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DLA Migrates Enterprise Resource Planning System to Cloud
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DLA Migrates Enterprise Resource Planning System to Cloud

The Defense Logistics Agency’s enterprise resource planning system underwent cloud migration in February, as part of a larger digital transformation strategy. 

DLA said Tuesday it expects the migration to provide cost advantages and enable new management capabilities as technology progresses.

“The original projected timeline was a 24-month effort, but the team was able to complete the migration in 16 months–eight months ahead of the original projected timeline,” said Stacey Evans, DLA’s ERP program manager.

She added that the migration allows DLA to harness module-based technology that employs blockchain, artificial intelligence and other emerging capabilities.

The ERP system manages almost 5.1 million line items for 25,000 military and civilian users. The system also supports more than 2,300 weapon systems, and on a daily basis, processes over 100,000 orders and 8,000 procurement actions.

The agency now begins the final phase of ERP migration, which involves adopting standard capability.

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Biden to Nominate MIT Professor Evelyn Wang for ARPA-E Director
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Biden to Nominate MIT Professor Evelyn Wang for ARPA-E Director

Preside Biden has announced plans to nominate Evelyn Wang, the head of the mechanical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to be the director of the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy at the Department of Energy.

Wang previously served as director of Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, one of DOE’s energy frontier research centers, and a member of the Defense Science Study Group advocating for increased participation of academia in national defense, the White House said Tuesday.

In a separate statement, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wang’s expertise and experience in the energy sector will solidify DOE’s effort to address climate change.

“Throughout Evelyn’s outstanding career, she has overseen groundbreaking research in heat-transfer technology that has advanced clean energy and clean water solutions,” Granholm said.

Wang has applied phase-change heat transfer to thermal management of electronics and devices for solar thermal energy conversion, water harvesting and desalination.

Mitre Expands Collaboration With Startup Ecosystem in Texas
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Mitre Expands Collaboration With Startup Ecosystem in Texas

Mitre has collaborated with Austin-based accelerator and early-stage investor Capital Factory to boost its engagement with the broader startup industry in Texas.

The company said Tuesday its newly opened regional innovation center in Austin will expand an ongoing partnership with Capital Factory through the latter’s Innovation Council to help local small businesses and startup companies connect with the federal marketplace.

“We look forward to continuing to mentor and help startups recognize the current and future innovation needs of the U.S. government and the robust opportunity the federal marketplace presents,” said Julie Gravallese, vice president for workplace innovation at Mitre.

Prior to the partnership, Mitre’s Bridging Innovation team have partnered with Capital Factory on a series of initiatives focusing on the defense innovation sector, including the virtual Fed Supernova Conference.

Mitre launched an iHub center in Austin iHub in 2021 to expand collaboration with universities, small businesses and the local community while continuing to boost work for the U.S. government.

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FBI: RagnarLocker Ransomware Affects 10 Critical Infrastructure Sectors
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FBI: RagnarLocker Ransomware Affects 10 Critical Infrastructure Sectors

The FBI has reported that the RagnarLocker ransomware has affected 52 entities across 10 critical infrastructure sectors, including financial services, energy and information technology, as of January.

RagnarLocker, which the FBI came upon in April 2020, deploys with changing obfuscation techniques to stay unnoticed, the agency said in a FLASH report published on Monday.

Associated cyber actors use the “.RGNR_<ID>” extension for RagnarLocker and provide a .txt file containing the instructions to decrypt data locked by the ransomware.

RagnarLocker targets attached hard drives using CreateFileW, DeviceIoControl, GetLogicalDrives and SetVolumeMountPointA application programming interfaces on Windows.

The ransomware terminates services that managed service providers use to remotely handle networks, then locks files via encryption. The malware also prevents file recovery by deleting volume shadow copies.

FBI recommends organizations implement a number of mitigation practices, such as securing back-ups, patching computers and using multi-factor authentication.

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Guidehouse Elevates Lisa Frantzis to Lead Renewables, Hydrogen and eMobility Business; Jan Vrins Quoted
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Guidehouse Elevates Lisa Frantzis to Lead Renewables, Hydrogen and eMobility Business; Jan Vrins Quoted

Energy consultant Lisa Frantzis is evolving her position at Guidehouse to take on leadership of the company’s business for renewables, hydrogen and eMobility services.

In her new role at Guidehouse’s Energy, Sustainability and Infrastructure arm, Frantzis will leverage her over four decades of experience tackling decarbonization pathways, new technologies, regulatory shifts and market strategies, the company said Wednesday.

Jan Vrins, head of the ES&I segment at Guidehouse, said that Frantzis brings to the table, “vast experience in clean energy policy, technology development, and implementation.” 

“[Frantzis] further enhances Guidehouse’s capabilities and experience helping our clients navigate the energy transition,” Vrins continued.

Frantzis has contributed in some capacity at Guidehouse for the last 20 years. Her career includes work assisting companies select renewable and clean energy integration options and partnering with international governments to identify energy programs. In addition, she has collaborated with energy manufacturers to help develop business plans.

Her most recent full-time role was as senior managing director of Advanced Energy Economy, where she presided over the utility business model and was tasked with growing market outreach for reformed energy sources like renewables, electric vehicles, fuel cells and more.

In December 2021, Frantzis was appointed to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee. She has also been an ambassador for the Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Initiative for seven years and board member of the Northeast Clean Energy Council for 11 years.

Frantzis observed that the energy market is moving toward a cross-pollinating relationship between government, utilities and commercial entities.

“Innovation is transforming the sector quickly and Guidehouse is at the forefront of helping clients navigate the opportunities and challenges that come along with these changes,” Frantzis shared, adding she is excited to be a part of the team.

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GSA to Soon Push Through With Initial Polaris Solicitations
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GSA to Soon Push Through With Initial Polaris Solicitations

The General Services Administration plans to soon launch the Polaris information technology contract vehicle‘s initial solicitations, which were originally planned for release in February, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson told Fedscoop that GSA is working with other agencies to launch Polaris’ first two solicitations and that interested parties should monitor SAM.gov and GSA Interact for updates.

GSA issued pre-solicitation notices for small business and women-owned small business pools in late January, but did not meet the supposed February launch schedule due to unknown reasons.

Polaris is a governmentwide acquisition contract that will succeed the $15 billion Alliant 2 vehicle for services in quantum computing, cloud, cyber, artificial intelligence and other emerging IT areas.

The agency will also issue pre-solicitation notices of Polaris pools for historically underutilized business zones and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in the future.

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Heidi Shyu: FY 2024 Rapid Experimentation’s 2nd Sprint to Address Contested Logistics
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Heidi Shyu: FY 2024 Rapid Experimentation’s 2nd Sprint to Address Contested Logistics

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said DOD will kick off planning for the second sprint of the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve that is set to take place in fiscal year 2024 and wants the sprint to address contested logistics, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“Looking at the logistics problems the Russians are having. It’s a contested logistics environment. It’s not even that contested — it could be a lot more contested, a lot more difficult. So we truly want to focus on that area,” Shyu said at a conference in Hawaii.

RDER will also focus on long-range fires and all domain command and control and Shyu said she plans to work with nontraditional vendors for the second round of the joint experimentation initiative that seeks to address capability gaps and advance adoption of emerging technologies.

“So if you’re a small company and have a great idea, we’re interested in hearing your ideas. We are initiating that process pretty quickly. Probably in the next few weeks we’re starting our second sprint,” Shyu said during her keynote.

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FedRAMP: CISA Directive Covers Cloud Providers Maintaining Federal Data
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FedRAMP: CISA Directive Covers Cloud Providers Maintaining Federal Data

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has announced that cloud service providers that maintain federal information are covered by a binding operational directive issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

BOD 22-01 seeks to reduce the risk of known exploited vulnerabilities and sets requirements for agencies to address such vulnerabilities included in a CISA-managed catalog, FedRAMP said Tuesday.

FedRAMP said it has updated the template for plan of action and milestones to facilitate tracking of cyber vulnerabilities against the catalog.

Cloud providers can track those vulnerabilities in the new template or add a new column to their POA&M. They should also register for automatic alerts to stay informed of recently added vulnerabilities.

“CSPs should only include applicable vulnerabilities in their POA&M. They do not have to include a status for every known vulnerability on the CISA-managed catalog,” the notice reads.

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ODNI Unveils 2022 Annual Threat Assessment Report
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ODNI Unveils 2022 Annual Threat Assessment Report

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released an annual report providing an assessment of worldwide threats to U.S. national security.

The 2022 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community was released in accordance with Section 617 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021, ODNI said Tuesday.

The report details the national security challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to the U.S. across various areas, including military capabilities, economy, cyber and space domain.

The document explains how China works to modify global norms and threaten its neighbors and discusses Russia’s willingness to use military force to “impose its will on neighbors” as seen in Ukraine and other countries.

Other issues covered in the report are health security concerns including infectious diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and environmental degradation, transnational organized crime, violent extremism, illicit drugs and surges in migration.

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Battelle Releases Survey Results to Address Climate Resilience; CEO Lou Von Thaer Quoted
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Battelle Releases Survey Results to Address Climate Resilience; CEO Lou Von Thaer Quoted

Battelle has announced its plans to host a conference, Innovations in Climate Resilience, that will gather thought leaders to discuss tactics to aid environmental sustainability.

The conference is scheduled for March 29 and 30 and will take place in Columbus, Ohio. It is intended as a convergence of public and commercial sector figures dialoguing about potential technological and policy options for decreasing environmental and societal impacts, the company said Tuesday.

“As an independent, not-for-profit applied science and technology development company, Battelle is uniquely positioned to bring government leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and innovators together to problem-solve and pioneer real-life solutions that make a tangible impact,” said Lou Von Thaer, Battelle president and CEO and a seven-time Wash100 Award winner.

Battelle also recently issued a survey to nearly 500 academics and over 100 public sector officials that revealed findings about energy, roadblocks in knowledge and routes for government action.

71 percent of participants reported that they believed the employment of renewable energy sources was crucial for climate resiliency. And 53 percent of academics and 52 percent of government figures said they thought a move toward electrification and fossil fuel alternatives was “vital” to improving climate health.

Respondents also overwhelmingly said they felt that a lack of widespread education about climate change was proving detrimental to progress being made on the subject. Members of the academic and policy-making communities additionally cited the need for enforcing caps and limits on carbon emitters.

The March conference will include keynote presentations, platform speeches and poster explications from figures such as National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security Sherri Goodman, Deputy Assistant Secretary Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy Alice Caponiti and more.

These speakers will touch on decarbonization, water purification, how to plan and anticipate occurrences of extreme weather and technological strategies to power a circular economy, among other subjects.

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