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Biden Calls on Congress to Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement
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Biden Calls on Congress to Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement

President Joe Biden urged Congress to pass measures to strengthen U.S. antitrust law as part of efforts to improve competition in the technology industry, The Verge reported Wednesday.

“Pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen antitrust enforcement and prevent big online platforms from giving their own products an unfair advantage,” Biden said Tuesday during his State of the Union address.

Time reported the president’s renewed call comes after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., decided not to bring two bipartisan antitrust bills — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act — to a Senate floor vote during the remaining days of last year’s congressional term.

The AICOA measure would prohibit tech companies from giving preference to their own offerings over competing products. OAMA would direct tech companies to provide rival marketplaces access to their app stores.

Schumer, who stated that the measures did not have enough votes to pass, allocated $50 million in additional funding to the Federal Trade Commission and $35 million to the Department of Justice’s antitrust division in the previous fiscal year’s spending legislation, according to the magazine.

US Army PEO IEW&S Works to Future-Proof Integrated Sensor Architecture
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US Army PEO IEW&S Works to Future-Proof Integrated Sensor Architecture

The U.S. Army’s Integrated Sensor Architecture is undergoing future-proof modernization at the Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors Integration Directorate.

The branch’s Sensor Compute Environment team intends to introduce ISA to all program management offices in order to achieve interoperability throughout the Army, the service branch reported.

ISA features a modular and adaptable framework that is compatible with any type of sensor, providing a workaround for Army systems and devices that only function in an exclusive, proprietary environment. 

The framework’s design minimizes the need for a middleman or a remote translator to process sensor data, facilitating rapid information exchange.

PEO IEW&S is looking for ways to improve ISA to keep up with evolving technology without having to pay recurring upgrade costs every few years.

“There are two fundamentals we’re trying to fix in designing ISA. One is, how do we allow only one way for you to provide information, so the position is always represented this way, so there’s no argument about it,” said Matthew Harrell, Sensor CE and ISA tech lead at PEO IEW&S. “But at the same time, how do we make it extensible, so others can add new data types, experiment with what makes sense, get the right thing going, and then turn around and add those to the standard without breaking everybody else.”

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Treasury Outlines Plans to Address Cloud Adoption Risks in Financial Sector; Wally Adeyemo Quoted
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Treasury Outlines Plans to Address Cloud Adoption Risks in Financial Sector; Wally Adeyemo Quoted

The Department of the Treasury has revealed plans to establish an interagency cloud services steering group to coordinate government actions against potential risks posed by cloud services to the financial industry.

In a report published Wednesday, Treasury explained that financial institutions of all sizes are ramping up their adoption of cloud products to advance innovation and support their information technology modernization efforts, but noted that there are several challenges associated with increased reliance on cloud computing services.

According to Treasury, there is insufficient transparency on cyber incidents, gaps in the current talent pool and vulnerability of existing systems to cyberattacks threaten the integrity of financial systems and information.

To address the risks raised in the report, the department will launch an interagency committee within the next year to facilitate collaboration with U.S. financial regulators, international partners and cloud service providers.

“By building trust, cooperation, and collaboration at the outset, we can promote safe and effective migration for financial institutions that choose to adopt cloud services,” said Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury.

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Chris Inglis to Retire as National Cyber Director
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Chris Inglis to Retire as National Cyber Director

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, a previous Wash100 awardee, is set to retire on Feb. 15 after nearly two years of leading the White House’s cybersecurity office, CNN reported Wednesday.

Kemba Eneas Walden, a former executive at Microsoft who joined the Office of NCD in May 2022 as the first principal deputy national cyber director, will lead the office on an interim basis until the White House nominates a replacement for Inglis.

Inglis, former deputy director of the National Security Agency, said in a statement to CNN that he had “full confidence” that ONCD “is viable and valuable – in its capabilities, its people, and its influence on issues that matter: protecting our Nation’s critical infrastructure, strengthening and safeguarding our technology supply chain, expanding pathways to good-paying cyber jobs, and so many more.”

His planned retirement comes as his office works on a new cybersecurity strategy that is expected to take a tougher regulatory approach to the private sector’s security practices. It is still uncertain when the strategy will be unveiled, according to the report.

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Tom Edson Appointed CFO of Alpha Omega Integration; Gautam Ijoor Quoted
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Tom Edson Appointed CFO of Alpha Omega Integration; Gautam Ijoor Quoted

Tom Edson has been selected as chief financial officer of Alpha Omega Integration, an information technology services provider.

In this position, Edson will bring his 15 years of technology and cybersecurity-focused financial management experience to shape future developments within the growing organization, Alpha Omega announced on Thursday.

“As CFO, my mission will be to shape corporate strategy through financial governance, build infrastructure for further growth and ensure financial governance and compliance,” said Edson.

“I am looking forward to my multifaceted role managing contracts, finance, and pricing to support and perpetuate Alpha Omega’s impressive growth and trajectory,” he added.

Before joining the Vienna, Virginia-based company, Edson served as CFO and chief operations officer at VariQ for 13 years.

He continued in these roles after VariQ’s merger with Capgemini, as a result of which he also landed his previous position as principal at Capgemini Government Solutions.

Edson’s career in the government contracting industry began at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he spent over three years as a senior associate.

“The CFO and financial teams are key players in screening M&As, and our growth focus includes more acquisitions to stay true to our mission and objectives. Tom is a highly strategic addition to Alpha Omega’s passionate and experienced leadership group that will drive us to next-level growth, service and delivery,” said Alpha Omega CEO Gautam Ijoor.

Edson’s appointment follows multiple executive leadership changes within the enterprise over the past few months.

In January, company newcomer Laks Prabhala was chosen as Alpha Omega’s first-ever chief information security officer and vice president for cybersecurity, where he now works to apply new technologies to safeguard federal clients from threats.

Just over a month earlier, Gabe Osiier joined the organization as senior vice president of core accounts to support Alpha Omega’s growth efforts.

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Lockheed Martin’s Robert Lightfoot & CGI Federal’s Stephanie Mango Featured as 2023 Wash100 Award Winners
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Lockheed Martin’s Robert Lightfoot & CGI Federal’s Stephanie Mango Featured as 2023 Wash100 Award Winners

On Thursday, Robert Lightfoot, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s space business, and CGI Federal President Stephanie Mango were featured by Executive Mosaic as winners of its 2023 Wash100 Award.

Each year, Executive Mosaic conducts an exhaustive selection process to identify the top 100 most impactful executives working in the U.S. government contracting sector. This year, for the award’s tenth anniversary, Lightfoot and Mango cemented their positions on the list through their demonstrations of vision, leadership, innovation and dedication to government missions.

Robert Lightfoot secured his third Wash100 Award this year for his leadership of Lockheed Martin Space, an $11 billion business unit that serves as the prime contractor for NASA’s Orion exploration vehicle program. Prior to joining Lockheed, Lightfoot spent nearly two decades at NASA, where he served as associate administrator.

Lightfoot won his first Wash100 Award in 2017 when he served as NASA’s acting administrator, and Executive Mosaic is pleased to honor him again for his demonstrated excellence in industry. Read Robert Lightfoot’s full Wash100 profile here.

Stephanie Mango earned her second consecutive Wash100 Award this year. As president of CGI Federal, Mango has led the company through a number of successful contract wins in 2022. Click here to read Stephanie Mango’s 2023 Wash100 profile.

You can vote for Robert Lightfoot and Stephanie Mango as your favorite GovCon executives as part of Executive Mosaic’s 2023 Wash100 popular vote competition! Visit Wash100.com to cast your vote today.

NREL, EPRI to Manage Competition to Create Renewable Energy Net Load Forecasting Tool
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NREL, EPRI to Manage Competition to Create Renewable Energy Net Load Forecasting Tool

The Department of Energy is launching a prize competition to improve the accuracy and adaptability of net load forecasting for renewable power.

EPRI, a nonprofit organization focused on energy research, development and distribution, announced Tuesday that it will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to manage the American-Made Net Load Forecasting Prize.

DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm unveiled the competition, which is part of the agency’s efforts to make progress on integrating distributed energy resources into the U.S. grid infrastructure.

EPRI will lend its Solar Forecast Arbiter tool to help the participants develop their proprietary forecasting models using historical load data.

Eligible contestants are institutions, companies, and nonprofit organizations based in the U.S. The DOE will choose three winners and distribute a total of $600,000 in cash to three runners-up.

“Increasing the accuracy of net load predictions will not only enable [grid] reliability, but also allow for cost-efficient planning and the dispatch of energy generation and storage,” said Becca Jones-Albertus, director of the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office. 

The American-Made Net Load Forecasting Prize was announced at the DISTRIBUTECH 2023 conference held on Feb. 7 to 9 in San Diego. 

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NIST to Standardize ‘Lightweight Cryptography’ Algorithms to Secure IoT Devices
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NIST to Standardize ‘Lightweight Cryptography’ Algorithms to Secure IoT Devices

A team of security experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has decided to standardize Ascon, a group of cryptographic algorithms designed to protect information generated by Internet of Things devices.

NIST said Tuesday Ascon will provide lightweight cryptography for miniature technologies used in health care, infrastructure, transportation and other key industries that require protection from potential cyberthreats.

“Small devices have limited resources, and they need security that has a compact implementation. These algorithms should cover most devices that have these sorts of resource constraints,” said Kerry McKay, a computer scientist at NIST.

Ascon was determined as the most efficient set of lightweight algorithms for small devices after the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Team concluded a selection and evaluation process that started in 2018.

Ten finalists were selected from 57 algorithm candidates through a multi-round public review process.

Ascon was developed by a cryptography team from Graz University of Technology, Infineon Technologies, Lamarr Security Research and Radboud University.

The algorithms will support authenticated encryption with associated data and hashing to ensure the security of small platforms.

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Space Force Launches Third Pathfinder Mission Aboard Hispasat Satellite
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Space Force Launches Third Pathfinder Mission Aboard Hispasat Satellite

Space Systems Command has launched the U.S. Space Force’s third Pathfinder mission aboard Spanish satellite communications operator Hispasat‘s Amazonas Nexus from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

SSC said Monday the Pathfinder 2 mission aims to demonstrate the capabilities of commercially available technologies to provide wideband satellite communications for military applications.

The payload serves as a high bandwidth protected communications transponder to enable connectivity for the U.S. military.

“Pathfinder 2 satisfies warfighter requirements by procuring commercially provided pre-launch transponders and securing bandwidth at a lower total ownership cost,” said  Charlotte Gerhart, chief of SSC’s Tactical SATCOM Acquisition Delta.

The Amazonas Nexus satellite launched to orbit onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40. It separated from its upper stage and reached its targeted orbit approximately 35 minutes after launch.

FCC Seeks Industry Input on Licensed Spectrum Rules for Drone Operators
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FCC Seeks Industry Input on Licensed Spectrum Rules for Drone Operators

The Federal Communications Commission has begun requesting industry comments on proposed rules to enable unmanned aircraft system operators to access licensed spectrum to ensure the reliability of drone operations.

A notice published Tuesday in the Federal Reserve states that the FCC is seeking companies’ input on the cost and benefits of adopting a band plan and service rules to grant drone operators access to interference-protected control-and-non-payload-communications in the 5030-5091 MHz band.

FCC aims to develop band plans and service rules for two broad UAS use cases: non-networked operations, which occur within the radio line-of-sight of the UAS operator; and network-supported operations, which use network infrastructure to go beyond radio LOS.

The commission also plans to establish a licensing process for UAS operators to communicate with air traffic control and other aircraft to facilitate flight coordination and ensure the safe integration of drone operations in controlled airspace.

Responses are due March 9.

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