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Senators Urge FTC to Investigate TikTok Over Reports of China’s Access to Data of US Users
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Senators Urge FTC to Investigate TikTok Over Reports of China’s Access to Data of US Users

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., a three-time Wash100 Award winner, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate social media platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance in light of recent reports that people in China have been accessing U.S. users’ private data.

The lawmakers aired concerns over TikTok’s misrepresentation of its corporate governance practices after a news report revealed that engineering teams at the social media platform report to ByteDance leadership in China, Rubio’s office said Wednesday.

“In light of this new report, we ask that your agency immediately initiate a Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok, and coordinate this work with any national security or counterintelligence investigation that may be initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice,” the senators wrote in a July 5 letter to FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan.

The lawmakers also cited the vulnerability of users’ data to extrajudicial access by Chinese security services since updates to the platform’s privacy policy indicate that TikTok may be gathering faceprints, voiceprints and other biometric data.

Warner and Rubio serve as chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively.

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Army Announces First Engine to Test Milestone for GE-Built Rotorcraft Engine
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Army Announces First Engine to Test Milestone for GE-Built Rotorcraft Engine

The U.S. Army announced the completion of the first engine to test of the General Electric-built T901 rotorcraft engine designed for the service’s fleet of helicopters.

T901 is a 3,000-shaft horsepower engine meant to power the Sikorsky-made UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing-built AH-64 Apache helicopters and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, the service said Thursday.

The FETT light off kicked off on March 22 and marked the start of a multiyear testing effort in ordre for the engine to achieve full qualification.

The service said the engine’s preliminary flight rating testing will begin in the fall of 2022 and continue through 2023 and will include eight T901 engines that will be evaluated against Army Military Airworthiness Certification Criteria standards, which will cover about 1,500 hours of engine testing.

T901 is set to undergo nearly 5,000 engine test hours to reach full engine qualification.

The Army’s aviation turbine engines program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama oversees the service’s rotary wing turbine engine and electrical power capability for the Army Aviation and coalition partners.

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Spry Methods COO Jack Hess Elevated to President; Co-CEO Ted Ahn Quoted
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Spry Methods COO Jack Hess Elevated to President; Co-CEO Ted Ahn Quoted

Jack Hess has been promoted from chief operating officer to president of public sector-serving information technology company Spry Methods.

With extensive experience in both federal law enforcement and government contracting, Hess is expected to lead Spry’s service delivery, business expansion and corporate strategy in his new position, the McLean, Virginia-based company said Thursday.

As president, Hess will additionally collaborate with Ed Kim and Ted Ahn, Spry’s co-CEOs, to chart the company’s course forward.

In a statement, Ahn described the influential role Hess has played in his over a year as COO, pointing to the executive’s ability to organize the team and services to best suit government agencies’ objectives.

“Jack has also fine-tuned our pipeline of opportunities to capture foundational contracts within the national security, DoD, Intelligence, and Federal Civilian communities,” Ahn added.

Hess’ career began with an over two-decade stint at the Federal Bureau of Investigations, from which he retired in 2009. At the FBI, he cultivated expertise in investigations, tactical and management strategies and counterterrorism with senior-level jobs and responsibilities such as special agent, associate director of national intelligence, section chief for the counterterrorism division’s communication exploitation section and chief of the national center for the analysis of violent crime.

Upon his retirement, Hess pivoted to the private sector, joining Sotera Defense Solutions. At the latter company he partnered with the intelligence community to perform analysis and operations duties and graduated to senior vice president before it was acquired by KeyW Corporation in 2017. He then worked for two years at KeyW as senior vice president for the national intelligence sector until the organization was purchased by Jacobs Engineering Corporation in 2019.

The newly appointed Spry president held the role of vice president and general manager at Jacobs in the homeland and justice performing division for two years prior to coming to his current employer.

In 2021, former federal chief information officer Basil Parker was appointed senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Spry.

Phillip Washington Nominated for FAA Administrator Role
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Phillip Washington Nominated for FAA Administrator Role

Phillip Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport and U.S. Army veteran, will be nominated by President Joe Biden to assume the administrator position at the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to a White House notice released on Wednesday, Washington was with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority before he was confirmed as CEO of DIA.

As Metro chief executive, he was responsible for the management of its over $8 billion budget and 11,000 employees. He held the post for approximately six years.

Washington’s career also includes time with the Denver Regional Transportation District and over two-decade of service with the Army.

If confirmed, Washington will take over Billy Nolen, who has been serving as acting FAA administrator since April. Nolen was appointed after Steve Dickson stepped down at the end of March.

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Mark Livingston Named DCSA Assistant Director of Personnel Security
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Mark Livingston Named DCSA Assistant Director of Personnel Security

Mark Livingston, a four-decade government service veteran, took on a new role as assistant director of personnel security at the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

He will lead efforts to sustain, transform and integrate security practices for the agency’s workforce, DCSA said Wednesday in a LinkedIn post.

Livingston previously served as assistant deputy for manpower, personnel, training and education at the U.S. Navy, lead for the Department of the Navy Security Enterprise and the service branch’s acting deputy undersecretary for intelligence and security.

The former U.S. Marine also worked at the Transportation Security Agency’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis as deputy assistant administrator and at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as senior reactor specialist.

Earlier in his career, Livingston served as director of corporate intelligence programs for Northrop Grumman.

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DHS S&T, Army Announce New Chemical Security Laboratory in Maryland; Kathryn Coulter Mitchell Quoted
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DHS S&T, Army Announce New Chemical Security Laboratory in Maryland; Kathryn Coulter Mitchell Quoted

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has partnered with the U.S. Army to open a new chemical security laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

The experimental facility will support the Chemical Security Analysis Center’s risk and consequence models and contribute critical scientific data to current and emerging S&T projects, DHS said Wednesday.

The  Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center will bring its expertise in the areas of chemical threat agents, chemical defense, and toxic industrial chemicals to come up with findings critical to national readiness.

“Having the ability to conduct our own experimental laboratory research alongside our Army partners brings a more holistic approach to our chemical security analytics and allows us to model analyses rapidly in support of DHS components and other federal, state and local partners with greater precision,” said Kathryn Coulter Mitchell, DHS senior official performing the duties of the undersecretary for science and technology.

DHS S&T and the Army also expect the facility’s location would improve its capability and return on investment.

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GSA Customer Experience Center of Excellence Unveils CX Maturity Model
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GSA Customer Experience Center of Excellence Unveils CX Maturity Model

The General Services Administration’s Customer Experience Center of Excellence has unveiled a framework for transforming the delivery of federal services to citizens.

The CX CoE Maturity Model does not constitute official guidance but is designed to help organizations gain a deeper understanding of how to measure their level of capacity to design and deliver federal services.

The framework outlines five levels of CX maturity: reactive, tactical, strategic, foundational and customer-centric.

“The levels are a progression towards an ideal state. Each level requires the full realization of the levels below it,” the framework states.

The CX CoE Maturity Model is in response to an executive order signed by President Biden in December to enhance customer experience and service delivery. The order outlines 36 customer experience improvement commitments across 17 agencies to organize the delivery of federal services.

“Our government must recommit to being ‘of the people, by the people, [and] for the people’ in order to solve the complex 21st century challenges our nation faces. Government must be held accountable for designing and delivering services with a focus on the actual experience of the people whom it is meant to serve,” the executive order states.

The CX CoE noted that the Maturity Model does not represent or constitute official guidance.

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OSTP Requests Input on Cislunar Space Tech Strategy Development
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OSTP Requests Input on Cislunar Space Tech Strategy Development

The White House Office of Science and Technology wants the public’s input on what research and development priorities and possible technical standards the government should incorporate into a strategic plan for advancing cislunar ecosystem development efforts.

OSTP said Wednesday in a Federal Register notice it will accept ideas from both individuals and institutions to help create a national science and technology strategy for government activities in the region between Earth and the moon.

Specifically, the agency seeks to determine key R&D and technical approaches toward a sustainable ecosystem in cislunar space over the next 10 to 50 years.

Responses to the RFI notice are due July 20.

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CISA, FBI, Treasury Issue Advisory on North Korea’s Use of Maui Ransomware
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CISA, FBI, Treasury Issue Advisory on North Korea’s Use of Maui Ransomware

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, FBI and the Department of the Treasury have released a joint advisory on Maui ransomware and other indicators of compromise that North Korea-backed threat actors have been using since May 2021 to compromise health care and public health sector organizations.

Cyberthreat actors use Maui ransomware to encrypt servers used to support electronic health records, imaging, diagnostics and intranet services, according to the joint advisory published Wednesday.

Maui encrypts target files using a combination of XOR encryption, RSA and Advanced Encryption Standard.

The advisory outlines mitigation measures health care organizations should take, such as limiting access to data by fielding public key infrastructure and digital certificates to authenticate connections with the network, EHR system and medical devices, using standard user accounts on internal systems and turning off network device management interfaces.

Organizations are also being urged to maintain offline backups of data; create and exercise a cyber incident response plan and related communications plan; install updates for software, operating systems and firmware upon release; implement user training program and phishing exercises; and require multifactor authentication for services.

“The FBI, CISA, and Treasury strongly discourage paying ransoms as doing so does not guarantee files and records will be recovered and may pose sanctions risks,” the notice reads.

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White House Memo Outlines Measures to Meet FY22 Small Disadvantaged Business Goal
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White House Memo Outlines Measures to Meet FY22 Small Disadvantaged Business Goal

The Biden administration has issued a memorandum outlining the steps agency acquisition officers can take to meet the fiscal year 2022 goal of awarding 11 percent of total contract dollars to small disadvantaged businesses. 

The memo calls on agencies to use existing and open market contracts to achieve a mix of new entrant and seasoned 8(a) businesses and SDBs, evaluate acquisitions under the simplified acquisition threshold and maximize the use of the 8(a) business development program, the White House said in a June 29 release.

Agencies should review the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) no-contracts list of eligible firms, work with an 8(a) contractor for a construction project, consider software development requirements that might be suitable for the 8(a) program and take advantage of the General Services Administration’s 8(a) STARS III governmentwide acquisition contract. 

According to the document, the 8(a) STARS III GWAC provides agencies access to more than 1,100 8(a) contractors offering a range of information technology services, including artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, cybersecurity, quantum computing and blockchain technology.

The administration said the contract has supported more than $15 billion in agency orders to SDBs over the last decade.

The memo also urges agencies to maximize opportunities for SDBs when using GSA’s Federal Supply Schedule program and use the category management Quick Decision Dashboard and the Small Business Dashboard to immediately identify the existing contracts that offer access to SDBs.

Lesley Field, acting administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget, signed the memo with Bibi Hidalgo, associate administrator for government contracting and business development at SBA; Farooq Mitha, director of the office of small business programs at the Department of Defense; and Miguel Estien, acting national director of the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency.

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