the agency’s two largest Operational Service Managers are collocated with the Global Service Desk and our Cybersecurity Service Providers,” said Army Col. Michael Reeder, commander of DISA Global Field Command.

Reeder’s office is responsible for defending the DODIN area of operations to enable continuous operational capabilities for the U.S. military and its mission partners.

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GSA’s Laura Stanton: 2022 Federal Spending Through Health IT Services SIN Hit $750M
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GSA’s Laura Stanton: 2022 Federal Spending Through Health IT Services SIN Hit $750M

Laura Stanton, a General Services Administration official, said federal agencies spent more than $750 million on health information technology platforms and support services through the Health IT Services SIN on the Multiple Award Schedule in 2022.

The departments of the Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, the Air Force and the Interior were among the SIN’s top federal agency users, Stanton, assistant commissioner for the office of IT category at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a blog post published Tuesday.

She noted that agencies seeking to improve health care delivery and patient outcomes, accelerate the procurement of health information technology services and enhance security should consider using the Health IT Services SIN on MAS.

Stanton talked about how an agency used the special item number to help 10 pilot hospitals in the southeastern part of the U.S. advance modernization efforts, such as sharing electronic health records and delivering connected services between hospitals.

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ARPA-I Instigates Initiatives to Help Modernize US Transportation Infrastructure
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ARPA-I Instigates Initiatives to Help Modernize US Transportation Infrastructure

The newly established Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure within the Department of Transportation announced several efforts to advance U.S. transportation infrastructure modernization, including a plan to work with DOT program offices to create a research agenda that complements investment areas in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

ARPA-I issued a request for information on Tuesday to solicit insights and ideas on potential research and development areas and will begin a listening tour with companies, researchers and entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest to reflect the priorities of R&D stakeholders within the transportation sector, the White House said Tuesday.

The agency also held its first summit on Tuesday to discuss its potential role in strengthening the resilience and sustainability of infrastructure and improving safety.

These include identifying challenges and opportunities in advancing the adoption of novel technologies in the infrastructure sector and developing ways for ARPA-I to help DOT improve accessibility for all and meet its safety mission.

ARPA-I collaborated with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to host the inaugural event.

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DARPA Requests Proposals for Quantum-Augmented Network Program
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DARPA Requests Proposals for Quantum-Augmented Network Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released a broad agency announcement seeking proposals on the development of a hybrid quantum-classical communication network architecture with enhanced security capabilities.

DARPA said Tuesday the Quantum-Augmented Network program aims to integrate current and near-future quantum communications networks with classical infrastructure to facilitate quantum-based security enhancements.

Researchers expect the hybrid network infrastructure to use quantum properties to mitigate vulnerabilities on non-quantum networks.

“QuANET will develop the hardware, protocols and software tools required for missions and critical infrastructure, enabling the first viable transition strategy to operationalize quantum communications,” according to the BAA.

“We want to make the networking and optical communications community more quantum-aware – where the capabilities are now and where they’re going – and we want the quantum networking community to understand better all of the complexities and issues facing classical networks,” said Allyson O’Brien, DARPA’s QuANET program manager in the Information Innovation Office.

Responses are due July 7.

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NASA to Integrate Orion With Laser Communications Terminal for Artemis II Mission
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NASA to Integrate Orion With Laser Communications Terminal for Artemis II Mission

NASA is set to equip the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft with a laser communications terminal in preparation for the first scheduled crewed test flight of the Artemis space exploration mission.

The Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with NASA’s exploration vehicle to enable faster transmission of high-definition pictures and videos from the moon, the agency said Tuesday.

“In addition to video and pictures, O2O will transmit and receive procedures, pictures, flight plans, and be a link between Orion and mission control on Earth,” said Steve Horowitz, O2O project manager.

O2O uses laser signals to send images and videos to one of two ground stations in Las Cruces, New Mexico, or Table Mountain, California.

Video and image quality will partly depend on cloud coverage at the ground stations.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center developed the laser communication terminal in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

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Trade Groups Urge White House to Address Digital Identity in Cyber Strategy Implementation
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Trade Groups Urge White House to Address Digital Identity in Cyber Strategy Implementation

A group of 10 trade associations called on the Biden administration to consider three priorities to help address U.S. digital identity challenges as it crafts the implementation plan for the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

The first priority is launching a White House task force to accelerate the availability of tools that can protect against identity-related cybercrimes, the trade groups wrote in a Monday letter addressed to Kemba Walden, acting head of the Office of the National Cyber Director and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology and a two-time Wash100 awardee.

The task force should create an action plan for federal, state and local agencies to develop digital versions of existing physical identity credentials to help address the gap between digital and physical identity credentials and determine whether there are restrictions with regard to the abilities of agencies to offer new digital identity platforms, among other key duties.

“We believe that a new White House task force which brings in key stakeholders from Federal, state, and local agencies, as well as industry and civil society, can craft an approach to close the gap between physical and digital credentials over a one-year period,” the associations wrote in the letter.

The other two priorities are initiating an effort to document the ways that investments in digital identity infrastructure can generate budget savings and prioritizing work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on identity and attribute validation services with a focus on creating a digital identity framework of best practices and standards.

The letter was signed by the American Bankers Association, Better Identity Coalition, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Cybersecurity Coalition, Electronic Transactions Association, Identity Theft Resource Center, National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems, Software & Information Industry Association, TechNet and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center.

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DOD, Indiana National Guard Test Resilient Communication Tools at TREX23-1
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DOD, Indiana National Guard Test Resilient Communication Tools at TREX23-1

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Indiana National Guard have tested technologies designed to establish resilient communications among warfighters during the inaugural joint Technology Readiness Experimentation 2023.

During TREX23-1, the OUSD(R&E)’s Mission Capabilities Office used signal devices, cyber protection tools, counterintelligence systems and surveillance and reconnaissance equipment in a mock disaster scenario where resilient communications had to be re-established for non-combatant evacuation operations, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Lessons learned from the scenario will inform future technology development and transition initiatives.

“TREX is a new and enduring campaign of experimentation developed to support the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve initiative,” said Thomas Browning, deputy chief technology officer for mission capabilities at OUSD(R&E).

“A key attribute of RDER is the focus on a campaign of experimentation that enables the collection of a body of evidence to accelerate technology transition to the field,” Browning added.

TREX23-1was held at Camp Atterbury in Indiana and saw the participation of more than 300 attendees, including representatives from the U.K. and Australia.

CISA Issues Binding Directive to Remove Certain Federal Device Interfaces from Public Internet; Jen Easterly Quoted
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CISA Issues Binding Directive to Remove Certain Federal Device Interfaces from Public Internet; Jen Easterly Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is mandating government entities to remove dedicated device interfaces from public-facing Internet if such platforms are exclusive to authorized users but accessible through remote network protocols.

The agency on Tuesday issued a binding operational directive to fight cyberthreat campaigns that target improperly configured network devices to hack into sensitive federal data.

The directive applies to devices that reside in networks such as routers, proxy servers, switches, firewalls, VPN concentrators, load balancers and even out-of-band server management interfaces. The network protocols of concern include hypertext transfer protocol and hypertext transfer protocol secure, as well as file transfer protocol, trivial FTP, remote desktop protocol and simple network management protocol.

The mandate does not affect networked management interfaces used for cloud service provider platforms.

CISA is also requiring federal civilian executive branch agencies to implement zero trust architecture to control accessibility to the interfaces.

Federal offices are urged to take action within 14 days of discovering that their interface has been exposed.

“Too often, threat actors are able to use network devices to gain unrestricted access to organizational networks, in turn leading to full-scale compromise,” CISA Director Jen Easterly commented. “Requiring appropriate controls and mitigations outlined in this Directive is an important step in reducing risk to the federal civilian enterprise,” the Wash100 honoree added.

US to Deliver Additional $325M Assistance Package to Ukraine
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US to Deliver Additional $325M Assistance Package to Ukraine

The Department of Defense has committed an additional $325 million to continue supporting Ukraine’s security and defense initiatives.

Primarily focused on air defense capabilities and artillery, anti-armor systems and ammunition, the package represents the Biden Administration’s 40th drawdown from DOD inventories for Ukraine since Aug. 2021, the DOD announced on Tuesday.

Included in the package are munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and demolition munitions for obstacle clearing, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds and more than 22 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades.

The drawdown will also provide Stinger anti-aircraft systems, Javelin anti-armor systems, AT-4 anti-armor systems and Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided missiles as well as 15 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 10 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers.

Other capabilities to be delivered are tactical secure communications support equipment, spare parts and additional field equipment.

The DOD said that the U.S. will continue working with its allies and partners to meet Ukraine’s immediate and long-term security needs. In total, the U.S. has dedicated over $40 billion to Ukraine since Russia invaded the nation in Feb. 2022.

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US Navy Previews Conversational AI Tech Support Tool Developed by GDIT
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US Navy Previews Conversational AI Tech Support Tool Developed by GDIT

The U.S. Navy has provided a glimpse of a conversational artificial intelligence program designed to supply technical support to sailors, Marines and its civilian personnel, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The conversational AI, which has been named Amelia, will be launched in August as part of the $136 million Navy Enterprise Service Desk venture.

In 2021, General Dynamics Information Technology was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to modernize and consolidate the service branch’s more than 90 IT help desks.

Amelia is designed not only to finish repetitive tasks, but also to sense frustration in users asking questions, Travis Dawson, GDIT’s chief technology officer for the Navy and Marine Corps, explained in a previous interview with C4ISRNET. It is programmed to forward problems beyond its capability to a live agent, resulting in first-contact resolution rates in the higher 90 percentile, Dawson noted.

The AI tool can be accessed round-the-clock through phone or text by personnel registered in the Global Federated User Directory.

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