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Terri Malone Joins Serco as Chief Growth Officer; Chairman Dave Dacquino Quoted
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Terri Malone Joins Serco as Chief Growth Officer; Chairman Dave Dacquino Quoted

Serco announced on Monday that Terri Malone, former Northrop Grumman executive, has joined the company as its chief growth officer and senior vice president to oversee the corporate strategy to drive business growth. In the role, Malone will report to Chairman, CEO and a two-time Wash100 Award winner Dave Dacquino.

“Terri Malone has a tremendous record for driving growth.  She brings to Serco proven successes in entering new markets and winning new business,” said Dave Dacquino.  “We are excited to have Terri join Serco’s team and contribute to our innovative, collaborative, diverse, and inclusive culture.”

Malone is bringing more than 20 years of knowledge and experience to Serco and she will be responsible for maintaining a pipeline of business and growth opportunities for the company as well as critical initiatives for strategic planning activities, business development operations, capture and proposals management as well as market intelligence, mergers and acquisitions efforts.

Across her long career in the federal landscape, she has been responsible for the growth and overall business performance across portfolios valued at more than $500 million. Specifically, in her vice president and business development positions, Malone also has exceeded over three billion dollars in her book-to-bill goals year-over-year. 

Previously, Terri Malone held a wide range of roles with Northrop Grumman during her 17-year tenure with the corporation. That includes 14 years in a variety of leadership roles for Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems business as well as a tenure with its Mission Solutions division between 2016 and 2020. 

Most recently, Terri Malone was the vice president of Mission Readiness and Protective Systems business unit for her last two years at Northrop Grumman. Prior to the corporation, she also held engineering roles in commercial consulting and federal contracting.

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HHS Solicits Comments on Certain HITECH Act Provisions
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HHS Solicits Comments on Certain HITECH Act Provisions

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking public feedback on certain provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

HHS is soliciting comments on recognized security practices being implemented or plan to implement by regulated entities, according to a request for information published on April 6.

The RFI also seeks public insights on issues relating to the distribution of a percentage of civil money penalties or monetary settlements collected pursuant to the HITECH Act.

The department also wants information on standards, best practices, guidelines and processes developed under a section of the NIST Act do regulated entities rely on when implementing recognized security practices as well as other programs that address cybersecurity.

Comments are due June 6th.

HHS Solicits Comments on Certain HITECH Act Provisions

Health IT will be the focal point of discussion at a June 2 event to be hosted by GovCon Wire, sister publication of GovConDaily. Vidyut Desai, chief information officer of the Food and Drug Administration, will deliver his keynote address at the “Healthcare IT — Digital Transformation” forum.

Register here.

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DOD Gets Over 300 Responses to RFI on Weapons Systems for Ukraine Military Aid; William LaPlante Quoted
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DOD Gets Over 300 Responses to RFI on Weapons Systems for Ukraine Military Aid; William LaPlante Quoted

The Department of Defense received over 300 responses to its request for information issued in April on weapons systems and other commercial capabilities as part of efforts to meet Ukraine’s requests for security assistance amid Russian invasion, Defense News reported Friday.

William LaPlante, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at DOD, said the influx of responses will help meet strategic objectives, accelerate production lines and mitigate supply chain challenges.

“We did put out a request for information about two weeks ago, in different categories of timeframes 30 days, 60 days, 90 days to industry, and what they could provide. We’ve received and are looking at well over 300 proposals, and we’re going through those right now in this book,” LaPlante, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said Friday during a press briefing.

Of the $300 million in funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, LaPlante said the Pentagon has obligated $181.8 million, including a $17.8 million contract that DOD planned to award to AeroVironment for its Switchblade unmanned aircraft system.

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VA Unveils New Website for Contractors; Michael Parrish Quoted
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VA Unveils New Website for Contractors; Michael Parrish Quoted

The Department of Veterans Affairs is launching Pathfinder, a new website designed for vendors seeking to work with VA, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Michael Parrish, chief acquisition officer and principal executive director at VA, said the Pathfinder site will help contractors easily find department-specific solicitations and get certified through the System for Award Management website, or SAM.gov.

“For those that are interested in trying to help break that that black hole mold of trying to figure out how to do business, we’re rolling out — and it’s ready to use now, there’s still some processes that we have to go through on the [operational technology] side for compliance — but there’s a new website, it’s a single entry point into VA, both for innovation and selling,” Parrish said at an event Thursday.

He said there are upcoming updates to the website, including a feature for future forecasting and a function that would allow vendors to submit questions and receive responses within a week from a VA employee.

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State Department, Treasury Partner With Nonprofit for Anti-Corruption Tech Program
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State Department, Treasury Partner With Nonprofit for Anti-Corruption Tech Program

A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization has teamed up with the departments of State and Treasury to host a virtual competition that will explore technology innovations that can help authorities stop corruption across the globe.

The Alliance for Innovative Regulation seeks to help the two federal governments facilitate the Anti-Corruption Solutions through Emerging Technologies sprint for agencies, companies and civil society organizations, the State Department said Thursday.

Specifically, the ASET program will focus on developing financial technology prototypes for potential implementation on a global scale.

AIR will collaborate with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes on the tech sprint in support of the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption.

Jo Ann Barefoot, former deputy comptroller of the currency, co-founded the alliance with fintech entrepreneur David Ehrich in 2019 with the intent to connect industry leaders and regulatory agencies in efforts to modernize the country’s financial regulatory system.

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Joint NIST-NSF Grant Program to Support 20 Disaster Resilience Research Projects
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Joint NIST-NSF Grant Program to Support 20 Disaster Resilience Research Projects

Twenty university-led research projects won grants from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation to develop tools or methods to make structures and communities resilient to natural hazards.

A review panel chose the Disaster Resilience Research Grant awardees from 260 assessed applications to receive $7.6 million in total grants, NIST said Wednesday.

NIST will provide funds to eight projects and NSF will back the remaining efforts, with a total of 24 academic institutions tasked with carrying out research work.

Efforts covered by the DDRG initiative include the development of a wildfire evacuation computer model, a coastal hurricane wind simulation database and an artificial-intelligence earthquake resilience assessment technology.

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Raytheon BBN Wins DARPA Contract to Conceive and Realize AI-Powered Medical Device; Brian VanVoorst Quoted
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Raytheon BBN Wins DARPA Contract to Conceive and Realize AI-Powered Medical Device; Brian VanVoorst Quoted

A Raytheon Technologies subsidiary has been awarded a DARPA contract to design and construct an artificial intelligence-powered medical device for field use.

Scheduled to be ready for demonstration in 18 months, the Medical Assistance, Guidance, Instruction and Correction (MAGIC) tool is intended to aid combat field medics with 50 consequential skills and the key knowledge frequently needed for procedures, Raytheon BBN said Thursday.

Brian VanVoorst, a scientist at Raytheon BBN, said the tool could bolster order and efficiency for “challenging and chaotic” medical combat duties.

“Our goal for the Raytheon BBN MAGIC AI tool is to help support personnel to provide guidance as needed without disrupting their concentration,” VanVoorst continued.

Raytheon BBN will conceptualize and produce the tool in partnership with Valkyries Austere Medical Solutions. It will take the form of augmented reality goggles — via a consumer off-the-shelf product from DARPA — that utilize AI in order to analyze the medical situation at hand with visual and auditory sensors.

The headset will track alongside a medic’s physical progress and provide suggestions, notifications and helpful interventions that may prove life-saving. In order to properly equip MAGIC and mitigate any errors, the AI aspect will be trained via the introduction of data sets of over 2,500 videos with 3D data and almost 50 million images that will help sync the technology to understand the proper sequencing of procedures.

This training data will subsequently be made available to the research community.

In effect, MAGIC is aimed to empower field medics with more resources, focus and readily available information.

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GovCon Expert Dana Barnes: Visibility, Managing Devices Are Key Challenges for Federal Agencies
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GovCon Expert Dana Barnes: Visibility, Managing Devices Are Key Challenges for Federal Agencies

Dana Barnes, senior vice president of Palo Alto Networks’ Public Sector and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, recently spoke with Cyberscoop to discuss how visibility, access points and managing devices for the workforce are the most significant challenges for federal agencies. 

GovCon Expert Dana Barnes explained the most necessary changes the federal government needs to make to address these challenges, which includes a shift in the way people are working both from home and in the office following the pandemic. As a result, devices have become much harder to manage and the access points have particularly become more difficult to manage. 

As Dana Barnes was asked about how well equipped federal agencies are today compared to past years, the two-time Wash100 winner noted that the government has made significant strides to improve cybersecurity for years.

“I think it varies by agency, but the government has generally made significant strides to improve cybersecurity year after year after year,” GovCon Expert Dana Banes explained. 

“With the funding that has come through and the recent infrastructure bills that have been passed, you’re gonna see that improvement continue. However, some government agencies do have deeper pockets and are able to adapt more quickly to these changes. However, everyone is moving in the right direction and they’re better off today than they were before.”

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Barry Duplantis to Lead Government Solutions at Mattermost; Paul Smith Appointed Board Advisor
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Barry Duplantis to Lead Government Solutions at Mattermost; Paul Smith Appointed Board Advisor

Two executives, Barry Duplantis and Paul Smith, have gained new roles at the open source communication platform provider Mattermost.

Duplantis will ascend from his current position as vice president of customer success and support to head up the government solutions division and Smith will reside on Mattermost’s public sector board of advisors, the Palo Alto, California-based company said Friday.

As Mattermost Government Solutions leader, Duplantis will be tasked with tailoring the company’s platform and services to the objectives and requirements of various federal government agencies.

The latter executive has been with Mattermost for nearly a year and a half. Before coming aboard, he oversaw customer response and support initiatives at Red Hat and Hortonworks and spearheaded support and services at organizations like HackerOne, Hewlett Packard and OpsWare.

In addition to customer support, Duplantis specializes in crisis management and logistics. He was a special forces officer in the U.S. Army, so he brings a familiarity with military and defense needs to his new job liaising with DoD officials.

“As global tensions continue to rise, the Department of Defense increasingly needs a mission-focused secure collaboration platform for coordination with mission partners,” Duplantis shared.

Smith is expected to leverage an over three-decade career partnering with federal government entities on behalf of technology companies. For 17 years he worked at Red Hat as senior vice president and general manager of public sector business, wherein he was a seasoned marketer of the company’s own open source communication platform.

In his new advisory role, Smith said he looks forward to “identifying new use cases for its technology” and “work[ing] closely alongside Barry and the rest of the Mattermost team to expand their presence within the public sector.”

First up on Duplantis’ docket is a recently announced Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract to assist the Air Force with creating a mission-specific collaboration platform.

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Cybercrime Reporting Bill Gets Biden’s Signature
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Cybercrime Reporting Bill Gets Biden’s Signature

President Joe Biden signed into law Thursday a bipartisan bill to establish a data collection system for federal law enforcement agencies to measure and track cybercrime.

The Better Cybercrime Metrics Act requires the Department of Justice to enlist the National Academy of Sciences for a taxonomy development project and to integrate data on cases into the National Incident Based Reporting System, the office of Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said Thursday.

Spanberger introduced the bill in the House of Representatives in August last year. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, led companion legislation that passed in the Senate in December.

“One year ago this week, we saw the damaging effects of the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline,” said the representative from Virginia.

“And as cybercriminals increasingly adapt their methods of attack against vulnerable people and networks, the United States must improve our cybercrime classification system. Otherwise, we are risking the safety and privacy of American families, homes, businesses, and government agencies.”

A Jan. 27 Congressional Budget Office report estimated that the implementation of law provisions requiring DOJ to make a contract with the NAS nonprofit organization to build the classification system and update the National Crime Victimization Survey would cost the department $3 million.

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