Google Cloud Extends NSF Partnership to Support Research at Minority-Serving Institutions
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Google Cloud Extends NSF Partnership to Support Research at Minority-Serving Institutions

Katie Berlent, strategy and operations lead for education at Google Cloud, said the company has extended its partnership with the National Science Foundation to offer research credits and training to principal investigators from minority-serving institutions.

Google Cloud will support NSF-funded projects through the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Minority-Serving Institutions Research Expansion Program, which awards up to $7 million in funding annually, Berlent said in a blog post published Thursday.

The company will deliver live, instructor-led courses and workshops to teach CISE-MSI program awardees about the fundamentals of cloud and the big data and machine learning capabilities of the technology.

The program is aimed at advancing research programs and fostering innovation in the sciences, engineering and technology fields at MSIs. It covers research areas such as cyber-physical systems, secure and trustworthy cyberspace and smart connected communities.

Fay Cobb Payton, program director in the NSF’s CISE directorate, said four of the 25 projects that secured funding in September intend to use Google Cloud for research in areas like artificial intelligence, deep learning, data science, cyber systems, distributed frameworks and wireless networks.

“This collaboration improves support and lowers costs for PIs, who get access to Google Cloud credits and resources like CloudBank, as well as training for researchers and students,” said Payton.

Alice Kamens, strategic projects and program manager for higher education at Google Cloud, said that allowing principal investigators to request cloud computing resources “resulted in a higher level of cloud adoption, which benefited their proposals and will now benefit their research.”

Principal investigators looking to apply for the next round of the program must submit their applications until Feb. 11, 2022.

NATO Seeks Public Input on Information Environment Assessment Capability
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NATO Seeks Public Input on Information Environment Assessment Capability

Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, has released a request for information seeking public comments on the future NATO Information Environment Assessment Program.

In a special notice published Tuesday, HQ SACT said the intergovernmental military alliance requires an information environment assessment capability that combines analysts’ experience with data management, predictive analytics and visualization into a common digital platform to support strategic communications and inform decision-making.

The capability would support NATO analysts in assessing and visualizing open-source, publicly available information and drawing conclusions and recommendations to help senior leaders and communicators make data-driven decisions.

The IEA team is seeking information on data management and data analysis tools capable of supporting the development of a non-monolithic modular componentized platform and is looking for potential sources of information.

Interested parties have until Feb. 28, 2021, to respond to the RFI.

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CMMC Accreditation Body Elects New Board Officers; Karlton Johnson, Jeff Dalton Quoted
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CMMC Accreditation Body Elects New Board Officers; Karlton Johnson, Jeff Dalton Quoted

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body has elected new officers for its 2022 board of directors.

Following the election, Jeff Dalton will serve as chairman, Paul Michaels will assume the role of vice chair and Sheryl Hanchar will serve her second term as secretary, CMMC-AB said Monday.

Outgoing Chairman Karlton Johnson noted that the CMMC-AB was responsible for establishing a new ecosystem to support cybersecurity missions for the nation’s defense industrial base, which he identified as a top national security challenge.

Johnson commented on the recent appointments, “I am extremely proud of the work that the CMMC-AB has accomplished thus far, and I know the next slate of Board officers will guide the organization to an even higher level of excellence.”

Jeff Dalton, who succeeds Johnson as chairman of the board, previously served as vice chair. Currently, Dalton serves as CEO and president of Broadsword Solutions Corporation, and he has certifications in Scaled Agile Framework, Capability Maturity Model Integration and Agile Performance Holarchy.

Dalton thanked Johnson for his leadership during a “critical time” and outlined his priorities for his term as chair, including enhanced training, recruitment and certification efforts.

He shared, “Two of my top goals are to ensure that all CMMC participants understand that the recently announced ‘CMMC 2.0’ offers continued, compelling and implementable value, as well as to provide our CEO, Matthew Travis, all the tools and support he needs to make the CMMC-AB and the entire ecosystem successful.”

Other newly elected officials include Vice Chair Paul Michaels, who previously held the role of acting government security officer and chair of the ethics and compliance committee. Michaels, CEO and founder of Monoc Securities, holds certifications from the National Association of Corporate Directors and the CERT Cyber Risk Oversight Certificate program.

In addition, Sheryl Hanchar has been elected to serve her second term as secretary. Hanchar currently serves as vice president and chief information security officer for CAES. Previously, she served over 20 years as a naval officer for the U.S. Navy Reserve.

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DOJ CTO Ron Bewtra Steps Down
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DOJ CTO Ron Bewtra Steps Down

Ron Bewtra, who has served as chief technology officer at the Department of Justice since 2015, has left the federal government after an 18-year career. according to his LinkedIn post.

“I’m excited to start this next chapter in my career and will share details soon,” he noted.

As the DOJ CTO, Bewtra provided strategic technology direction for the department’s key emerging technology projects that include data management, geospatial data, analytics and artificial intelligence.

He previously worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 2003 to 2015, which included three years as the agency’s CTO.

The earlier part of his career was spent at Raytheon Company, SGI and FNX Limited.

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Maj. Gen. Davis Nominated Air Force Inspector General
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Maj. Gen. Davis Nominated Air Force Inspector General

President Biden has nominated Maj. Gen. Stephen Davis to serve as inspector general for the Department of the Air Force.

The Department of Defense said Friday Davis, who serves as director of global power programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, is also in line to receive a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general.

In his current capacity, he oversees more than 150 domestic and international programs with a combined annual budget of approximately $22 billion. These include the Air Force’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, E-4B National Airborne Operations Center and F-35 programs.

He joined the Air Force in 1989 as an undergraduate military training student at Vandenberg AF Base in California and later took on staff assignments at the Air Force Space Command, Air and Joint Staffs, U.S. Strategic Command and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

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CISA Urges Federal Agencies to Protect Networks Against Apache Log4j Vulnerabilities; Jen Easterly Quoted
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CISA Urges Federal Agencies to Protect Networks Against Apache Log4j Vulnerabilities; Jen Easterly Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released an emergency directive asking federal civilian agencies to mitigate Apache Log4j vulnerabilities in their internet-facing networks.

CISA said Friday multiple threat actors are exploiting a series of vulnerabilities in the Java-based logging library Log4j, allowing hackers to remotely execute code on a server.

The agency issued the emergency directive based on several reasons, including the exploitation of such vulnerabilities in external network environments, prevalence of affected software in federal networks and the potential impact of a successful breach.

“The log4j vulnerabilities pose an unacceptable risk to federal network security,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. 

“CISA also strongly urges every organization large and small to follow the federal government’s lead and take similar steps to assess their network security and adapt the mitigation measures outlined in our Emergency Directive. If you are using a vulnerable product on your network, you should consider your door wide open to any number of threats,” added Easterly.

The directive requires agencies to enumerate all solution stacks accepting data input from the internet and assess all software assets in identified solution stacks against the CISA-managed GitHub repository, among other actions, by Dec. 23.

By Dec. 28, agencies should report all affected software applications and related assets and confirm with CISA that their internet-accessible IP addresses are updated.

CISA has established a webpage to provide network defenders information on Log4j mitigation measures and other resources. The platform also includes a GitHub repository of affected services and devices.

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DISA to Sunset milCloud 2.0 Contract in May
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DISA to Sunset milCloud 2.0 Contract in May

The Defense Information Systems Agency will no longer exercise the third option period in the milCloud 2.0 contract and allow the contract to sunset on May 20, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

In June 2017, DISA awarded the potential eight-year, $498 million milCloud 2.0 contract to CSRA, which was acquired by General Dynamics’ information technology business for approximately $9.7 billion in 2018.

According to the report, DISA informed the Senate and House Armed Services Committees of its decision on Dec. 14. An agency official told the publication that DISA will shut down the environment upon the expiration of the milCloud 2.0 contract.

“We will work closely with existing milCloud 2.0 users to mitigate impacts to mission and support migrations whether to commercial cloud or another environment,” the official added.

A spokesperson for GDIT said the company met all contract requirements with regard to the milCloud 2.0 program.

“GDIT will continue to support customers currently leveraging milCloud 2.0 and stands ready to partner with the Department of Defense as they continue to evolve their enterprise cloud strategy,” added the spokesperson.

The move comes as DISA advances the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability initiative.

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Lynne Parker: National AI Initiative Office Unveils AI Researchers Portal
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Lynne Parker: National AI Initiative Office Unveils AI Researchers Portal

Lynne Parker, director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, said her office has launched a new portal meant to help AI researchers explore and find data, testbeds and federal grant programs that could support their research efforts.

The AI Researchers Portal on AI.gov includes a repository of 40 federally funded testbeds related to AI research, a directory of research grant initiatives and a data resources section that offers links to federal datasets, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Big Data Program datasets, NASA’s open data clearinghouse and the National Institutes of Health-backed open data repositories, Parker said Friday.

The portal’s computing resources section offers information on various federal programs that could help facilitate access to computational infrastructure programs that could support AI research efforts. 

Some of these computing infrastructure initiatives are the National Science Foundation’s CloudBank, the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium and the NIH’s STRIDES Initiative.

Parker said her office partnered with federal agencies and departments and the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development coordination office to develop the portal.

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Air Force Appoints Cyber Exec Aaron Bishop as Information Security Chief
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Air Force Appoints Cyber Exec Aaron Bishop as Information Security Chief

The Department of the Air Force has recruited Aaron Bishop, a former cybersecurity executive at Science Applications International Corp. and Microsoft, as its new chief information security officer, FedScoop reported Thursday.

In a recent AFCEA NOVA event, Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger said Bishop will mostly focus on streamlining the military service’s authority to operate processes as part of its digitalization efforts.

The new CISO joins the department from Quantum Security Alliance, a cybersecurity research organization he founded and led as CEO.

He replaced Wanda Jones-Heath, who has transferred into a principal cybersecurity adviser role within the department.

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Air Force Conducts Final Flight Test of Rapid Dragon Palletized Weapon System
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Air Force Conducts Final Flight Test of Rapid Dragon Palletized Weapon System

The U.S. Air Force has concluded flight testing of a palletized weapon system designed to drop from cargo aircraft then strike targets.

The Rapid Dragon Palletized Weapon System demonstrated an airdrop with a live warhead on Thursday at Eglin Overwater Test Range, Eglin Air Force Base said the same day. The final flight test made use of standard airdrop procedures and is the culmination of a two-year timeline.

An MC-130J aircraft from Air Force Special Operations Command airdropped a four-cell Rapid Dragon flight test vehicle and three mass simulants. The FTV spread its wings to gain aerodynamic control, activated its engine and approached then struck a target.

The Rapid Dragon team now plans to test-fire a cruise missile from a C-17 transport aircraft this coming spring.

“Rapid Dragon is a prime example of a government/industry partnership that embraces this acceleration mindset, building a community of subject matter experts and executing an aggressive, but well-thought-out, experimentation campaign,” said Dean Evans, Rapid Dragon’s program manager at the Air Force’s Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office.

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