Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the Pentagon and the defense industrial base aren’t on the same wavelength when it comes to acquisition reform and readiness.
“You have this incredible industrial base and we’ve got our signals off.” He said the signals weren’t off “in a bad way” but off enough to slow things down compared to the private sector Shanahan said at the Center for New American Security’s "Evolving the Future Force" event March 29.
It’s tricky trying to “take the tools and investments being made in the shipbuilding industry and scale them up,” while leveraging some of the productivity gains and thinking” in the automotive and aerospace industries, said Shanahan, who was formerly Boeing’s senior vice president for supply chain and operations.
Read full story at FCW…
first published week of: 04/02/2018
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The department wants to be able to provide cyber training webinars to 5,000 simultaneous users.
The Homeland Security Department wants to surge its ability to train critical infrastructure owners and operators on cybersecurity, according to a contracting document released Wednesday.
The department is seeking a video conferencing service that it can use to provide cybersecurity webinars to 5,000 or more critical infrastructure operators simultaneously, according to the contracting document.
The term critical infrastructure refers to 16 sectors the government has determined are vital to the nation’s successful operation. They include hospitals, banks, energy plants, dams and transportation hubs such as airports and train stations.
The department officially designated election infrastructure, such as voting machines and voter rolls, critical infrastructure in January 2017, after Russian efforts to breach those systems during the 2016 elections.
Homeland Security already provides training webinars on a variety of cyber topics to critical infrastructure owners as well as to state and local governments using the Adobe Connect tool, but the current system can’t serve more than 500 simultaneous attendees, the contracting document states.
Read full story at Nextgov…
first published week of: 11/12/2018
"In a cloud world, there is no such thing as one solution that's going to solve for all," Deasy told lawmakers when asked his opinion on a multi-cloud environment during a House Oversight for Government Reform's Information Technology Subcommittee hearing May 23.
"You're going to always have a need -- when you build anything -- where you're going to have specific requirements that are going to be best served by unique providers," he said. "That is no different than [what] has always been the case with technology."
Deasy's testimony followed the White House's release of its policy positions on the draft 2019 National Defense Authorization Act May 22, which supported congressional oversight of DOD cloud acquisitions to "prevent delays in the delivery of new capabilities."
Read full story at FCW…
first published week of: 05/28/2018
The Defense Department lost thousands of civilian cyber workers in the past year, mainly in IT management and computer science-related positions, a senior defense official testified at a Sept. 26 Senate hearing.
"Most of the job losses that we've seen here over the past year or so total about 4,000 civilian cyber-related personnel," Essye Miller, DOD's principal deputy CIO, told the Senate Armed Services Committee's Personnel and Cybersecurity subcommittees. Defense officials said they would share more details on how their cyber governance and talent management plans would line up with DOD's recently released cyber strategy in closed session.
"This encompasses more than your traditional IT, intel role," Miller said at the open portion of the hearing. "It also includes some of our health occupations, criminal investigation and other occupational series that we need to keep in mind."
Read full story at Defense Systems…
first published week of: 10/01/2018
The JPMorgan Chase executive will assume command of the Pentagon's IT as it prepares for a massive cloud contract.
Dana Deasy, who most recently served as CIO at JP Morgan Chase, will become the Pentagon’s new CIO sometime in early May, DOD spokeswoman Dana White announced at a news briefing on April 5. White noted that one of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s priorities is “reforming the way we do business” and that “in order to do that, we need top-notch talent.”
Deasy “will be responsible for how we manage and use information, communications and cybersecurity,” White said, adding, “This is particularly important as we adopt cloud technology to make more informed and timely decisions on the battlefield.”
Read full story at FedTech…
first published week of: 04/16/2018
The Defense Department has restricted use of personal mobile devices inside secure areas of the Pentagon.
DOD personnel, contractors and visitors to the building and supporting facilities may no longer have mobile devices in areas designated or accredited for "processing, handling, or discussion of classified information," according to a policy memo released May 22. They may continue to use their phones in common areas, however.
Personal and unclassified government-issued mobile devices are prohibited in secure spaces. Devices must be turned off and stored in lockers outside the secure space.
Government-issued unclassified laptops being used as desktop replacements must have approved "interim mitigations applied until replaced with compliant devices" within 180 days. Mitigations include disabling the camera, microphone and Wi-Fi settings. Government-issued classified mobile devices can continue to operate per previous authorization while exemptions are reviewed.
The memo also spells out consequences for violators, including possible loss or delay of security clearance, fines and administrative discipline.
Read full story at GCN…
first published week of: 06/04/2018
The Pentagon group will aim to protect American technology secrets and bolster supply chain security.
The Defense Department has created a cross-functional task force designed to enhance data security for critical defense technologies.
The task force was created via a memo from Defense Secretary James Mattis, dated Oct. 24, which first came to light earlier this month. The group, officially dubbed the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force is designed not just to prevent the loss of classified and controlled unclassified information, but also the data-exfiltration of closely guarded secrets by foreign adversaries.
“This is not a ‘quick-fix’ task force,” Joseph Buccino, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, told Fifth Domain. “The loss of technology and data critical to our national security is a long-term problem.”
Mattis says in the memo that is committed to protecting the DOD’s critical technology, and that is estimated that every year American industry loses more than $600 billion to theft and expropriation. “Far worse, the loss of classified and controlled unclassified information is putting the Department's investments at risk and eroding the lethality and survivability of our forces,” the memo states.
Read full story at FedTech…
first published week of: 12/03/2018
Three cybersecurity experts from Juniper Networks and STEALTHbits Technologies offer perspective on remarks by David Bennett, CIO/Director of Operations for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA, a DoD combat support agency) and outgoing DISA Director Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn (NextGov story link), which disclosed that:
Read full story at isBuzznews…
first published week of: 01/29/2018
War games in the sky, at sea, on ground block GPS to add a dose of reality.
For much of February—and in some places, well into March—the US military will be jamming signals from the Global Positioning System as part of training exercises over vast swaths of the Western United States, as well as in smaller areas surrounding major military facilities across the US.
A major source of the GPS jamming will be Red Flag 18-1, the first phase of the air war games staged every year from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, with events ranging as far north as the Seattle air traffic control area. Electronic warfare aircraft, including the Navy's EA-18 Growler and the Air Force's EC-130 Compass Call, will play a role in shutting down the satellite navigation system for everything within as large as a 450 nautical mile radius.
The jamming will be restricted for the most part to periods between 11pm and 2am Eastern Time. This is when commercial air traffic is at its least dense, so the impact on air travel should be negligible. But the exact times may vary. And jamming tests for other exercises during the same period—including some at or off the coast of Navy nuclear sub bases at Bangor in Washington and Kings Bay, Georgia—may have an impact on commercial shipping and fishing vessels.
Read full story at arsTECHNICA…
first published week of: 02/12/2018
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC) today issued a renewal Agreement to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Agreement, entitled “National Conference of State Legislatures” was renewed for a five-year period of performance beginning September 17, 2018.
This grant is intended to continue to help states and tribal nations understand the policies, programs and activities undertaken by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Indian Energy (IE), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) and Office of Legacy Management (LM). The project will keep state legislators, legislative staff, executive branch officials and tribal members informed about: the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex and national laboratories, including future site use, worker retraining and the potential for economic redevelopment of the sites; the transportation, interim storage and permanent disposal of civilian and defense-generated radioactive waste; DOE policies and programs related to energy infrastructure and development on tribal lands; the development and deployment of nuclear energy technologies affecting states and tribal nations; and, the activities and processes related to long term stewardship and institutional controls.
Additionally, this cooperative agreement is to help DOE understand the concerns of state, tribal, local communities, state elected officials, and other related stakeholders and the impacts of DOE mission programs decisions and activities related to those concerns.
first published week of: 09/17/2018