//
NCCoE Selects Participants for DevOps Security Practices Project
Published on
NCCoE Selects Participants for DevOps Security Practices Project

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence has announced the nine organizations who will participate in a project seeking to address challenges associated with DevOps and software supply chain security.

The selected “technology collaborators” in the Software Supply Chain and DevOps Security Practices Project are Black Duck, Dell Technologies, DigiCert, Endor Labs, GitLab, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Scribe Security, NCCoE said Thursday.

Mission: To Design, Build Innovative Technologies

The organizations were selected after submitting proposed capabilities that align with the project’s vision. They signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the government to provide expertise and hardware or software that would be utilized to design and build innovative technologies.

The participants will work with a project team to develop risk-based strategies and recommendations for secure DevOps and software supply chain practices. The effort envisions implementing the DevSecOps practices to proof-of-concept use-case scenarios, which could help organizations identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks posed by the software supply chain.

Launched in May 2023, the project aims to assist organizations maintain the volume and velocity of software delivery by using a cloud-native strategy and automated platforms. It also targets to showcase current and future secure development practices, tools and frameworks to address cybersecurity challenges.

/
Trump Admin Says US Military Attracting More Recruits
Published on
Trump Admin Says US Military Attracting More Recruits

President Donald Trump said the U.S military is attracting more recruits following the start of his second administration in January.

According to Trump, his executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government led to a surge of Americans enlisting to serve the military, the Department of Defense said Wednesday. The president reported the recruitment uptick during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

“I am pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services,” Trump said.

Rebuilding the U.S. Military

Earlier, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a statement underscoring the Trump administration’s policy. Hegseth, a 2025 Wash100 Award recipient, stressed he intends to rebuild the country’s military focusing “on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”

Establishing ‘Golden Dome,’ Increasing US Shipbuilding Capacity

Trump also discussed the government’s upcoming military modernization efforts, such as creating a defense system to intercept incoming missile attacks. The president asked Congress to fund “Golden Dome,” which he pointed out is part of the administration’s initiatives to build “the most powerful military of the future.”

In addition, Trump pledged to expand the country’s shipbuilding capacity and announced the establishment of an Office of Shipbuilding within the White House. Under the new office, the government will offer tax incentives to drive domestic shipbuilding, Trump said. “We are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” the president explained.

/
DOD Releases Federal Acquisition Regulation Class Deviation
Published on
DOD Releases Federal Acquisition Regulation Class Deviation

The Department of Defense has issued a class deviation directing contracting officers to dissolve and replace Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, solicitation provisions and contract clauses associated with the Equal Employment Opportunity executive order.

DOD said Wednesday John Tenaglia, principal director of defense pricing, contracting, and acquisition policy, signed the class deviation titled Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity in Federal Contracts on Tuesday.

According to the document, contracting officers are not required to amend contract actions nearing the end of the performance period, including those with less than six months remaining, and those without options to extend.

Removing the Term ‘Gender’

The class deviation also directs the removal of the term “gender” in the FAR to comply with the Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government EO signed by President Trump in January.

GSA-Issued Class Deviations to FAR

In February, the General Services Administration released two deviations to FAR and procurement practices to implement three recent executive orders, including the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity EO. 

GSA noted that the FAR deviations will allow federal contracting officers to modify existing contracts and solicitations without imposing penalties on the contract holder or the government.

////
DIU Taps Scale AI for Thunderforge Program to Accelerate DOD-Wide AI Use
Published on
DIU Taps Scale AI for Thunderforge Program to Accelerate DOD-Wide AI Use

Data labelling company Scale AI has secured a contract to provide generative artificial intelligence tools to the Defense Innovation Unit’s Thunderforge program designed to integrate AI into Department of Defense planning and operations. The program is geared at helping accelerate DOD-wide adoption of “cutting edge commercial AI technologies,” Doug Beck, DIU director, said Wednesday.

“Thunderforge is the foundation for the next generation of AI-driven military decision-making, enhancing the Joint Force’s ability to plan, adapt and respond to emerging challenges at machine speed – helping the warfighter to deter major conflict, or win if forced to fight,” Beck pointed out.

INDOPACOM and EUCOM Deployments

The program’s initial deployment will support the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. European Command’s mission-critical planning on such areas as campaign development, theater-wide resource distribution and strategic analysis.

The Thunderforge toolkit available to the commands include advanced large language models, AI-driven simulations and interactive agent-based wargaming.

According to Bryce Goodman, DIU Thunderforge program lead, current military planning relies on “decades-old technology and methodologies” hindering the speedy response that modern warfare demands. “Thunderforge brings AI-powered analysis and automation to operational and strategic planning, allowing decision-makers to operate at the pace required for emerging conflicts,” Goodman pointed out.

Partnership with Anduril and Microsoft

Scale AI’s Thunderforge contract award followed the DIU solicitation issued in August for GenAI tools to accelerate and enhance DOD’s joint planning. Under the contract, the San Francisco, California-based company will provide its GenAI test and evaluation capabilities as well as agentic applications. It is partnered in the program with Anduril bringing in its lattice software platform, and Microsoft contributing its LLMS.

Alexandr Wang, Scale AI founder and CEO, called it an honor for the company to lead a program designed to provide “the greatest technological advantage” to U.S. military leaders. “Working together with DIU, Combatant Commands and our industry partners, we will lead the Joint Force in integrating AI into operational decision-making,” said Scale AI’s top executive.

/
DARPA, DRSI to Combat Manipulated Media
Published on
DARPA, DRSI to Combat Manipulated Media

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has partnered with the UL Research Institutes’ Digital Safety Research Institute to further the detection, attribution and characterization of artificial intelligence-generated media.

Tackling the Threat of Manipulated Media

DARPA said Wednesday the two organizations entered a cooperative research and development agreement to address the growing threat of manipulated media or deepfakes. Through the collaboration, DSRI aims to continue DARPA’s Semantics Forensics, or SemaFor, program and sustain efforts to safeguard against manipulated audio, images, video and text. SemaFor, the successor to the Media Forensics program, concluded in September 2024 and has since transitioned its technologies to the government and commercial sectors.

Under the agreement, DSRI will oversee the program’s AI Forensics Open Research Challenge Evaluations, or AI FORCE. It will be tasked with announcing challenge results and awarding research grants. DSRI will conduct these events at academic conferences, which serve as an open scientific research ecosystem for individuals and organizations to share ideas and techniques.

Manipulated media has become a growing problem ever since automated manipulation technologies became more accessible while the use of social media to share these manipulated content have become more prevalent.

Wil Corvey, program manager of DARPA’s SemaFor, stated, “DSRI’s mission of product testing and evaluation, specifically with respect to the complex and evolving sociotechnical environment in which products will be deployed, makes them an ideal fit for this area of transition.”

Jill Crisman, executive director of DSRI of UL Research Institutes, added, “DSRI aims to enable digital information testing and inspection tools [to] keep pace with the rapid advances of generative AI.”

//
NIST Seeks Feedback on Strategies to Achieve Crypto Agility
Published on
NIST Seeks Feedback on Strategies to Achieve Crypto Agility

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is inviting the public to comment on a new white paper discussing approaches and considerations to achieve crypto agility.

The Cybersecurity White Paper, or CSWP, 39 outlines anticipated challenges and trade-offs to providing operational mechanisms for achieving crypto agility while maintaining interoperability, NIST said Wednesday. The latest CSWP also highlights several working areas of the effort that require more discussions.

Replacing Outdated Algorithms

According to NIST, crypto agility embodies the required capabilities to replace outdated cryptographic algorithms and use advanced versions for protocols, applications, software, hardware and infrastructures. The concept envisions the implementation of new algorithms without interrupting the flow of an existing system to achieve resilience.

The adoption of a crypto agility approach is meant to advance the NIST mission of seamlessly migrating critical government systems to post-quantum cryptography standards, which would address the threats posed by future cryptographically-relevant quantum computers to public-key cryptography. The technology is slated to support government initiatives to replace algorithms with inadequate security features.

NIST will accept feedback on the white paper until April 30. The agency will also conduct virtual workshops to discuss with relevant stakeholders the formulation of strategies for pursuing crypto agility.

//
LLNS Issues RFI for Arachne Spacecraft Development Effort
Published on
LLNS Issues RFI for Arachne Spacecraft Development Effort

Lawrence Livermore National Security seeks to develop a spacecraft as part of its proposal to be a prime contractor for a mission under the NASA Astrophysics Small Satellite Explorers Program and has issued a request for information concerning the effort.

Table of Contents

Arachne Spacecraft Bus

LLNS is looking into possible vendors that can co-engineer the Arachne spacecraft bus, which will house a technology readiness level 6 telescope, according to a sources sought notice posted Wednesday on SAM.gov. The same vendor is expected to ultimately deliver an integrated observatory to a launch services provider.

ROM Requirement

Interested parties must submit rough order of magnitude—or ROM—estimates for the proposed spacecraft bus. The ROM should include cost estimates and a technical writeup. Responses are due Apr. 18.

The selection of LLNS’ proposal by NASA is expected to result in a competitive solicitation for a firm-fixed-price subcontract by calendar year 2026. Full rate production of three units of the spacecraft is projected to begin the following year.

/
Senator Introduces INNOVATE Act to Bolster Small Business Programs
Published on
Senator Introduces INNOVATE Act to Bolster Small Business Programs

Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has announced the Investing in National Next-Generation Opportunities for Venture Acceleration and Technical Excellence, or INNOVATE, Act during the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing.

The senator said Wednesday the bill aims to revamp the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. It is designed to cut red tape and facilitate the entry of small businesses and other new applicants into the defense industrial base.

Aside from streamlining processes, the INNOVATE Act is also meant to remove corporate welfare for mills and safeguard against intellectual property theft.

Key Provisions of the INNOVATE Act

The bill intends to reorient SBIR-STTR on merit-based seed funding by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion preferences and requiring businesses with multiple awards to be commercially viable. In addition, the bill also reserves 2.5 percent of SBIR allocation for smaller, streamlined awards and empowers the Department of Defense to enhance promising technologies through long-term contracts using existing funds.

The INNOVATE Act clearly defines foreign risks allowing agencies to evaluate applicants and determine ties with foreign countries of concern. Furthermore, the bill also eliminates pilot programs that are underperforming. This will also restrict the number of proposals one company can submit each year.

“My legislation streamlines and simplifies existing processes, directs the funding toward projects based on merit, channels funding to help accelerate the most promising projects towards final stage commercialization, protects against waste and abuse and introduces enhanced protections and accountability tools to prevent these new technologies from getting into the hands of our foreign adversaries,” said Ernst. 

/
Laura McGill Appointed Director of Sandia National Laboratories
Published on
Laura McGill Appointed Director of Sandia National Laboratories

Laura McGill, a 30-year veteran of the defense industry, has been designated as the next director of Sandia National Laboratories.

Sandia Labs said Tuesday McGill’s tenure as the 17th laboratories director will officially start on May 1. She will succeed James Peery, who is set to retire at the end of April.

Who Is Laura McGill?

McGill has been with the engineering laboratory for over four years having joined in January 2021. She most recently served as the deputy laboratories director for nuclear deterrence. She directed the ND programs and established technical strategies to ensure Sandia’s nuclear weapons portfolio achieved modernization and stockpile reliability. She also served as chief technology officer where she was responsible for Sandia’s strategic initiatives and emerging technologies.

Before joining Sandia Labs, McGill served at Raytheon’s Missile Systems business for over 14 years. She was the vice president of engineering tasked with overseeing the technical development and operational support for its advanced missiles and radar systems for the Department of Defense. She also served as chief engineer for air warfare systems from 2007 to 2012.

McGill is a lifetime fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She is currently its president and a member of the board of directors.

Rich DeGraff, chair of the board of managers of Sandia’s National Technology and Engineering Solutions, said, “Laura’s extensive experience in defense systems engineering and her proven leadership within Sandia make her exceptionally qualified to guide the Laboratories into the future.”

/
DISA Issues New Data Strategy
Published on
DISA Issues New Data Strategy

The Defense Information Systems Agency has released a new strategy that establishes the foundation for improving DISA’s cybersecurity, optimizing its network and leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging technologies to support warfighters.

In a LinkedIn post published Tuesday, DISA said its Fiscal Years 2025-2027 Data Strategy has three lines of effort: strengthen data architecture and governance, integrate advanced analytics and cultivate a data-centric culture.

“This strategy represents a pivotal moment in DISA’s data evolution,” said Caroline Kuharske, chief data officer at DISA. “By emphasizing strong governance, advanced analytics and a culture of data-driven decision-making, we are not only strengthening our operational capabilities but also positioning the agency to lead in innovation and efficiency.”

Strengthening Data Architecture & Governance

Under this line of effort, DISA will treat and secure data as a strategic asset, streamline data infrastructure and promote data sharing and boost data maturity using robust governance and management.

Treating data as a strategic asset calls for the agency to implement data tagging and metadata management, adopt data classification standards, develop an application programming interface registry and enforce security using zero trust architecture.

Integrating Cutting-Edge Analytical Tools

To advance this line of effort, DISA will accelerate AI and machine learning adoption across services, facilitate data-driven decision-making and advance interoperability frameworks and data standards.

By adopting advanced analytical tools, the agency seeks to convert raw data into actionable insights to create a competitive advantage and drive growth.

Promoting a Data-Centric Culture

To cultivate a data-centric culture, DISA will improve data literacy through professional development opportunities, advance the use of knowledge management and embed data stewardship responsibilities and roles into the workforce.

“A data-centric workforce is the backbone of innovation,” said Kuharske. “Transforming raw information into insights that drive smarter decisions is a core value of our mission. These efforts will ensure that DISA remains agile, secure and mission-focused in an increasingly data-driven world.”

1 … 81 82 83 84 85 … 2,597