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Biden Administration Seeks 4.6 Percent Pay Raise for Federal Employees; Shalanda Young Quoted
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Biden Administration Seeks 4.6 Percent Pay Raise for Federal Employees; Shalanda Young Quoted

The Biden administration plans to include a 4.6 percent raise for federal employees in the budget request for fiscal year 2023, Federal News Network reported Friday.

The Office of Management and Budget has told agencies to prepare for the potential pay raise in the recent passback budget guidance. The report noted that the potential pay raise would be the largest one in 15 years.

Shalanda Young, who is nominated for the role of OMB’s director, told the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday that Congress will receive the budget request after the State of the Union Address.

President Biden is scheduled to deliver this year’s State of the Union Address on March 1st.

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New USS Savannah Littoral Combat Ship Enters Active Navy Service
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New USS Savannah Littoral Combat Ship Enters Active Navy Service

The U.S. Navy has placed its 14th and newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship into active service during a commissioning ceremony in Brunswick, Georgia.

The Austal USA-built USS Savannah joins the Navy fleet of agile surface vessels operating in near-shore environments and the open ocean for forward presence, maritime security, sea control, deterrence and other missions, the service branch said Saturday.

“The ship and her crew will carry on the legacy of the five other ships that had the honor to bear the name Savannah since 1798,” shared Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, during the ceremony.

Following the commissioning, LCS 28 is expected to head for its homeport in San Diego, California.

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Steven McAndrews Named NNSA Deputy CIO
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Steven McAndrews Named NNSA Deputy CIO

Steven McAndrews, formerly director of federal cybersecurity at the Office of Management and Budget, has joined the National Nuclear Security Administration as deputy chief information officer, MeriTalk reported Friday.

According to his LinkedIn post, McAndrews kicked off his new job at the Department of Energy’s NNSA on Feb. 1. He will work with NNSA CIO James Wolff, formerly IT policy director at OMB. McAndrews joined OMB in 2020 as a senior policy adviser.

He previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security as an information technology security specialist. He also served as a vulnerability management lead and IT security specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau.

He spent a decade at the U.S. Army Reserve, where he served as a cybersecurity noncommissioned officer and military intelligence systems maintainer and integrator.

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DOD, Service CIOs Commit to Delivering Secure Computing Capabilities to Soldiers, Employees
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DOD, Service CIOs Commit to Delivering Secure Computing Capabilities to Soldiers, Employees

John Sherman, chief information officer of the Department of Defense, and military department CIOs have highlighted the need to address problems facing DOD’s computers as part of efforts to improve user experience, enable analytical capabilities and strengthen the department’s cybersecurity.

Some of the actions taken across the enterprise are enabling telework capabilities using government equipment, reducing network latency through the implementation of commercial best practices and elimination of redundant cyber scans and providing DOD users with higher performing laptops, according to a note from the CIOs posted on the LinkedIn account of the DOD CIO’s office.

“We’re partnered across the enterprise to ensure that every DoD service member, civilian, and contractor has useable, secure computing capabilities,” the post reads.

Sherman co-wrote the post with Kelly Fletcher, principal director to the deputy CIO for resources and analysis; Air Force CIO Lauren Knausenberger; Army CIO Raj Iyer; and Aaron Weis, CIO of the Department of the Navy.

Sherman, Knausenberger, Iyer and Weis are 2022 Wash100 Award winners.

POC - 3rd Annual CIO Summit

Sherman will keynote the Potomac Officers Club’s 3rd Annual CIO Summit, scheduled for April 26. Visit the Potomac Officers Club site to learn more about this event and view POC’s full calendar.

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House OKs America COMPETES Act
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House OKs America COMPETES Act

The House on Friday voted 222-210 to pass a bill that seeks to advance scientific research and strengthen the country’s supply chains to help the U.S. become more competitive with countries like China, The Hill reported.

The America COMPETES Act includes provisions meant to address the global shortage of semiconductors and pressures facing the U.S. supply chain.

The legislation includes $52 billion in incentives to support domestic chip production and $45 billion in loans and grants through the Department of Commerce to help strengthen domestic supply chains by supporting manufacturing facilities.

The bill would further raise funding for science research at the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation and would make investments to encourage more individuals to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

The Senate approved its version of the bill in June 2021. With the legislation’s passage in the House, both chambers of Congress will now have to reconcile and reach a deal on the measure.

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SpyCloud Unveils New Fraud Detection Software That Culls Data from Past Breaches
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SpyCloud Unveils New Fraud Detection Software That Culls Data from Past Breaches

Fraud prevention company SpyCloud has debuted a new product that aims to use API data and a number of inputs to determine a risk score for users worried about their information being exposed to bad actors.

The program is called SpyCloud Identity Risk Engine and is fueled by recaptured data the SpyCloud team has compiled from breaches, malware infections and other crime scene sources, the company announced on Tuesday, January 18.

Pattie Dillon, product manager of anti-fraud solutions at SpyCloud, said the company’s work on the product was motivated by what they saw as holes in other fraud detection softwares’ insights.

These oversights then “enable criminals to evade detection and perpetrate account takeovers, identity theft and new account fraud, or construct synthetic identities,” said Dillon.

Other softwares on the market try to identify potential opportunities for fraud and identity theft via gathered statistics such as behavioral analytics, historical data and geolocations, strategies that SpyCloud’s new program also incorporates.

However, through the assessment of hacks that have already occurred, SpyCloud’s recaptured breached data approach attempts to go one step further. It intends to use this new approach to diagnose whether a customer is a low-risk user or an at-risk user who may be the victim of a fraud attack.

Trace Fooshee, a strategic advisor in Aite-Novarica’s Fraud & AML practice, attests that online fraud is both increasing rapidly over time and becoming more difficult to predict and detect.

Fooshee believes that SpyCloud Identity Risk Engine is especially well prepared to detect and combat fraud due to its “capacity to incorporate their proprietary data sources of exposed credentials and identities into their risk models.”

In October 2021, SpyCloud conducted and released a survey regarding ransomware and fraud. It found that 72 percent of its 250 respondents, who came from organizations ranging from 500-25,000 employees, reported ransomware attacks within the last year.

Also among the study’s findings however was that there was a “misplaced confidence that defenses never fail or that paying a ransom after an attack will always work,” according to SpyCloud co-founder and CEO Ted Ross.

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Aeyon Earns Spot on JAIC and DoD-Funded BPA to Provide AI Services
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Aeyon Earns Spot on JAIC and DoD-Funded BPA to Provide AI Services

Aeyon has won a spot on a test and evaluation blank purchase agreement from the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to provide artificial intelligence-related test tools, capabilities and services.

Under the BPA, Aeyon will be responsible for developing, integrating, operating and implementing AI technologies in order to bolster JAIC and Department of Defense processes, the management consulting firm said Tuesday.

Ayeon will be expected to further the DoD and U.S. federal government’s goals in the artificial intelligence field. Funded by the JAIC’s BPA, the company’s services will encompass test and evaluation technology, tools and solutions and I&V procedures.

Their work will also involve emerging technologies and joint common foundation alignment/integration.

Using the results of this work, the JAIC and DoD hope to be able to test and validate AI capabilities with speed and precision so that they may be incorporated into future DoD assignments.

The DoD’s JAIC branch was founded in 2018 for this reason – so that it can screen AI technologies and determine their value and place within the U.S. defense enterprise. The branch was also established in order to increase and intensify the utilization of AI as part of the DoD’s official artificial intelligence strategy.

The BPA comes as a landmark win for the newly formed Aeyon. The firm arose from a merger between data analytics and management consulting provider Artlin Consulting and technology-enabled automation service company Shelke Consulting in September 2021.

One of Sehlke’s specialties was its robotic process automation software capability, an example of AI equipment.

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Air Force’s New F-15EX Jet Achieves Missile Fire Milestone
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Air Force’s New F-15EX Jet Achieves Missile Fire Milestone

The U.S. Air Force’s new F-15EX Eagle II fighter aircraft fired its first-ever live missile during a recent evaluation of its air-to-air weapons systems over the Gulf of Mexico.

Operated by 40th Flight Test Squadron personnel, the Boeing-built aircraft used its onboard sensors to detect and target a BQM-167 aerial drone with an AIM-120D missile, marking a success on its weapons system evaluation program test, the U.S. Air Force said Monday.

The milestone also is a culmination of more than six months of integrated developmental and operational flight testing in preparation for the missile fire.

“This was an end-to-end verification of the entire weapons system, which will pave the way for more complex missile shots in the future,” noted Colton Myers, F-15EX test project manager with the Operational Flight Program Combined Test Force.

The live fire came over three months since F-15EX, the upgraded variant of the over 40-year-old F-15 aircraft used by the Air Force, flew its first operational test mission in October.

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FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Named Lead of Renewed Cybersecurity Forum
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FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Named Lead of Renewed Cybersecurity Forum

Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, will also chair a newly reactivated federal forum aimed at sharing information to boost the cybersecurity of U.S. infrastructure.

Rosenworcel will lead the refined Cybersecurity Forum for Independent and Executive Branch Regulators, a new iteration of a group that launched in 2014 but has been inactive in recent years.

Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, briefed participating representatives on the forum’s renewal.

“Our objectives will be to enhance communication, share lessons learned and develop a common understanding of cybersecurity activities through the sharing of best practices,” Rosenworcel said.

The forum includes representatives from FCC, CISA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other agencies.

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US, Partners Conducting Unmanned, AI Tests at International Maritime Exercise 2022
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US, Partners Conducting Unmanned, AI Tests at International Maritime Exercise 2022

The U.S. and its Middle Eastern partner nations are currently testing unmanned technologies and artificial intelligence algorithms in different training scenarios at the largest multinational naval and unmanned exercise in the region.

Over 80 unmanned systems from 10 participating countries were sent to the International Maritime Exercise 2022 to gather relevant insights that can be applied in future real-world operations, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

The exercise will also help inform the development of capabilities for command and control, mine countermeasures, sea control and maritime security operations.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the exercise commander, noted that IMX 2022, which involves over 9,000 personnel and 50 ships from more than 60 countries and international organizations, is an opportunity for partners to improve their capabilities, interoperability and maritime relationships.

The 18-day event is set to end on Feb. 17th.

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