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SBA Issues Final Rule on Past Performance Ratings for Small Business Contractors
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SBA Issues Final Rule on Past Performance Ratings for Small Business Contractors

The Small Business Administration has released a final rule that provides small business contractors with two methods for obtaining past performance ratings in compliance with section 868 of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

The rule is set to take effect on Aug. 22, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday. For the first method, a small business contractor may use past performance for contract work carried out as a member of a joint venture.

Under the second method, the business may also utilize the past performance rating for work conducted as a first-tier subcontractor on a prime contract containing a subcontracting plan. 

For this second procedure, section 868 of FY 2021 NDAA “authorizes the small business to seek a past performance rating from the prime contractor and submit the rating with the small business’ offer on a new prime contract.”

According to the final rule, prime contractors must include in the requested rating several evaluation factors such as technical, cost control, schedule or timeliness and management or business relations.

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White House Memo Offers Info on Cyber Investment Priorities for FY24 Budget
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White House Memo Offers Info on Cyber Investment Priorities for FY24 Budget

The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of the National Cyber Director have issued a memorandum outlining the Biden administration’s cybersecurity investment priorities that federal agencies should focus on as they formulate their budget submissions for fiscal year 2024.

These investment priorities are categorized into three areas: Improving the Defense and Resilience of Government Networks; Deepening Cross-Sector Collaboration in Defense of Critical Infrastructure; and Strengthening the Foundations of Our Digitally-Enabled Future, according to the memo released Friday.

For the first investment priority area, federal civilian executive branch agencies should prioritize information technology modernization and zero trust implementation in their budget submissions for FY 2024.

To facilitate cross-sector collaboration, budget submissions for the upcoming fiscal year should ensure that sector risk management agencies have adequate resources to carry out their responsibilities under section 9002 of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

For the third priority area, agencies should prioritize human capital, physical infrastructure and supply chain risk management.

OMB and the Office of the Science and Technology Policy also released a memo detailing the White House’s multiagency research and development priorities for FY 2024, including preparing for and preventing pandemics, tackling climate change and advancing national security and technological competitiveness.

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Dennis Andrucyk to Retire From NASA Goddard Center Director Post
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Dennis Andrucyk to Retire From NASA Goddard Center Director Post

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is on the hunt for a new director after Dennis Andrucyk, who has led the Maryland-based research laboratory since January 2020, announced his plans to retire from federal service.

The 34-year NASA veteran will continue to lead the center until a replacement is named, the space agency said Tuesday.

Under Andrucyk’s leadership, Goddard launched and commissioned the James Webb Space Telescope, deployed the Landsat 9 satellite for Earth monitoring and explored a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples using the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

“In my view, his crowning achievement at Goddard’s helm has been overseeing the brilliant launch and awe-inspiring first images release of the James Webb Space Telescope, a mission that represents our vision at NASA to explore the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

Andrucyk worked as a contractor and a civil servant at the Department of Defense before he joined the space agency in 1988.

His federal career also includes time at the National Security Agency and the Naval Research Laboratory.

In the private sector, Andrucyk worked for Westinghouse Electric, General Electric and Northrop Grumman.

He is a recipient of multiple awards for his government service such as the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Goddard Outstanding Leadership Honor Award and the Senior Executive Service Meritorious Presidential Rank Award.

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Former Google Exec Camille Stewart Gloster Joins Office of the National Cyber Director; Chris Inglis Quoted
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Former Google Exec Camille Stewart Gloster Joins Office of the National Cyber Director; Chris Inglis Quoted

Camille Stewart Gloster, a cyber and technology attorney, has been named deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security at the White House Office of National Cyber Director.

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said in a statement published Monday Stewart Gloster has been a pioneer leading cyber issues for more than 10 years through leadership positions within the government and industry.

“The depth and breadth of her experiences will help the Biden-Harris Administration advance key priorities, including promoting the resilience of our software and hardware supply chain, building a more diverse cyber workforce, and strengthening cyber education for all Americans,” added Inglis, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner.

Before ONCD, Stewart Gloster previously worked at Google, where she served as global head of product security strategy and head of security policy and election integrity for Google Play and Android.

She previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security as senior policy adviser for international cyber and critical infrastructure during the Obama administration and founded an initiative that seeks to further promote diversity in the cybersecurity field.

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DARPA to Host Proposers Day for Muons for Science and Security Program
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DARPA to Host Proposers Day for Muons for Science and Security Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will hold a Proposers Day on Aug. 5 for a four-year program that seeks to build a compact source of subatomic particles called muons to support national security and scientific applications.

The Muons for Science and Security program intends to use laser plasma acceleration to initially develop 10 giga-electronvolt particles in the space of tens of centimeters and come up with scalable processes to generate conditions that can build muons exceeding 100 GeV, DARPA said Friday.

“Our goal is to develop a new, terrestrial muon source that doesn’t require large accelerators and allows us to create directional beams of muons at relevant energies, from 10s to 100s of GeVs – to either image or characterize materials,” said Mark Wrobel, MuS2 program manager at DARPA’s defense sciences office. 

“MuS2 will lay the ground work needed to examine the feasibility of developing compact and transportable muon sources,” he added.

The program will have two phases and Phase 1 will call for participants to perform preliminary modeling and scaling studies, validate models using experiments and generate 10 GeV muons over a 24-month period.

Under Phase 2 of the MuS2 program, research teams will come up with scalable accelerator designs exceeding 100 GeVs over a period of two years.

DARPA wants teams to have expertise in the areas of simulation, experimentation and laser driver and system studies.

“To address these diverse research areas, we anticipate building integrated teams composed of academia, national laboratories, and defense industries,” Wrobel noted.

Potential applications of muons include detecting the presence of special nuclear materials and other threat components and mapping the location of underground tunnels and chambers.

OMB Instructs Federal Agencies to Resume Annual Workspace Plan Development
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OMB Instructs Federal Agencies to Resume Annual Workspace Plan Development

The Office of Management and Budget has set Dec. 16 as the deadline for all federal agencies to complete annual capital plans that define real property assets needed to accommodate government employees and contractors in a post-COVID-19 work environment.

OMB Shalanda Young told department heads in a memorandum Wednesday that their organizations should look into factors such as mission and customer needs when determining physical space requirements.

Young said agencies should also work with chief human capital officers to review workplace reentry personnel policies and with chief Information officers to study how online collaboration tools, cybersecurity platforms and cloud-based software products can affect future office spaces.

“The development of the capital plan should run parallel to and be in alignment with the development of the annual President’s budget request,” the memo states.

The new directive comes nearly one year after OMB paused its governmentwide real property planning requirement due to the pandemic.

Agencies must submit annual plans for fiscal year 2024 through fiscal 2028 to OMB and the Federal Real Property Council.

GMU Center for GovCon Study Sings Praises of Consortia Model for Defense Acquisitions
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GMU Center for GovCon Study Sings Praises of Consortia Model for Defense Acquisitions

A recent research report issued by the George Mason University Center for Government Contracting has endorsed the consortia model for the U.S. Department of Defense acquisition strategy.

The consortia model was touted by the GMU CFGC study as encouraging open communications between government and industry participants and as lowering the barrier of entry for nontraditional defense contracting organizations, George Mason said last Wednesday.

Stephanie Halcrow, one of the report’s co-authors and a senior fellow at the GMU center, identified the consortia model as playing “a vital and growing role in the defense innovation ecosystem.”

“Going forward, we see the role of consortia only increasing as the need for innovation and expanding the industrial base continues to be critical for the security of the nation and our warfighters,” Halcrow continued.

The report’s other scribe was Moshe Schwartz, president of business management consulting firm Etherton & Associates.

Through attractions such as dedicated collaboration events, the report indicated that the consortia model might be able to boost the speed of acquisitions and thus allow the DOD acquisition workforce to attend to other tasks. In addition, the report enumerated the benefits of the consortia model as setting in place a preestablished network of supplier options with various specialties as well as aiding  government program offices who are inexperienced in carrying out other transaction agreements.

Entitled “The Power of Many: Leveraging Consortia to Promote Innovation, Expand the Defense Industrial Base, and Accelerate Acquisition,” the report was sourced from a set of DOD consortia that furnished data and case studies. Halcrow and Schwartz also conducted interviews, research and data analysis.

The duo also list seven recommendations for enhancing the consortia model in the future.

“This report indicates that when done right, consortia expand the industrial base, promote collaboration, and more efficiently deliver the innovative technologies our armed forces require to maintain their edge,” shared Schwartz.

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Gregory Robinson to Retire as NASA Webb Program Director
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Gregory Robinson to Retire as NASA Webb Program Director

Gregory Robinson, director of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Program since 2018, is set to retire on Friday after 33 years of service at the agency.

As Webb program director, Robinson leads approximately 20,000 personnel who support the observatory mission that paved the way for the government to collect infrared images of the distant universe, NASA said Friday.

The Northrop Grumman-built JWST spacecraft lifted off Dec. 25 at the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.

“Put simply, Greg is everything a public servant should be. The proof is in the pudding: Webb will give humanity a new view of the cosmos and fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

Robinson previously served as deputy associate administrator for programs at the agency’s science mission directorate, where he oversaw 114 missions between February 2015 and March 2018.

Prior to that role, he worked as deputy director at the Glenn Research Center for two years and led a major reorganization initiative there aimed at project performance improvements for the Ohio-based facility.

He spent the first 11 years of his NASA career at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and also held deputy chief engineer role at the agency from 2005 to 2013.

Robinson helped formulate the Joint Polar Satellite System program as part of a detail assignment with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

TIME featured him in the magazine’s annual list of the “Most Influential People” for 2022.

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Booz Allen Teams With Acalvio to Bring Autonomous Cyber Tech to Government; Garrettson Blight Quoted
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Booz Allen Teams With Acalvio to Bring Autonomous Cyber Tech to Government; Garrettson Blight Quoted

Booz Allen Hamilton has joined forces with cybersecurity software company Acalvio Technologies to assist federal government agencies with strengthening cyber posture.

The partnership will focus on the joint deployment of an Acalvio-created autonomous deception platform to try and curb advanced persistent threats, ransomware and insider threats, the McLean, Virginia-based company said Monday.

“To outpace the adversary, it is imperative that government and commercial organizations better integrate and synchronize the way they conduct cyber offense and defense,” commented Garrettson Blight, director of national cyber solutions at Booz Allen.

Blight went on to describe how Booz Allen’s collaboration with Acalvio accomplishes this objective via the harnessing of offensive insights to power cyber defense, with the products operationalizing data at a fast rate so they can meet the demands of governments protecting information.

The autonomous deception product offered by Acalvio, ShadowPlex, is reportedly the sole cyber deception certified to be used in secure government environments by FedRAMP. It works by identifying, inspecting and answering malicious incursions within information technology and operational technology architectures, both on-site and in the cloud.

The product’s deployment is positioned to prioritize the alerts of fraudulent and ill intent activity and provide early detection of threats.

Acalvio’s signature Deception Farm tool, which utilizes bait and decoys such as fake hosts or “honeypots” to lure and trick hackers in order to gain more insights, will be added to Booz Allen’s robust portfolio of capabilities through the new partnership. Their existing catalog includes reverse engineering, defensive technologies, predictive analytics, vulnerability assessments, proactive threat hunting and artificial intelligence and machine learning in anticipation of bad actors.​

Booz Allen and Acalvio’s joint offerings will be delivered to government entities programmed and ready to ‘plug and play.’ They are additionally intended to bolster Booz Allen’s current threat hunting, detection engineering and zero trust strategies.

Earlier this month, Booz Allen established a $100 million venture capital arm entitled Booz Allen Ventures that is set to make investments in technology startups creating services in AI and ML and deep technology and cybersecurity. This fund may play a role in their work with Acalvio.

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TSA Extends Pipeline Cybersecurity Directive; David Pekoske Quoted
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TSA Extends Pipeline Cybersecurity Directive; David Pekoske Quoted

The Transportation Security Administration has modified and extended by one year its cybersecurity mandate for owners and operators of oil and natural gas pipelines by one year.

The policy announced Thursday requires industry to develop a plan for the implementation of network segmentation, access control, continuous monitoring and patch management measures.

TSA also instructed pipeline companies to create a document on how they intend to respond to security incidents that may cause operational disruption or business degradation, as well as form a program to test the effectiveness of their cybersecurity practices.

“We recognize that every company is different, and we have developed an approach that accommodates that fact, supported by continuous monitoring and auditing to assess achievement of the needed cybersecurity outcomes,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.

The agency issued its first sector directive in May of last year in response to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.

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