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DHS, NATO Conclude Testing of NICS First Responder Comms Platform
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DHS, NATO Conclude Testing of NICS First Responder Comms Platform

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and NATO conducted the final exercise under a partnership to test a modern first responder communications platform. 

The DHS-NATO Advanced Regional Civil Emergency Coordination Project commenced in 2016 to demonstrate and further develop the Next-Generation Incident Command System.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory used S&T funds to develop NICS, which has helped first responders share information via mobile devices over the past four years. NICS has supported first responders in the Western Balkans throughout this period.

North Macedonian authorities, the Balkan Medical Task Force and various international partners also took part in the recent exercise, whose schedule was moved from 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Beacon NGO, a Delaware-based organization, will internationally distribute NICS as an open-source code to first responders.

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Ivanti Promotes Jeff Abbott to CEO, Appoints Three New Board Members
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Ivanti Promotes Jeff Abbott to CEO, Appoints Three New Board Members

Ivanti, an automation and IT services provider, has named 25-year software and services veteran Jeff Abbott as its new CEO. Abbott, who formerly served as president of Ivanti, will succeed Jim Schaper, the company said Monday. 

“Jeff is a natural leader and has been instrumental in helping Ivanti achieve the success we have realized in the last two years, and I’m excited to watch Ivanti continue to grow at an accelerated rate under his leadership,” said Schaper.

Schaper and Abbott both joined Ivanti from Infor in January 2020 and worked together to implement a strategic acquisition and growth strategy, which contributed to Ivanti’s doubled revenue growth to over $1 billion over the last 18 months.

In his previous role as president of the company, Abbott oversaw product development, product management, global sales, customer experience, marketing and operations. 

Additionally, he played a key role in Ivanti’s recent acquisitions of RiskSense, MobileIron, Cherwell and Plus Secure, and he led the company’s adoption of Zero Trust architecture to bolster security. 

In addition to his new role, Abbott will join Ivanti’s board alongside newly appointed members Chris Heim and Dan Mayleben, who also serve as HelpSystems’ executive chairman and board member, respectively.

Heim and Mayleben have a long history of collaboration and have notably worked together to develop and execute a software consolidation strategy that has tripled the size of HelpSystems. Their appointment to Ivanti’s board is expected to help the company scale as the need for cybersecurity continues to increase.

“Now more than ever, user expectations are high and there is a very real threat of cyber-attacks, all driving an even stronger need for our solutions,” Abbott explained.

The newly appointed CEO added that Ivanti looks forward to leveraging the “deep expertise and strategic insights” Heim and Mayleben bring to the board as Abbott works to lead the company in its next phase of growth. 

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Maxar Awarded Second Option Year for NGA G-EGD Contract; Dan Jablonsky Quoted
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Maxar Awarded Second Option Year for NGA G-EGD Contract; Dan Jablonsky Quoted

The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has awarded Maxar Technologies with an Option Year 2 contract renewal for the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (G-EGD) program.

The extension initiates the second of three option years under the contract, which has a potential total value of $176 million, the company said Monday. The initial $44 million contract began September 1, 2021.

“The G-EGD platform provides U.S. and allied users with access to geospatial intelligence from a variety of industry providers at locations around the globe,” said Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky.

“This ‘one-stop shop’ for commercial imagery access across federal agencies and military branches is an essential element for many national security and humanitarian missions,” he continued, noting that Maxar is proud to continue supporting the nation’s warfighters and analysts in these critical missions.

Throughout the newly activated option year, Maxar will continue its work providing over 400,000 federal employees with access to high-resolution commercial imagery from Maxar’s 125-petabyte imagery library, as well as geospatial data from other providers.

This renewal continues Maxar’s previous work for NGA, including most recently a $60 million contract to help the agency operate a classified national security platform for analyzing large amounts of data.

On November 9th, Executive Biz is hosting a Dual-Use Technology in Space Defense Forum featuring speakers from NGA and Maxar who will discuss the evolving challenges surrounding dual-use technologies in Space Defense.

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DOE Seeks to Help Energy Sector Protect Operational Tech With New Cybersecurity Methodology
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DOE Seeks to Help Energy Sector Protect Operational Tech With New Cybersecurity Methodology

The Department of Energy has published a document meant to help oil, natural gas and electric utility companies protect operational technology networks against cyber threats.

DOE said Friday it worked with the Idaho National Laboratory and sought input from the energy industry to create the “CyOTE: Cybersecurity for the OT Environment” methodology, which supports the Biden administration's critical infrastructure protection initiatives.

The CyOTE framework offers a system for linking anomalous and cyber activities to identify threat indicators.

The DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response plans to compile case studies involving cyberattacks in the past to support the development of cybersecurity strategies in the sector.

Navy Submarine Acquisition Program Offices Undergo Reorganization
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Navy Submarine Acquisition Program Offices Undergo Reorganization

The U.S. Navy has reorganized two program executive offices responsible for the acquisition of nuclear-powered ballistic missile and fast attack submarines.

PEO Columbia has been renamed as PEO Strategic Submarines, led by Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, and will oversee the branch's transition from the legacy Ohio fleet to the Columbia class, the military branch said Friday.

PEO Submarines is now called PEO Attack Submarines and consolidates all Virginia-class platform development, procurement and sustainment efforts under the leadership of Rear Adm. David Goggins.

Rear Adm. Edward Anderson will lead a new office tasked with ensuring the delivery of warfare systems to the branch's undersea vessels. 

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DCSA Takes Operational Control of Credibility Assessment Service Center
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DCSA Takes Operational Control of Credibility Assessment Service Center

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has assumed responsibility for the operations of the U.S. government's research, development and education hub for polygraph tests or other methods to ascertain truthfulness.

DCSA said Friday it took over the running of the National Center for Credibility Assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Center personnel review polygraph programs' compliance with policies, standards and practices set forth by the federal government, develop technologies and methodologies to support such programs and advise intelligence community leaders on polygraph-related issues.

The NCCA management transition effort came two years after DCSA took oversight of the Defense Security Service, the National Background Investigations Bureau and Department of Defense Consolidated Adjudications Facility.

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Senate Bill Seeks to Enhance Oversight of Foreign Cryptocurrency Mining Operations
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Senate Bill Seeks to Enhance Oversight of Foreign Cryptocurrency Mining Operations

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, have proposed a bill that would direct the Department of the Treasury to submit to Congress a report on virtual currencies and their global use as part of efforts to improve oversight of mining of cryptocurrencies overseas.

“In order to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, our government must get a better handle on the role that cryptocurrency is playing in the global economy and how it is being leveraged by other countries,” Hassan, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a Sept. 27th statement.

The congressional report should assess how foreign countries use and mine virtual currencies; identify the dollar value and types of virtual currency mined for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2022 within the U.S. and abroad; and determine vulnerabilities, including those associated with supply chain disruptions involving semiconductors and other critical technologies.

In September, the Treasury announced the first sanctions designation against a virtual currency exchange for its role in facilitating transactions for threat actors involved in ransomware attacks.

Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations

ExecutiveBiz, sister site of GovConDaily and part of the Executive Mosaic digital media umbrella, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” event.

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GAO: DOD Should Document Progress in Implementing Commission’s Recommendations to Improve Contingency Contracting
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GAO: DOD Should Document Progress in Implementing Commission’s Recommendations to Improve Contingency Contracting

The Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Defense has initiated steps to implement 16 of the 30 recommendations made by the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2011 but still needs to document progress in implementing those recommendations.

“By fully documenting the progress of the department's efforts to implement the recommendations, DOD could help achieve the Commission's vision for improving the oversight and management of contingency contracting operations,” GAO said in a report published Friday.

The commission was created in accordance with law to offer recommendations to improve contingency contracting.

The congressional watchdog recommended that DOD improve data on exercises, operations and other activities related to contingency operations in the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker-Enterprise Suite (SPOT-ES). 

SPOT-ES is an information system that DOD uses to track and report data about contracts and contractor staff supporting contingency operations.

GAO said the Pentagon should designate an office that would provide oversight for tracking and reporting which activities listed in SPOT-ES are associated with “applicable contingency operations” and initiate actions to improve data accuracy and completeness.

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Paul Brubaker on VA’s Efforts to Accelerate IT Modernization
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Paul Brubaker on VA’s Efforts to Accelerate IT Modernization

The Department of Veterans Affairs is working to extend the sense of urgency it adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to accelerate information technology modernization efforts and Paul Brubaker, deputy chief information officer for the account management office at VA, said that mindset involves keeping ahead of demand, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“Our motto was, basically, ‘let’s stay ahead of demand no matter what the demand was.’ If it was the telehealth visit issue, we want to make sure that we had, no matter what the circumstances were, sufficient bandwidth to support this rapidly growing demand on the infrastructure,” said Brubaker. “The cloud helped. The infrastructure upgrades helped.”

He discussed how VA’s office of information and technology adopted that mindset to equip a Baylor University hospital with network connections and other tech platforms within weeks. 

“We were able to accelerate the plans that we had for digital transformation by at least two years by living through this pandemic. … And it wasn’t just about accomplishing the mission, but it was really about measurably improving our mission and operational performance as a result of this pandemic,” he noted.

Brubaker also talked about the importance of linking IT investments to outcomes and VA’s adoption of a portfolio management approach.

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CAES Acquires Colorado Engineering, Enhances RF & HPC Offerings; CEO Mike Kahn Quoted
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CAES Acquires Colorado Engineering, Enhances RF & HPC Offerings; CEO Mike Kahn Quoted

CAES, an advanced military and aerospace electronics provider, has acquired Colorado Engineering, Inc., a leading Radio Frequency (RF) and high-performance computing (HPC) services company.

The company announced Friday that it will leverage CEI’s RF, digital and analog hardware and software capabilities to deliver enhanced electronics offerings in the aerospace and defense industries.

“The combination of CAES’ RF and integrated microwave assembly and deep manufacturing expertise, with CEI’s advanced technology and digital systems engineering prowess allows us to deliver agile and differentiated solutions to our customers,” said two-time Wash100 Award winner Mike Kahn, president and CEO of CAES.

Additionally, CEI’s chief executive officer Nancy Scally said the two companies’ shared passion and expertise in innovative engineering will position the partnership to provide increased benefits to their combined customer base.

CEI’s additional capabilities include digital processing, radar, communications, cognitive electronic warfare and artificial intelligence/machine learning for next-generation platforms. CAES will utilize these technologies to continue driving innovation in complex defense and commercial systems.

Recently, CAES won multiple contracts to supply and integrate RF and microwave products in support of U.S. advanced missile defense programs.

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