Census Bureau Modernizes Geocoding Tool
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Census Bureau Modernizes Geocoding Tool

The U.S. Census Bureau has launched Census Geocoder, a redesigned cloud-based web application for government agencies, businesses and other data users seeking to match geographic locations and entities with their respective addresses.

The agency said Monday it modernized Geocoder, which was initially unveiled in 2013, to speed up processing time and make it more efficient in geocoding addresses and coordinates.

The update includes an enhanced user experience for those utilizing desktops, tablets and mobile devices, as well as a more stable environment capable of delivering scalable and quicker lookup results.

The agency moved Geocoder’s processing elements to the cloud to provide a platform with faster response times while retaining the same functionality.

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GSA Pilot Program Tests Federal Supply Chain Monitoring Process; Sonny Hashmi Quoted
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GSA Pilot Program Tests Federal Supply Chain Monitoring Process; Sonny Hashmi Quoted

The General Services Administration ran a pilot test of a new monitoring process for the GSA Advantage! shopping platform in an effort to safeguard federal buyers against suppliers and offerings that pose a risk to the government supply chain.

GSA said Tuesday it found approximately 75,000 products from unauthorized sellers on the government purchasing website through the use of data from the Verified Products Portal, which went live in 2020 and is being used by original equipment manufacturers to submit supplier authorization and product content details.

The agency is encouraging the manufacturing and wholesale trade industries wholesalers to update product representation for commercial off-the-shelf products that are available to the federal government.

“We’ve reduced the risk of customers purchasing counterfeit, fraudulent, or otherwise illegitimate products,” said Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA and a previous Wash100 Award recipient, the highest honor in all of government contracting (GovCon).

“This promotes fair competition in the federal marketplace, and improves our customers’ ability to purchase with confidence.”

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DOD’s CMMC Partner Organization Changes Name, Updates Logo & Website
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DOD’s CMMC Partner Organization Changes Name, Updates Logo & Website

The accreditation body responsible for helping operationalize the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program has rebranded itself, seven months after the Pentagon revamped its initiative to ensure contractors meet standards for safeguarding sensitive information.

CMMC-AB adopted the name The Cyber AB, created a new website and redesigned its emblem as part of the rebranding move, the Maryland-based nonprofit said Tuesday.

The organization’s roles and responsibilities under a support agreement with the Pentagon will remain the same.

“As we get closer to CMMC becoming an operational reality, it was important for us to distinguish ourselves more effectively,” said Matthew Travis, CEO of The Cyber AB.

The non-governmental entity updated its online marketplace that lists service providers and other parties involved in the certification program for the defense industrial base’s cybersecurity efforts.

DOD formally introduced the program in January 2020 in a move to establish a mechanism for confirming the cyber readiness of defense primes and their subcontractors before they can do business with the department.

The Pentagon launched CMMC 2.0 in November last year after completion of an internal review.

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CISA, NSA, FBI Warn of Chinese State-Backed Actors Targeting Network Service Providers
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CISA, NSA, FBI Warn of Chinese State-Backed Actors Targeting Network Service Providers

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI have released a joint advisory saying major telecommunications companies and network service providers have been targeted by Chinese state-backed cyberthreat actors using publicly known vulnerabilities since 2020.

Hackers are exploiting common vulnerabilities and exposures to compromise network devices, such as network attached storage devices and small office/home office routers, and gain access into victims’ accounts, NSA said Tuesday.

The three agencies listed the top network device CVEs that Chinese state-sponsored threat actors exploit, including vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution, privilege elevation and authentication bypass to compromise networks.

According to the advisory, threat actors carry out their intrusions by accessing hop points or compromised servers from several China-based internet protocol addresses resolving to various internet service providers in China. 

These hackers “typically obtain the use of servers by leasing remote access directly or indirectly from hosting providers,” the advisory reads.

Some of the mitigation measures outlined in the advisory are keeping systems patched and updated as soon as possible; removing suspected compromised devices from the network; segmenting networks to block lateral movement; enforcing multifactor authentication; disabling external management capabilities; and performing regular data backup procedures.

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GAO: Agencies Should Look at Ways to Use Lower-Risk Contract Types
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GAO: Agencies Should Look at Ways to Use Lower-Risk Contract Types

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the State Department, Social Security Administration and the Department of the Air Force evaluate measures they can take to find opportunities to reduce their use of labor-hour and time-and-materials contracts by converting all or parts of their requirements to firm-fixed-pricing.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday T&M contracts accounted for 11 percent of civilian agencies’ contract obligations between fiscal years 2017 and 2021, compared with 1 percent of Department of Defense’s obligations.

T&M contracts “are considered riskier since contractors bill the government by the hour and could conceivably work less efficiently so that they could charge more hours,” the GAO report reads.

According to the report, the U.S. government spent $139 billion on T&M contracts during the past five fiscal years.

The congressional watchdog also recommended that the State Department update its “Quality Assurance Plan policy by clarifying that a determination and findings justifying the use of a time-and-materials or labor-hour contract is required for orders placed under blanket purchase agreements.”

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UK Defense Ministry Includes AI, Hypersonics in Science & Tech Portfolio
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UK Defense Ministry Includes AI, Hypersonics in Science & Tech Portfolio

The U.K. defense ministry introduced its science and technology portfolio and announced that it will invest approximately $8.3 billion in research and development over the next four years.

The S&T portfolio consists of programs and projects designed to meet the ministry’s capability requirements and ensure that the country’s defense maintain operational advantage, the U.K. government said Monday.

The U.K.’s defense science and technology laboratory, also known as Dstl, will work with academia and industry to deliver the projects and programs under the portfolio.

The document listed the U.K. defense’s S&T challenges, including multidomain command and control, communications and computers; asymmetric hard power; and pervasive, full-spectrum, multidomain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The British defense ministry outlined the 25 programs in the portfolio as well as technical challenges, associated capabilities and benefits of each program to the country’s defense and security.

Some of these programs are artificial intelligence, autonomy, communications and networks, cybersecurity, deterrent and submarine systems, hypersonics, missile defense and space systems.

The document also covered four standalone projects under the defense S&T portfolio that offer collaborative opportunities for academia and industry: engineering biology; human augmentation; PULSAR; and support to operations and crises.

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TechnoMile Taps Deepika Gangireddy to Lead Professional Services as SVP; Ashish Khot Quoted
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TechnoMile Taps Deepika Gangireddy to Lead Professional Services as SVP; Ashish Khot Quoted

Customer experience and technology specialist Deepika Gangireddy has been added to the TechnoMile team as its senior vice president of professional services.

The McLean, Virginia-based company said Tuesday that Gangireddy is expected to foster and direct the software implementation division at TechnoMile, as well as reinforce implementation efforts and oversee end-to-end service delivery with an eye toward the client.

“Deepika has a passion for customer success and she brings deep experience successfully integrating people, processes and technology to optimize services organizations,” remarked Ashish Khot, CEO of TechnoMile.

Gangireddy’s career began as a technology lead for companies such as Mahindra Satyam BPO, Serena Software and JPMorgan Chase, where she was in charge of applications in the credit card data warehouse team and concentrated on constructing data marts for operational and analytical use.

The executive went on to work for Apttus and, subsequently, Conga, when the latter software enterprise acquired the former. For Conga, she spearheaded the services business in the North America East, EMEA and APAC regions, facilitating numerous contract lifecycle management inactions and played a role in scaling the global services outfit.

With experience in launching ambitious portfolios of strategic and tactical strategies, Gangireddy brings a wide span of capabilities to her new role at TechnoMile, including customer adoption and lifecycle management, strategy development and execution and education services, among others.

Gangireddy elucidated that TechnoMile’s customization of technologies to the intricate needs of the federal government is her primary draw to the company.

“It’s exciting that TechnoMile is changing this paradigm by delivering solutions that are purpose-built for the needs of GovCon and aerospace and defense organizations…I’m looking forward to helping TechnoMile customers find success leveraging our technology to transform and grow their businesses.”

The appointment of Gangireddy is the company’s first major hire since a string of announcements in August 2021. Ravi Aiyer and Shane Forsyth joined TechnoMile as vice president of engineering and VP of marketing, respectively and Kevin Brancato was installed as SVP of product strategy.

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NIST Launches Prize Competition for First Responder Incident Management Tech Modernization
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NIST Launches Prize Competition for First Responder Incident Management Tech Modernization

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has teamed up with consulting firm LMI and online outsourcing marketplace Freelancer to facilitate a contest that seeks existing or new incident command dashboard tools for emergency response personnel.

Participants in the Command Dashboard Integrating Next-Gen Technology Challenge will aim to demonstrate visual display models through virtual and augmented reality, mobile and web-based platforms, among others, NIST said Monday.

The agency plans to award $1 million worth of prizes during the CommanDING Tech competition, which kicked off Monday and will continue through early March 2023.

NIST introduced the four-part challenge to address user interface and data access limitations observed in current incident management systems that support first responder missions.

For the first phase, challengers must present their dashboard proposals in a concept paper along with a video or a photo and submit the materials by July 31. Phase two is made-up of public safety collaboration and video demonstration segments.

The third stage will be an assessment activity slated to take place at a Department of Commerce-operated laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, and the final phase will require teams to deploy dashboards at a staged public safety event for a live demonstration.

NIST said the University of Houston, University of Memphis and the First Responder Network Authority serve as challenge partners.

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AT&T, DOD Demonstrate 5G Smart Warehouse Tech at Naval Base Coronado; Lance Spencer Quoted
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AT&T, DOD Demonstrate 5G Smart Warehouse Tech at Naval Base Coronado; Lance Spencer Quoted

AT&T announced on Tuesday that the company has participated in the demonstration of the latest 5G-powered technology solutions from the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense (DoD) that can support the establishment of a Naval “Smart Warehouse.”

“The AT&T 5G-powered solution we’ve delivered at Naval Base Coronado is a first of its  kind, high-performance, highly secure, and scalable private network solution,” said Lance Spencer, client executive vice president of Défense for AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet. “We expect it will serve as the foundation for improved efficiency, timeliness, accuracy, security, and safety of Naval warehouse operations.”

The 5G Smart Warehouse project at Naval Base Coronado is the DoD program’s use-case  incorporating 5G capabilities for transhipments between shore facilities and naval units. AT&T’s 5G network offers DoD the ability to scale its 5G-enabled smart warehouse solution and supports global access for DoD users via roaming capabilities used with AT&T’s network infrastructure.

The demonstrations occurred at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego where the smart warehouse concept is being explored by DoD, which featured the optimization of warehouse operations for the  5G Radio Access Network as well as 5G-enabled augmented reality and virtual reality capabilities to support military training, and high-definition video surveillance.

“We’re not just building for our warfighters. We are also innovating with the American citizen in mind. DoD is working to accelerate the development and deployment of 5G-enabled capabilities across many use cases while ensuring those systems,” said Amanda Toman, acting Principal Director of 5G-NextG, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Research & Engineering.

Moving forward, AT&T expects to connect our high-speed, low-latency 5G service with smart warehouse application infrastructure to support DoD’s objectives of leveraging 5G for smart operations and vastly increased asset visibility.

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USPTO Launches Partnership With AI & Emerging Tech Communities
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USPTO Launches Partnership With AI & Emerging Tech Communities

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will formalize a partnership with communities working on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to encourage collaboration in support of AI/ET-related initiatives that impact intellectual property policy issues.

In a USPTO notice posted Tuesday on the Federal Register site, the agency expressed intent to meet with representatives from academia, small businesses, industry, government organizations, nonprofits and other communities to explore related efforts.

The AI/ET Partnership will focus on the intersection of IP policy and emerging technologies and its resulting issues. USPTO seeks to gain public input on the IP policy issues affecting the community in an effort to inform its future work.

A series of virtual events will be hosted by the collaboration to tackle subject matter eligibility, inventorship, disclosure practice and other patent policy issues. Stakeholder engagements will also be included in the gatherings.

The inaugural meeting will be held virtually on June 29th. 

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