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ISS Secures NOAA Professional Services Contract for National Ocean Service Support
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ISS Secures NOAA Professional Services Contract for National Ocean Service Support

Integrated Systems Solutions (ISS) has received a three-year $9.5 million contract from NOAA to provide the offices within its National Ocean Service (NOS) headquarters with administrative and management support services.

ISS said Tuesday it will help NOS address coastal area threats as well as promote place-based conservation and coastal resilience and intelligence by providing tools and professional services.

The contract covers communications and education support, policy and program analysis, budget planning and formulation as well as administrative assistance. It was awarded through the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Oceans Domain indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity acquisition vehicle.

The company has been supporting NOS for nine years now. The recent award is the third consecutive three-year contract it secured from the NOAA unit.

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Kathleen Hicks: DOD Looks to Address Admin Barriers Facing Small Businesses
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Kathleen Hicks: DOD Looks to Address Admin Barriers Facing Small Businesses

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said DOD is committed to looking at the administration barriers facing small companies seeking to do business with the Pentagon and will initiate measures to address those challenges where it can, DOD News reported Wednesday.

"To do that effectively, we need your engagement," Hicks said Wednesday. "This week, we are putting out a notice in the Federal Register seeking industry input on the barriers you face.”

She said industry feedback will be incorporated into the department’s small business strategy that she plans to unveil before the end of 2021. She also announced the establishment of a DOD innovation steering group and mentioned the department’s efforts to further strengthen its small business programs to facilitate their entry into the defense marketplace.

The deputy secretary noted that the Pentagon has 95 procurement technical assistance centers that help businesses compete for contracts with the department and other federal agencies.

"And we will continue to leverage programs like Small Business Innovation Research which, on average, commercializes $7 billion of small business innovations that are connected directly to our warfighting capabilities," Hicks said.

She also cited that DOD is collaborating with the White House, Small Business Administration and other agencies to generate more opportunities for small companies to secure spots on the department’s contract vehicles.

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Michael Orlando: NCSC Campaign Aims to Increase Government, Industry Awareness of Insider Threats
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Michael Orlando: NCSC Campaign Aims to Increase Government, Industry Awareness of Insider Threats

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) and its federal partners have kicked off a monthlong campaign to promote the importance of implementing programs that help agencies and companies reduce risks from insider threats.

National Insider Threat Awareness Month will focus on activities designed to educate public and private sector organizations about fostering a culture of trust in the workplace, NCSC said Wednesday.

This year's initiative marks nearly 10 years since Executive Order 13587 mandated the formation of the National Insider Threat Task Force, an interagency group currently housed within NCSC.

“Through this campaign, we hope to bring much-needed attention to insider threats and help organizations and their employees prevent and mitigate these issues early on," said Michael Orlando, acting director of NCSC.

“These threats can take many forms, whether it’s a federal employee coopted by a foreign adversary to steal sensitive information or a corporate employee clicking on a spear-phishing link that infects their company’s networks.”

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Intelligence and Security, the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency support the campaign.

The Department of Defense will sponsor a conference scheduled for Friday to highlight insider threat programs across the government and industry.

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GAO to Issue Report on Pandemic-Driven Tech Adoption’s Cyber Impacts; Jennifer Franks Quoted
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GAO to Issue Report on Pandemic-Driven Tech Adoption’s Cyber Impacts; Jennifer Franks Quoted

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to issue a report in fiscal year 2022 about the impact of technology adoption driven by mass telework on federal agencies’ cybersecurity posture, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity at GAO, said Tuesday at a webinar she cannot discuss the report’s findings but noted an expansion in agencies’ threat surface as more employees shifted to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And that this was a risk agencies were willing to indeed accept to maintain the health and safety of their employees, among other reasons, during the pandemic,” Franks said.

She called on agencies to adopt zero trust and implement proactive threat hunting measures. She also noted that the congressional watchdog intends to broaden its reviews in the near future to include risks to supply chains amid recent cyberattacks.

“So now not only do agencies have to worry about their network, but now we have to worry about the networks of the entities of supposed ‘trusted’ partners and suppliers,” Franks added.

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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House Panel OKs Measure to Add Nearly $25B to President’s FY 2022 Defense Budget Request
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House Panel OKs Measure to Add Nearly $25B to President’s FY 2022 Defense Budget Request

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) voted 42-17 Wednesday to approve an amendment that would increase the topline of the defense budget for fiscal year 2022 to $778 billion, The Hill reported.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the House panel's ranking member, introduced the amendment, which reflects a $37 billion increase from the FY 2021 enacted level and a rise of nearly $25 billion from the president’s FY 2022 defense budget proposal of $753 billion.

The amendment to the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposes $9.8 billion for procurement, including $4.7 billion for shipbuilding and $1.7 billion for aircraft.

Breaking Defense reported that the measure includes $5.2 billion for research, development, test and evaluation; $4.2 billion for innovation; $3 billion for operation and maintenance; $490 million for space; and $780 million for missile defense.

“The bipartisan adoption of my amendment sends a clear signal: the President’s budget submission was wholly inadequate to keep pace with a rising China and a re-emerging Russia,” Rogers said in a statement.

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Labor Department Stands up New Office to Update Unemployment Insurance System
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Labor Department Stands up New Office to Update Unemployment Insurance System

The Department of Labor has created a new office to strategically lead the modernization of the country's unemployment insurance system.

The Office of Unemployment Insurance (UI) will work with partner agencies and state governments to implement a UI system modernization strategy.

Efforts contained in the strategy include the oversight of $2 billion in fraud prevention funds provided through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The newly established organization will work with teams of the Labor Department's chief information officer and assistant secretary for administration and management, as well as the Employment and Training Administration.

Yvette Meftah, who has worked under the secretary of labor since 2009, will lead the Office of UI as director. Michele Evermore, senior adviser on UI, has been named the office's deputy director for policy.

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Nicolas Chaillan: DevSecOps Boosts Timeliness of Software Development
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Nicolas Chaillan: DevSecOps Boosts Timeliness of Software Development

Nicolas Chaillan, chief software officer at the U.S. Air Force, said that DevSecOps allows USAF to meet the timeliness requirements of software development. He said at an event with the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC) that DevSecOps has accelerated the speed of mission delivery across development and production by 106 times, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

Chaillan noted that DevSecOps allows software developers to experience failures faster but also avoid repeating these failures.

DevSecOps refers to the approach of combining development, security and information technology operations from the start of a software development effort.

Officials have also reported that time spent on addressing cybersecurity issues has been halved as a result of DevSecOps.

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Cypress International Launches New Two-Part Series of ‘The Cypress Perspective’ Podcast
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Cypress International Launches New Two-Part Series of ‘The Cypress Perspective’ Podcast

Cypress International’s podcast “The Cypress Perspective” recently launched its new two-part series titled Understanding the Future of Naval Aviation on August 5th.  

This series focuses on what the Navy needs from industry to make the future Carrier Air Wing more effective in Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO). The podcast features several of the federal government’s top names, including:

ADM Scott Swift, USN (Ret.), former Commander, US Pacific Fleet, and VADM Bruce Lindsey, USN (Ret.), former Deputy Commander, US Fleet Forces Command, and former Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic.  

Jim McCarthy, SES, USN (Ret.), former Assistant Deputy CNO, Integration of Capabilities and Resources (OPNAV N8B) and current VP of Naval Programs at Cypress International acts as the moderator of the discussion.

Part I of this series includes topics such as the “why, how, and what” of building the future Carrier Air Wing, TACAIR Integration of USN and USMC (plus allies), the capability and capacity requirements within the strategic context and current budgets, and the current and future roles and missions of the nuclear aircraft carrier and of unmanned aircraft and the in future Carrier Air Wing.  

Part II picks up where Part I left off regarding the contributions and risks of current and future type/model/series aircraft in the Carrier Air Wing and autonomous systems, trust, and AI in the future Carrier Air Wing.  

The subsequent discussion centers around the role of innovation, ingenuity, and technology to drive down total ownership costs, the role of LVC training in building readiness and trust in autonomous systems, and the attributes of Naval DMO systems required to interoperate with the other services and contribute to SECDEF’s Integrated Deterrence mission.

Tune into Cypress International’s two-part series on Understanding the Future of Naval Aviation and tune into the three-part series on Unmanned Systems. Upcoming podcasts include Supply Chain Resiliency and Artificial Intelligence.

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Peraton Labs Awarded U.S. Army Contract to Extend UNO Planner for Integrated Planning of Tactical Network; Petros Mouchtaris Quoted
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Peraton Labs Awarded U.S. Army Contract to Extend UNO Planner for Integrated Planning of Tactical Network; Petros Mouchtaris Quoted

Peraton Labs announced on Wednesday that the company has been awarded a one-year, $10.3 million contract with the U.S. Army to extend its Unified Network Operations (UNO) Planner software for the Product Manager Tactical Cyber and Network Operations (PdM TCNO).

Peraton Labs will extend UNO Planner to support additional transmission systems and additional planning capability, including communications security planning and document generation.

“Agile, intelligent and easy-to-use network operations are critical to the Army’s current and future mission success,” said Petros Mouchtaris, Ph.D., president of Peraton Labs. “UNO Planner delivers next-generation planning support across the entire ITN, enabling efficient, accurate and flexible NetOps with reduced training requirements.”

UNO Planner provides intelligent, easy-to-use, integrated planning for the Army tactical network with lower complexity, greater accuracy, increased flexibility, and reduced time and training.

In addition, UNO Planner supports tactical satellite communications and terrestrial networks with fast, easy, and error-free creation of critical configuration files, required to set up network elements and signal systems.

“Peraton Labs is proud to continue supporting the Army in modernizing its operations for the Integrated Tactical Network to significantly reduce complexity and operational burden,” Dr. Mouchtaris added.

About Peraton

Peraton drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted and highly differentiated national security solutions and technologies that keep people safe and secure.

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Blackstone Completes Acquisition of QTS Realty Trust; CEO Chad Williams Quoted
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Blackstone Completes Acquisition of QTS Realty Trust; CEO Chad Williams Quoted

Blackstone has officially announced that its acquisition of QTS Realty Trust has been completed for approximately $10 billion. The acquisition was completed through the affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., and Blackstone Property Partners.

“Completing this transaction with Blackstone marks an exciting new chapter for QTS,” said Chad Williams, CEO of QTS. “Our Powered by People approach will continue to be the foundation for how we serve our customers, local communities and each other, enabling QTS to continue setting a new standard for innovation and service delivery in the data center industry.”

Blackstone Senior Managing Directors Greg Blank and Tyler Henritze expressed their enthusiasm for the acquisition and the future of QTS.

QTS aligns with one of Blackstone’s highest conviction themes – data proliferation – and the required investment makes it well suited as a long-term holding for our perpetual capital vehicles,” said Blank and Henritze in a collective statement.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisors to Blackstone and Jefferies LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to QTS.

About QTS Realty Trust

QTS Realty Trust is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 7 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space within North America and Europe.

Through its software-defined technology platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.

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