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House Panel Unveils $762B Defense Funding Bill for FY 2023
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House Panel Unveils $762B Defense Funding Bill for FY 2023

The House Appropriations Committee has released a draft bill that would allocate $761.7 billion in defense funding for fiscal year 2023, reflecting an increase of $32.2 billion from the FY 2022 enacted funding level.

The defense funding bill would appropriate $173.1 billion for military personnel; $269.3 billion for operation and maintenance; $131.7 billion for research, development, test and evaluation; and $143.9 billion for procurement, the House panel said Tuesday.

Under the bill’s procurement section, the measure would earmark $27.8 billion for the purchase of eight Navy ships, $7.2 billion for 61 F-35 fighter jets, $1.5 billion for B-21 Raider procurement and $2.7 billion for the acquisition of 15 KC-46 tankers.

The draft legislation would provide $1.7 billion for the U.S. Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance program and $1.1 billion for the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift program.

The bill also includes security assistance to Ukraine, $2.5 billion in investments in climate adaptation efforts and clean energy technologies and a requirement for contractors to pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour.

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DHS Incorporates Cybersecurity Principles Into Positioning, Timing & Navigation Tech Guide
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DHS Incorporates Cybersecurity Principles Into Positioning, Timing & Navigation Tech Guide

The Department of Homeland Security has released a document meant to help companies design positioning, navigation and timing systems with cybersecurity features such as zero trust.

DHS’ science and technology directorate said Monday the PNT Reference Architecture guide includes application examples involving system resilience approaches and is a continuation of version 2.0 of the Resilient PNT Conformance Framework.

Kathryn Coulter Mitchell, acting undersecretary for DHS S&T, noted that global positioning systems and other PNT-based services have multiple applications across the critical infrastructure sector.

For example, timing information from GPS plays a critical role in telecommunications and is used for network synchronization. It is also used for certain protective functions in the power grid,” she added.

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April Doss Rejoins NSA as General Counsel
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April Doss Rejoins NSA as General Counsel

April Doss, who previously worked for the National Security Agency between 2003 and 2016, has returned to NSA to serve as its general counsel, according to her LinkedIn post. 

Her initial 13-year NSA career included work across information sharing initiatives, operational programs and technology innovation efforts. 

Doss held the position of associate general counsel for intelligence law before she left the agency in April 2016. She then accepted a partner role at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr and chaired the law firm’s cybersecurity and privacy practice.

Prior to rejoining NSA, Doss served as executive director at the university-affiliated Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy. She also had teaching stints at the law schools of Georgetown University, University of Maryland.

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Constellis Business Lands DHS Contract for Protective Security Services; Gerard Neville Quoted
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Constellis Business Lands DHS Contract for Protective Security Services; Gerard Neville Quoted

A subsidiary of Constellis has secured a contract award from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Protective Service to provide protective security officer enforcements.

Under the $30 million contract, Triple Canopy is expected to furnish the St. Elizabeths facilities in Washington, D.C. with a team of security personnel, the Herndon, Virginia-based company said Tuesday.

Gerard Neville, president of North American operations at Constellis, described the contract’s duties as “an important mission in providing a safe and secure work environment” for the DHS.

Humming with the activity of 240,000 team members, the St. Elizabeths complex is the headquarters of the DHL, the national government’s preventative line of defense against terrorism. Triple Canopy has a history of partnering with the Federal Protective Service at the office grounds, a relationship which Neville says the company looks forward to maintaining.

The new DHL award follows two notable wins in recent months for Triple Canopy. The company landed a firm-fixed price counterdrug operations, maintenance, engineering and analysis support services task order from the Air Combat Command in April and later that month, was chosen for a $1.3 billion task order under the State Department’s Worldwide Protective Services III contract.

The latter task order contracts TC with equipping the U.S. embassy in Iraq with protective support, specialized security and logistical services. Therefore, with its security components, the latter work is not unlike the DHS award.

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Amy Wood to Lead Financial Segment, Oversee Growth as CFO at Intelligent Waves; CEO Tony Crescenzo Quoted
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Amy Wood to Lead Financial Segment, Oversee Growth as CFO at Intelligent Waves; CEO Tony Crescenzo Quoted

Amy Wood has been elevated to the role of chief financial officer at information technology systems integrator Intelligent Waves.

As CFO, Wood is expected to build on her current achievements maximizing efficiency and accelerating revenue creation at IW through administration of its financial segment and spearheading market expansion, the Reston, Virginia-based company said Tuesday.

Tony Crescenzo, CEO and president of IW, shared the company’s eagerness to promote Wood, adding, “Amy has helped IW create a financial operations blueprint in a short period of time, which will be critical in helping us maintain growth and scalability.”

In her new role, Wood will leverage an almost 25-year career of portfolio management, with experience in financial planning, operations, administration and business development at primarily government contracting companies. She has led and expanded a wide range of client programs and professional services organizations at firms like EDS, Apptis and Merlin International.

Wood was also vice president at Xator Corporation and, most recently before joining IW, held the position of CFO at Technology Advancement Group.

The executive’s expertise lies in channelling data from a variety of sources to inform high-impact decision-making. Her programmatic, financial and operational specialties and track record of business process improvement were reportedly what made her a clear choice for the CFO role at IW.

Wood is poised to help guide the company as it enters new phases of growth and development.

The new CFO appointment comes after Crescenzo was promoted to CEO in January, succeeding the company’s founder Jared Shepard, who stayed on as chairman of the board.

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Cyber.Org Kicks Off Month-Long Event to Drive K-12 Cybersecurity Literacy
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Cyber.Org Kicks Off Month-Long Event to Drive K-12 Cybersecurity Literacy

A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency-funded workforce development organization recently launched a month-long event in an effort to drive cybersecurity education of K-12 students.

The National Cybersecurity Education Month is ultimately aimed at encouraging students to consider cybersecurity careers to increase the U.S. workforce pipeline, Cyber.Org said Monday.

Across the nation, the inaugural event will provide students from all backgrounds with more access to K-12 cybersecurity education. Sens. Bill Cassidy and Jacky Rosen as well as Reps. Andrew Garbarino and Yvette Clarke backed the initiative.

“Strengthening and diversifying the cybersecurity workforce is key to improving our national security,” said Rosen. She was echoed by Garbarino, who also underscored its importance in mitigating cyber criminal threats.

One of the highlights of the month-long event is Cyber.Org’s annual Cyber Education Discovery Forum from June 20 to 22 in Washington D.C., where K-12 educators could network and connect with other attendees, including government and industry leaders, to explore new curricula and advance K-12 cybersecurity literacy.

Cyber.Org receives funding from CISA through the Cybersecurity Education and Training Assistance Program.

With the cybersecurity workforce currently needing more than 714,000 professionals, the White House boosted fiscal year 2023 cybersecurity allocation by almost 11 percent.

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US, UK Develop Prize Challenges to Mature Private-Enhancing Technologies; Alondra Nelson Quoted
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US, UK Develop Prize Challenges to Mature Private-Enhancing Technologies; Alondra Nelson Quoted

The Biden administration is collaborating with the U.K. government to launch prize challenges that aim to advance the development of privacy-enhancing technologies designed to fight cross-border money laundering and other financial crimes.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been working with the Center for Data Ethics and Innovation and Innovate U.K. since the bilateral project was announced in December, the U.K. government said Monday.

PETs will work to enable authorities to secure financial information sharing, identify suspicious behaviors without compromising the privacy of individuals or requiring the transfer of personal data from another country or institution.

“Data can be marshaled to make life easier and more just. But too often, powerful data tools are instead used to deepen inequality and threaten our most basic freedoms. The PETs prize challenges seek to close that gap and demonstrate how these tools can be used responsibly to achieve their potential across many areas,” said Alondra Nelson, director of the OSTP.

Earlier this month, OSTP released a request for information to determine how to pursue the development and use of PETs in a manner that promotes trust in data processing and information technologies and increases equity for underserved or marginalized groups.

Boeing to Establish Veterans’ Support Hub in Virginia; David Calhoun, Sen. Mark Warner Quoted
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Boeing to Establish Veterans’ Support Hub in Virginia; David Calhoun, Sen. Mark Warner Quoted

Boeing has partnered with Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia to set up a center that will assist U.S. military personnel in their adjustment to civilian life and help them identify job opportunities after their service.

The company said Monday its Center for Veteran Transition & Military Families will be situated on Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus in the city of Alexandria and will receive a part of the firm’s $50 million investment commitment for the academic complex.

“This initiative will unlock new career opportunities for veterans and their families and help develop leading technical talent while affirming our continued investment in Northern Virginia,” said David Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing.

Boeing announced its partnership with the university and the state government five weeks after designating Arlington the new location of its global corporate headquarters.

“The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus veterans center will be key to engaging our veterans and their families in the groundbreaking new tech opportunities being cultivated in National Landing and throughout the region,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a three-time winner of Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 Award.

The company will establish the veterans’ hub close to a planned support facility for Virginia Tech Innovation Campus students.

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CISA Deploying ‘FEIT’ Advisors to Help Agencies Strengthen Cybersecurity
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CISA Deploying ‘FEIT’ Advisors to Help Agencies Strengthen Cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has named new advisors who will work at individual agencies to enhance the shared cybersecurity service model and specific network defenses, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The Federal Enterprise Improvement Team will be responsible for helping agencies know more about their security programs, environment and infrastructure to strengthen their cybersecurity, according to Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

“With these new FEIT teams, we now are hiring personnel who can actually work with individual agencies based upon their unique maturity and characteristics to identify gaps, develop improvement plans and really be with them on their entire journey to improvement,” he added.

The advisors, through its Cybersecurity Shared Services Office, will also support CISA’s development of tools and services. The agency is funding FEIT using the $650 million in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

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Lawrence Livermore Researchers Develop Cryptocurrency Concept ‘E-Stablecoin’
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Lawrence Livermore Researchers Develop Cryptocurrency Concept ‘E-Stablecoin’

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have come up with a cryptocurrency concept that could enable electricity to be distributed between users without the need for an electrical grid system.

The concept, called E-Stablecoin, seeks to address digital asset stability concerns by not relying on a centralized authority or payment mechanism to function, the national lab said Monday.

The researchers used information theory and statistical mechanics to come up with a stablecoin token that is fully decentralized and backed by a physical asset with stable value.

“Any anonymous party can mint an E-Stablecoin token with the input of roughly one kilowatt-hour of electricity. They can then transact with the digital token like any other cryptocurrency, or even turn it back into usable electricity — all without the need for electrical power companies, electrical transmission lines, permissions or authorities,” said Maxwell Murialdo, a Lawrence Livermore researcher and co-author of the paper published in the journal Cryptoeconomic Systems. 

“It is a trustless system from top to bottom,” added Murialdo.

Researchers developed the blockchain concept through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

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