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DOE Calls for Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator Submissions
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DOE Calls for Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator Submissions

The Department of Energy is seeking cybersecurity offerings capable of authenticating distributed energy resources for modern electrical grid protection under the Clean Energy Cybersecurity Accelerator initiative.

DOE said Monday CECA will allow for expedited tech development in support of utilities looking to tackle security issues compromising modern energy platforms, with five participants planned to be selected for the program’s first cohort.

Partnership with utilities is one key feature of the initiative, providing organizations with access to cybersecurity innovation and to the testing and evaluation capabilities of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which manages CECA.

Meanwhile, DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response sponsors the program along with utility industry partners.

“Through this testing platform, solutions providers will have the opportunity to test and validate technologies against the highest priority cyber threat scenarios, aiding in our efforts to outpace the speed of emerging threats to our evolving energy infrastructure,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Interested parties may submit applications until July 6th for CECA Cohort 1.

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CISA Director Jen Easterly: Americans Need ‘More Than a Password’ on Sensitive Online Accounts
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CISA Director Jen Easterly: Americans Need ‘More Than a Password’ on Sensitive Online Accounts

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has urged private sector organizations to help raise public awareness about two-factor authentication as a method to strengthen the security of online accounts.

CISA said Monday it seeks to inform all people in the U.S. of the advantages of implementing a layered data protection approach through the campaign, dubbed More Than a Password.

The agency created a webpage that offers an informative guide and a social media toolkit as part of the awareness initiative.

“Whether you call it multi-factor or two-factor authentication, this simple step can make you 99% less likely to get hacked. Think of it like an airbag or the seatbelt in your car—an extra layer to keep you safe in the event of an accident,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner.

Easterly urged Americans to ask their online service providers to offer the MFA feature if the tool is not yet available as a security option for their accounts.

CISA noted that the method can make it harder for cyber threat actors to breach information systems even if they compromised passwords through social engineering practices such as phishing.

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FTC Requests Input to Update Digital Advertising Guidance; Samuel Levine Quoted
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FTC Requests Input to Update Digital Advertising Guidance; Samuel Levine Quoted

The Federal Trade Commission is soliciting public feedback on its plan to update digital advertising and marketing guidelines the agency first released almost a decade ago to protect online buyers of goods and services from deceptive commercial practices.

FTC said Friday that it wants input on seven technical and legal issues, including the presence of “dark patterns” or website and mobile application designs that can influence buying decisions.

The planned business resource update is meant to stop businesses from using the agency’s existing guidance document as a defense for intentional and misleading sales tactics.

According to FTC, some companies hide disclosures behind hyperlinks and cite the guide to avoid any liability claims.

“We are looking to update the guides to make clear that online tricks and traps will not be tolerated, and we look forward to hearing from the public on this initiative,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. 

The public comment period is open through Aug. 2, with the submission instructions available for viewing on Regulations.gov.

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Biden Seeks to Accelerate Clean Energy Production With Défense Production Act Invocation
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Biden Seeks to Accelerate Clean Energy Production With Défense Production Act Invocation

President Biden has authorized the Department of Energy to use the Defense Production Act to advance domestic manufacturing of solar panel parts and other clean energy technologies.

The Biden administration will also expand U.S. production of building insulation, heat pumps, transformers and other electric grid components, electrolyzers, fuel cells and related platinum group metals through the invocation of the DPA, the White House said Monday.

With the DPA, the executive branch also aims to encourage the use of project labor agreements, community benefit agreements and other labor standards and promote projects with environmental justice outcomes.

“With the new DPA authority, DOE can help strengthen domestic solar, heat pump and grid manufacturing industries while fortifying America’s economic security and creating good-paying jobs, and lowering utility costs along the way,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said the president’s actions will help strengthen U.S. supply chains and “accelerate DoD’s transition toward clean energy technologies that can help strengthen military capability while creating good jobs for American workers.”

The president also directed the development of two federal procurement tools – master supply agreements and “super preferences” – to further promote domestic solar production capacity as well as the establishment of a 24-month bridge for certain solar imports while strengthening the integrity of trade processes and laws.

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Lawmakers Propose Data Privacy and Security Bill
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Lawmakers Propose Data Privacy and Security Bill

House and Senate leaders have issued a discussion draft of a bill that would establish a national framework to safeguard consumer data privacy and security. 

The proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act would grant protections to U.S. citizens against the discriminatory use of their data and direct covered entities to comply with loyalty duties with regard to specific practices while ensuring that consumers do not have to pay for privacy, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Friday. 

Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chairman and ranking member of the House panel, respectively, released the discussion draft of the bill with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 

The proposed measure would require covered entities to allow consumers to deactivate targeted advertisements, offer improved data protections for children and minors, create regulatory parity across the internet and foster innovation and provide small businesses and startups the opportunity to grow and compete. 

“This bill strikes a meaningful balance on issues that are critical to moving comprehensive data privacy legislation through Congress, including the development of a uniform, national data privacy framework, the creation of a robust set of consumers’ data privacy rights, and appropriate enforcement mechanisms,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. 

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NGA Issues RFI for ODIN II Open-Source Geospatial Capabilities, Data Services Acquisition Effort
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NGA Issues RFI for ODIN II Open-Source Geospatial Capabilities, Data Services Acquisition Effort

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is soliciting information on potential industry sources that could provide technical support, open-source geospatial capabilities and non-NGA standard data services to improve interoperability, technology sharing and trust among allies and other partner countries.

The agency plans to launch an acquisition effort for the second iteration of the Operations, Development, Innovation for NGA contract, according to a request for information published Monday.

The proposed ODIN II contract will have a base period of one year and two option years, involve classified and unclassified work and require the contractor to have a Top Secret-facility clearance and cleared technical and administrative personnel.

According to the draft performance work statement, ODIN II seeks to provide operations, security and sustainment support for capabilities within the GEOINT Services platform and support work on GS-provisioned platforms and clouds to maintain services and applications as driven by functional and mission needs.

Performance requirements include program and contract management requirements, geocapabilities requirements, Agile development and open source platforms, including Open Street Map and OpenSphere.

The current ODIN contract is focused on capabilities within the Open Digital Services product line, including OpenStreetMap Suite, Ronin, OpenSphere, Tearline, Piper, SuiteCRM Engagement Platform and the Maritime Safety Information mobile application.

CACI International continues to provide software development, DevOps engineering, operations and sustainment, integration and testing support for GEOINT Services capabilities under the 18-month ODIN contract extension awarded in December.

Responses to the RFI in the form of a white paper should be submitted no later than June 20th.

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Accenture Acquires Advocate Networks to Expand Technology Business Management Capabilities; Keith Boone Quoted
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Accenture Acquires Advocate Networks to Expand Technology Business Management Capabilities; Keith Boone Quoted

Accenture announced on Monday that the company has acquired Advocate Networks for an undisclosed amount to help its customers with their  Technology Business Management (TBM) solutions in order to modernize their technology platforms and drive significant business value. 

“Organizations expect their technology investments to fuel innovation and transform business operations and are increasingly adopting TBM principles to optimize spend and deliver and demonstrate immediate strategic business value,” said Keith Boone, Accenture’s North America Technology Strategy & Advisory lead.

A team of more than 85 professionals will join Accenture’s Technology Strategy & Advisory practice from it headquarters in Norcross, Georgia. The company will bring a deep expertise help define and measure value for their digital and cloud transformations for its collective customers. 

“With the powerful combination of Accenture and Advocate, we will offer a multitude of industry-leading resources and capabilities to help our clients measure the value of technology initiatives in a clear, quantifiable manner,” Keith Boone commented. 

Advocate’s full suite of TBM services, from strategic advisory to TBM-as-a-service (TBMaaS), complement Accenture’s cloud and digital transformation services and end-to-end capabilities for TBM and FinOps. 

Advocate also brings accelerators for industry-leading tools and dashboards for IT value management and services that will enhance insights provided by Accenture’s proprietary assets.

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Micro Focus Makes Public New Edition of Network Management Program; Travis Greene Quoted
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Micro Focus Makes Public New Edition of Network Management Program; Travis Greene Quoted

Software company Micro Focus has released a new edition of its Network Operations Management program to public markets.

Micro Focus NOM 2022.05 expands upon the program’s potential usages to include newly remodeled troubleshooting, dashboards and reporting functions of the OPTIC Data Lake, the Newbury, United Kingdom-based company said Monday.

Travis Greene, senior director of ITOM product marketing at MF, said the new NOM software offers “metric reporting and Business Value Dashboards that deliver network data with a business lens,” which is intended to enable network managers to “correlate network performance with broader IT service level agreements and overall business goals.”

The NOM service is designed to be implementable by businesses, managed service administrators and government agencies. Its deployment is that of a software-as-a-service product.

The performance troubleshooting feature on the newly updated version of the NOM program is constructed on a large capacity HTML-5 user interface and powers its problem pinpointing with data-based evidence. Informed by performance metrics from various networks and situations, the troubleshooting module singles out slowdowns and glitches and identifies correlations.

Additionally, NOM 2022.05 offers grouping, more in-depth scheduling and export features and the option for multiple objects for a selected metric. Users can reportedly easily merge their progress on past editions of the program into the new model as well as use NOM 2022.05 in conjunction with Micro Focus’ Operations Bridge platform.

Micro Focus’ unveiling of the latest edition of NOM follows the company’s February partnership with Micro Focus Government Solutions to market certain cybersecurity products to the public sector, pending FedRAMP approval. Through the collaboration, programs like ArcSight Intelligence, NetIQ Advanced Authentication and NetIQ Identity Governance will be made available to interested government parties.

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NIST Seeks Feedback on Preliminary Draft Zero Trust Architecture Implementation Guide
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NIST Seeks Feedback on Preliminary Draft Zero Trust Architecture Implementation Guide

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking public comments on the initial volume of draft guidance designed to help organizations implement a zero trust architecture to reduce cybersecurity risks.

NIST said Friday its National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence will accept feedback until July 5 on volume A of the preliminary draft cybersecurity practice guide that outlines several approaches to zero trust architecture implementation for cloud-based and on-premises infrastructures.

The preliminary draft guide details how the NCCoE and its collaborators use commercial and open-source technology to develop a set of implementations that aligns with NIST’s Zero Trust Architecture framework.

A zero trust architecture is an end-to-end approach to protecting enterprise data and resources that enforces secure authorization of users for accessing resources whether located on-premises or in the cloud.

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Nathaniel Fick to be Nominated as Head of State Department’s Cyberspace, Digital Policy Bureau
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Nathaniel Fick to be Nominated as Head of State Department’s Cyberspace, Digital Policy Bureau

President Joe Biden intends to nominate Nathaniel Fick, vice president of security strategy at Elastic, to serve as ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy at the State Department, the White House said Friday.

If confirmed, the former U.S. Marine Corps officer would lead a newly established bureau that coordinates the department’s diplomacy and policy initiatives in the cyber domain.

The Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy became operational April 4, with Jennifer Bachus serving as its senior official until the ambassador-at-large nominee receives confirmation.

Fick served as CEO of cybersecurity software vendor Endgame for seven years until its 2019 acquisition by Elastic and managed Endgame’s former services business before the unit was sold to Accenture in 2017.

He held the operating partner role at Bessemer Venture Partners for almost a decade and led the Center for a New American Security as CEO from 2009 to 2012.

Fast Company named Fick to the magazine’s list of the 100 “most creative” businesspeople for 2018.

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