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NIST Awards Grants for Manufacturing USA Technology Roadmaps Program; Mike Molnar Quoted
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NIST Awards Grants for Manufacturing USA Technology Roadmaps Program; Mike Molnar Quoted

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has awarded $2.08 million in total grants to seven research projects to create technology roadmaps for advancing the manufacturing industry.

Each award under the Manufacturing USA Technology Roadmaps program is valued at up to $300,000 and will run for one year and six months to identify challenges and barriers that hinder the growth of advanced manufacturing technology in the U.S.

The awardees for the second MfgTech grant are Edison Welding Institute, SRI International, International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, ASTM International, the University of Houston, Case Western Reserve University and the University of New Hampshire.

Each consortium will develop technology roadmaps to prioritize research and development initiatives, such as the adoption of emerging technologies like additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence and machine learning and robotics.

“This new round of awards enables strategic partnerships across the country that will identify and document ways to accelerate the adoption of critical manufacturing technologies in the U.S.,” said Mike Molnar, director of the NIST Office of Advanced Manufacturing.

The research projects will also aim to address skills shortages, promote diversity and inclusion in manufacturing and accelerate technology development and commercialization.

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Biden Inks Legislation for National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Initiative
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Biden Inks Legislation for National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Initiative

President Biden signed into law the now National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Act that would enable the Department of Homeland Security to collaborate with nonprofit entities on the development, modernization and hosting of cybersecurity training to support defense against and response to cybersecurity risks.

Sens. John Cornyn and Patrick Leahy said in a statement published Thursday the new law was aimed at securing critical infrastructure from cyber attacks and ensuring cyber preparedness.

DHS and the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium, which is composed of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, the University of Arkansas, the University of Memphis, Norwich University and other university-based training organizations, will partner to train first responders and officials from state and local governments on cybersecurity, support creation of information sharing programs and help expand state and local emergency plans with cybersecurity risk and incident prevention and response.

They will also provide technical assistance and host simulation exercises for the private industry and critical infrastructure owners and operators in addition to state and local governments.

“With this new law, DHS and NCPC will be able to work over multiple years to raise the cyber skills of those they help,” said Sen. Leahy.

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Palo Alto Networks Urges for ZTNA 2.0 Use in Cybersecurity Protection; GovCon Expert Dana Barnes Quoted
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Palo Alto Networks Urges for ZTNA 2.0 Use in Cybersecurity Protection; GovCon Expert Dana Barnes Quoted

Palo Alto Networks announced on Thursday that the company has urged the cyber industry to move to Zero Trust Network Access 2.0 (ZTNA 2.0) in order to act as a replacement for virtual private networks (VPNs) since the current set of zero-trust products leave customers at risk.

“Federal agencies seeking to comply with the Biden Administration’s guidelines to adopt a Zero Trust model by 2024, should consider how solutions like ZTNA 2.0 can help them meet more robust network security requirements by providing greater protections for their workforce, whether employees are in the office or in a remote work environment,” said GovCon Expert Dana Barnes, senior vice president of Palo Alto Networks Public Sector and a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient. 

As a result of current hybrid work and distributed applications for modern federal agencies, there have been significant gaps in granting access to applications as well as a lack of monitoring on the user experience side as well as the application and device behavior. Most importantly, ZTNA 1.0 capabilities aren’t able to protect all enterprise data from malware and other major problems. 

Through its products like Prisma Access, Palo Alto Networks continues to help organizations and government agencies to meet the security challenges of the hybrid workforce, the latest threats and modern applications. 

More specifically, ZTNA 2.0 products include least privileged to enable access control at the application and sub-application levels, independent of network constructs. Other necessities to shift to include continuous trust verification and security inspection to evaluate user behavior to protect against potential threats and protect all data across the entire enterprise and applications. 

“This is a critical time for cybersecurity. We are in an era of unprecedented cyberattacks, and the past two years have dramatically changed work — for many, work is now an activity, not a place. This means that securing employees and the applications they need is both harder and more important,” said Nir Zuk, founder and chief technology officer at Palo Alto Networks. 

Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access offers the industry’s only solution to address these gaps while utilizing the best-in-class security capabilities to secure all the data and provide access to our customer’s applications. 

In order to address these gaps in zero-trust technology, Prisma Access has made several critical additions to improve its customers’ capabilities. These additions include a ZTNA connector that eases the process of onboarding cloud-native and traditional applications into the service as well as the industry’s only unified SASE product and an autonomous digital experience management (ADEM) system. 

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader, is shaping the cloud-centric future with technology that is transforming the way people and organizations operate. Our mission is to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life. 

By delivering an integrated platform and empowering a growing ecosystem of partners, we are at the forefront of protecting tens of thousands of organizations across clouds, networks, and mobile devices. Our vision is a world where each day is more secure than the one before. 

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Rock Solid Intros Consolidated Citizen Engagement Platform; CEO Tom Spengler Quoted
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Rock Solid Intros Consolidated Citizen Engagement Platform; CEO Tom Spengler Quoted

Rock Solid Technology has launched OnePlatform, a consolidated suite of software as a service offerings meant to provide local government customers with enhanced citizen engagement capabilities.

The company said Thursday OnePlatform includes OneMeeting, a rebrand of PrimeGov that Rock Solid acquired in 2021 in an effort to expand its portfolio with a meeting management technology.

“OneMeeting is a new name, but the PrimeGov mission of empowering local government professionals remains the same,” commented Tom Spengler, CEO of Rock Solid.

Aside from OneMeeting, the consolidated citizen engagement platform also has OneView for automating service request workflows via constituent relationship manager and OneRequest for equipping citizens with online request portals to streamline the process.

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Study Finds No Unbridgeable Divide Between Pentagon, Silicon Valley Over Military Use of AI
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Study Finds No Unbridgeable Divide Between Pentagon, Silicon Valley Over Military Use of AI

A RAND Corp. study found no unbridgeable gap between the Department of Defense and Silicon Valley and showed more similarities in attitudes across Silicon Valley employees, defense industrial base and alumni of universities with regard to the military use of artificial intelligence.

RAND surveyed 1,178 software engineers from traditional defense contractors, Silicon Valley and alumni of computer science universities between December 2020 and April 2021 and found that at least 33 percent of respondents from three large software companies feel uncomfortable with lethal use cases for AI.

The study found that over 66 percent of respondents in each population considered cyberattacks as critical threats to the U.S. and more than 75 percent from all three survey populations thought of Russia and China as serious threats to the U.S.

According to the report, nearly 90 percent of participants said they believe the use of military force would be justified to defend the U.S. and NATO allies against foreign aggression.

The study also showed that almost 20 percent of DIB software engineers had previously served in the U.S. armed forces, while less than 2 percent of respondents from Silicon Valley had served in the military.

RAND said the study suggests potential areas to explore to help strengthen the Pentagon’s relationship with companies and experts that are not part of the defense industrial base, such as exploring measures to broaden collaboration between DOD and Silicon Valley with regard to threats posed by cyberattacks and “exploring the potential benefits of DoD engaging Silicon Valley engineers on some of the details of how DoD intends to use AI.”

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FCC Enters Interagency Data Sharing Agreement for Broadband Projects
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FCC Enters Interagency Data Sharing Agreement for Broadband Projects

The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to exchange information with three other agencies on federally funded broadband deployment projects.

FCC said Thursday it signed an interagency agreement with the National Telecommunications and Information as well as the departments of Agriculture and the Treasury as part of interagency efforts to coordinate the government’s high-speed internet investments.

Officials plan to share data from FCC initiatives, the Rural Utilities Service at USDA, the Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund and NTIA programs.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Treasury Chief Recovery Officer Jacob Leibenluft and Alan Davidson, administrator of NTIA and assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information.

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Tonya Ugoretz Promoted to FBI Intelligence Directorate Head
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Tonya Ugoretz Promoted to FBI Intelligence Directorate Head

Tonya Ugoretz, deputy assistant director of the cyber division at the FBI, has been appointed to serve as head of the bureau’s intelligence directorate.

“I’m excited to lead our talented intelligence workforce into our next chapter, which will be full of challenges, opportunities, and risks that we will weigh according to the FBI’s mission: Protect the American People and Uphold the Constitution,” Ugoretz said Wednesday in a LinkedIn post.

She served as a director in the Office of the Director for National Intelligence’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center for three years prior to her 2018 appointment to the deputy assistant director position.

Her government service began in the Presidential Management Fellows Program in 2001 and she was appointed as the daily briefer for the FBI director in 2003.

Ugoretz also spent two years as a special adviser to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She worked at Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for four years as an adjunct associate professor.

Earlier in her career, Ugoretz served as founding editor in chief of the Seton Hall University’s Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations and associate editor at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

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Sen. Michael Bennet Proposes Measure to Establish Federal Digital Platform Commission
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Sen. Michael Bennet Proposes Measure to Establish Federal Digital Platform Commission

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., has introduced a bill that would establish a federal organization tasked with overseeing digital platforms to foster competition and protect consumers.

The proposed Digital Platform Commission Act would create a five-member commission authorized to conduct hearings, perform research and investigations and engage in public rulemaking to provide comprehensive regulation of digital platforms, Bennet’s office said Thursday.

The bill would authorize the proposed Federal Digital Platform Commission to designate “systemically important digital platforms” and establish a Code Council of representatives and technical experts from industry and civil society to provide the commission with behavioral codes, technical standards and other policies for consideration.

The legislation would also direct the commission to coordinate with consumer protection and antitrust authorities to ensure the effective use of federal resources.

“It’s past time for a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to regulating digital platforms that have amassed extraordinary power over our economy, society, and democracy,” said Bennet. “We should follow the long precedent in American history of empowering an expert body to protect the public interest through common-sense rules and oversight for complex and powerful sectors of the economy.”

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DIU, JAIC Seek to Address Erroneous Financial Transactions With Machine Learning Platforms
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DIU, JAIC Seek to Address Erroneous Financial Transactions With Machine Learning Platforms

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) conducted two separate pilots to test the capability of two machine learning platforms to identify and address unmatched transactions and other accounting errors in the Department of Defense’s financial management enterprise.

Summit2Sea led the first pilot, which used the Sagemaker ML platform from Amazon Web Services and financial data from six of 24 defense agencies backed by the DOD’s comptroller’s office, DIU said Thursday.

Vertosoft and DataRobot collaborated with the Army Financial Management and Control team to test their artificial intelligence platform during the second pilot.

The first pilot enabled each of the six DOD agencies to build a separate model when it comes to resolving UMTs using six different use cases. The agencies were able to reduce the time of finding and addressing these erroneous transactions from two hours to two minutes per UMT on average.

DataRobot and Vertosoft evaluated their AI platform across four use cases and found that the technology achieved 99 percent accuracy when it comes to detecting errors in transactions. The two ML platforms ran on a government cloud environment, called ADVANA.

“The plan is to add more use cases over time which will improve the UMT coverage,” said Eric Dorsey, a contractor and DIU program manager for the effort. 

“With the large number of UMT generated in the Army FM&C, we expect them to save millions of dollars of labor every year. Our hope is that other DoD entities such as the Navy, Air Force, Marines and components will be able to leverage this project in the future,” added Dorsey.

Summit2Sea and the team of Vertosoft and DataRobot have moved their technologies to the production phase.

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Intelligent Waves Harnesses Horizon3.ai NodeZero Platform to Combat DoD Cyber Threats; CSO John Hammes Quoted
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Intelligent Waves Harnesses Horizon3.ai NodeZero Platform to Combat DoD Cyber Threats; CSO John Hammes Quoted

Government information technology company Intelligent Waves has entered a strategic partnership with Horizon3.ai to leverage a program to enhance cybersecurity measures.

IW intends to assist in the safeguarding of networks frequently traveled by U.S. Department of Defense special operations officials via Horizon3.ai’s NodeZero autonomous penetration testing platform, the Reston, Virginia-headquartered company said Thursday.

John Hammes, chief strategy officer at IW, commented that Horizon3.ai’s security offerings are especially necessary in today’s climate defined by “rogue actors constantly on the prowl for vulnerabilities.”

“Intelligent Waves is honored to include Horizon3.ai’s NodeZero into our ultra-secure tool suite for DevOps for special operations,” Hammes added.

NodeZero functions by approving architecture deployments and scanning customer habitats for weak spots and potential invasion areas, ultimately confirming their status for usage. The platform’s admission into Intelligent Waves’ DevOps arsenal is slated to effectively diminish deployment validation periods and cost while strengthening outlook and understanding of cyber landscapes’ safety based on constant surveillance.

IW’s dispensation of NodeZero will aid the Department of Defense special operations community by anticipating the attacks of malicious actors. It will examine the ways a cybercriminal might chain together harvested credentials, misconfigurations, dangerous product defaults and exploitable vulnerabilities to weaken a system or data. The platform is also seen as a force multiplier that will save money by maximizing DoD resources through the specification of its findings.

“Our partnership with Intelligent Waves allows us to provide APTaaS to customers, helping them understand their cybersecurity risk profile so they can harden their security postures with penetration tests that can be run as often as they want,” explained Snehal Antani, CEO and co-founder of Horizon3.ai.

The IW and Horizon3.ai collaboration follows the similar teaming up of IW with Teradici to deepen the impacts of the company’s Phantom cyber-defense communications platform in October 2021.

In that case however, it was IW utilizing Teradici’s tools to optimize its own cybersecurity product, rather than the reverse.

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