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SpyCloud Appoints Joel Bagnal as Federal Director; CEO Ted Ross Quoted
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SpyCloud Appoints Joel Bagnal as Federal Director; CEO Ted Ross Quoted

Spycloud announced on Monday that Joel Bagnal as its new director of federal business with the company to lead the expansion in its government practice by connecting its leading-edge solutions and intelligence to support the intel community, defense agencies and law enforcement.

“The hiring of Joel Bagnal to lead SpyCloud’s federal efforts is a huge step forward for the company. Joel’s comprehensive experience working in the highest levels of government makes him an invaluable addition to the SpyCloud team,” said Ted Ross, CEO & co-founder of SpyCloud.

Previously, Joel Bagnal has served in a wide range of cybersecurity and leadership positions, which includes acting as a senior advisor to the President of the United States during the Obama administration.

Over his career, Bagnal has also been the Principal Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Chairman of the Homeland Security Council Deputies Committee, and Co-Chair of the Counterterrorism Security Group.

With SpyCloud’s expertise in analytical and investigative support to the federal government, Joel Bagnal’s history and experience on combatting terrorism, emergency management preparedness and planning, continuity of government, incident management, public health and medical preparedness and information sharing.

“The current state of global relations shines a light on the need to secure every potential attack vector in government. Joel brings unique, quality expertise that will further SpyCloud’s position as a trusted partner to U.S. government agencies as they seek to protect their most critical assets,” Ted Ross added.

About SpyCloud

SpyCloud transforms recaptured data to protect businesses from cyberattacks. Its products leverage a proprietary engine that collects, curates, enriches and analyzes data from the criminal underground, driving action so enterprises can proactively prevent account takeover and ransomware, and protect their business and consumers from online fraud.

Its unique data from breaches, malware-infected devices, and other underground sources also powers many popular dark web monitoring and identity theft protection offerings. SpyCloud customers include half of the ten largest global enterprises, mid-size companies, and government agencies around the world.

DOE Invests $61M to Advance Nuclear Energy Research Efforts
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DOE Invests $61M to Advance Nuclear Energy Research Efforts

The Department of Energy has allocated a total of $61 million to fund 74 university-led projects targeting nuclear energy advancement.

The projects were initiated by over 40 universities located across the U.S and were intended to support three focus areas, the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy said Friday.

Forty-nine awards amounting to $53 million will support the research and development of nuclear systems.

DOE awarded $5.2 million to help 20 universities expand scientific infrastructure and modernize research reactors and selected five university scientists to receive $3.1 million in total grants for their work under the department’s Distinguished Early-Career Program.

The latest awards bring the amount DOE has invested in nuclear energy research and professional training since 2009 to more than $931 million.

DCSA Renames Defense Consolidated Adjudications Facility
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DCSA Renames Defense Consolidated Adjudications Facility

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has changed the name of its organization that determines whether Department of Defense military and civilian personnel are eligible to handle classified government information or assume a national security-related sensitive position.

The move to rebrand the DOD Consolidated Adjudications Facility as DCSA Consolidated Adjudication Services will not affect its organizational structure and process, the agency said Friday.

Marianna Martineau, assistant director for adjudications at DCSA, will continue to oversee the process.

Her team performed more than 836,000 personnel security, credentialing and suitability actions during fiscal year 2021, according to the agency’s annual report.

DCSA absorbed the now-former CAF in October 2019 as part of the Pentagon’s vetting enterprise realignment initiative.

New Space Force Intelligence Unit to Operate From Wright-Patterson AFB
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New Space Force Intelligence Unit to Operate From Wright-Patterson AFB

The U.S. Space Force will stand up the National Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio where it will operate to analyze space domain threats to the U.S., SpaceNews reported Monday.

The upcoming space intelligence center will be managed by Space Delta 18– a new Space Force unit– and will have Col. Marqus Randall as commander.

The space intelligence community will gain support from the Space Delta 18, with Space Force intelligence analysts working to analyze raw data and identify and evaluate usable intelligence from different sources.

Transferring the Space Analysis Squadron and Counter-Space Analysis Squadron of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center to the Space Force will lead to the establishment of NSIC.

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Lindsey Saul on DLA’s Enterprise Data Management, Information Visualization Evaluation Efforts
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Lindsey Saul on DLA’s Enterprise Data Management, Information Visualization Evaluation Efforts

Lindsey Saul, chief data and analytics officer at the Defense Logistics Agency, said DLA is working to build up an enterprise data management division to raise the agency’s data maturity level from two to three, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“In today’s day and age, where data is is deemed a weapon — or they even say data analytics platform is almost like a weapon system of the future for the Department of Defense — we really need to be prepared and equipped to have access to our data very quickly, be able to understand our data, and not do what we’ve done in the past, which is really rely on a single person who has all of the knowledge,” Saul said during a webinar Thursday.

“And instead, we need to make sure that it’s well documented, we have the right data dictionaries in place, the correct metadata and metadata management tools to link the lineage of the data to the present day,” she added.

Saul discussed how data management and access enabled DLA to speed up the development of applications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine crisis.

She also cited DLA’s work on the Information Visualization Evaluation program using the Department of Defense’s Advana analytics tool and how the initiative provides the agency with insights over the logistics of fuels, operational rations and other items.

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Battelle Seeks to Eliminate Source of Contaminated Drinking Water With Closed-Loop Tech
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Battelle Seeks to Eliminate Source of Contaminated Drinking Water With Closed-Loop Tech

Battelle expects to be operational by June 2023 at least four units of a closed-loop, on-site platform designed to destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in contaminated water.

The PFAS Annihilator can target and remove the source of contaminated drinking water by breaking down PFAS chemicals to non-detectable levels using the supercritical water oxidation process, the nonprofit research and development company said Sunday.

Also known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are used in non-stick cookware, food packaging, paint, cosmetics and other industrial and consumer products but are capable of resisting water, heat and oil, making them hard to eliminate from the environment.

Battelle said its platform will be deployed in North Carolina in the summer to destroy PFAS in firefighting foam, also called aqueous film forming foam.

In March, Battelle performed a pilot demonstration of the technology at a wastewater treatment facility run by Heritage-Crystal Clean in Michigan and showed the capability of the platform in eradicating PFAS in landfill leachate.

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House Armed Services Panel to Consider Chairman’s Mark for FY 2023 NDAA
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House Armed Services Panel to Consider Chairman’s Mark for FY 2023 NDAA

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has released his proposed fiscal year 2023 defense policy bill that would authorize $772.5 billion in funding for the Department of Defense.

HASC is set to consider Smith’s FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, June 22, the House panel said Monday.

“This mark supports investments in the alliances and partnerships that the United States needs to help meet these challenges, including more than $6 billion in funding for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and nearly $4 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative,” Smith said.

The proposal supports a 4.6 percent salary increase for warfighters and authorizes $131.3 billion in research and development funding across the national security enterprise, according to a summary of the chairman’s mark.

The measure would codify and make permanent DOD’s Mentor-Protege program to improve the defense industrial base’s resiliency, require a report on the supply chain for the Improved Turbine Engine program and enhance sustainment planning for major weapon systems acquisitions.

The bill would require the secretary of DOD to submit a plan with regard to the expansion of the Shared Early Warning System program to additional countries and assess the department’s hypersonic testing infrastructure.

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Neptune Receives Energy Department Contract for West Valley Project Support
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Neptune Receives Energy Department Contract for West Valley Project Support

Neptune and Company will perform a range of services in support of a Department of Energy project in West Valley, New York, under a five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.

The contractor is tasked to work on the Phase 2 decommissioning decision making effort for the West Valley Demonstration Project and the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, DOE said Thursday.

Under the potential $8 million IDIQ, Neptune will develop a model for probabilistic performance assessment and analyze proposed decommissioning alternatives to come up with a statistical decision. Task orders will be awarded as part of the contract.

DOE and the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority provided funding for the award. They also both manage the contract, which was awarded by the department’s Office of Environmental Management.

Neptune offers decision analysis, radiological performance assessment, environmental modeling, statistics and risk assessment as well as quality assurance to nonprofits and public and private customers.

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State Secretary Antony Blinken Announces Members of Foreign Affairs Policy Board
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State Secretary Antony Blinken Announces Members of Foreign Affairs Policy Board

Antony Blinken, secretary of the State Department and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, has named new members of an advisory board that provides advice on U.S. foreign policy concerns.

Thomas Donilon, chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute who served as national security adviser during the Obama administration, and Cecilia Muñoz, former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, will co-chair the Foreign Affairs Policy Board, the State Department said Friday.

Donilon and Muñoz will lead the advisory board in assessing pressing foreign policy issues such as climate change, global health, cybersecurity and emerging technologies, international economics and strategic competition with China.

Members of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board are:

  • David Autor, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Sameer Bhalotra, co-founder and CEO of ActZero
  • Hal Brands, professor of global affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
  • Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Mitchell Daniels, Jr., president of Purdue University
  • Janine Davidson, president of Metropolitan State University of Denver
  • Cathy Feingold, director of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations’ International Department
  • Dr. Margaret Hamburg, chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Bio Advisory Group
  • Jon Huntsman, vice chair of Ford Motor Company
  • Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab
  • Ambassador Kristie Kenney, adjunct professor at Georgetown University
  • Gilman Louie, CEO and co-founder of America’s Frontier Fund
  • Katherine Maher, former CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation
  • James Manyika, senior vice president at Google
  • Meghan O’Sullivan, former deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Annise Parker, former mayor of Houston
  • Vincent Stewart, chief inclusion and innovation officer for Ankura and the founder and CEO of Stewart Global Solutions
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DOE Awards $58M in Funding to Advance Clean Energy Technology Development
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DOE Awards $58M in Funding to Advance Clean Energy Technology Development

The Department of Energy has selected 30 projects to receive funding worth a total of $57.9 million from the Advanced Manufacturing Office to decarbonize the U.S. industrial sector and advance clean energy manufacturing practices across the industry.

DOE said Thursday the research projects, led by industry partners, universities and the national laboratories, will result in the development of technological innovations designed to support the Biden administration’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Decarbonizing American industry while expanding our capacity to manufacture clean energy technologies is the surest way to meet the nation’s climate and economic goals,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The research projects will focus on three main topics: manufacturing process innovation, advanced materials manufacturing and energy systems.

In a separate announcement, DOE said 10 projects were awarded a total of $25.8 million to develop next-generation manufacturing processes for reducing carbon emissions of energy-intensive industries.

Fourteen projects were selected for a $24.6 million funding grant to develop and produce materials designed to reduce the operating costs of wind turbines and extend the life of hydrogen components.

The remaining six research projects will create “innovative manufacturing processes for lithium-ion batteries to enhance safety and reduce cost and time-to-market” under a $7.5 million funding grant.

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