DARPA Hires Twitter Whistleblower to Serve as Its CIO

by  Edward Graham

Peiter “Mudge” Zatko — the former security head of then-Twitter who alleged that the platform was overlooking critical security flaws — will be returning to DARPA after almost a decade away in the private sector.

A well-respected hacker who previously filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that then-Twitter was misleading the public about its security practices said on Tuesday that he is returning to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to serve as its chief information officer.

Peiter Zatko, known by his hacker nickname “Mudge,” last worked for the Pentagon's research and development agency in 2014. It was in this role that he helped to launch DARPA's Information Innovation Office, which conducts research into cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data analytics.

 Read full story at NextGov/FCW…

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DOD's IT and cyber priorities for fiscal year 2025

by Grier Eagan

Grier Eagan from immixGroupIT breaks down the IT modernization, deterrence and artificial intelligence opportunities that are available for solutions providers.

The Defense Department is undergoing a massive effort to modernize and improve its ability to counter well-organized and well-funded adversaries.

This is in stark contrast to DODD's focus of the previous decades, which was on counter-terrorism operations and capabilities. Executing this transformation requires significant investment toward modernization efforts, innovation adoption and deterrence capabilities.

…The Information Technology/Cyberspace Activities' (IT/CA) fiscal 2025 budget estimate of $64.1 billion is a subset of the DoD overall budget request and represents about 7.5% of the department's entire budget.

More than half of the IT/CA budget is dedicated to operations and maintenance funding and totals $33.4 billion. The next two largest IT funding areas — research, development, testing, and evaluation, and procurement — account for $10.4 billion and $9.1 billion, respectively.

 Read full story at Washington Technology…

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Should State Governments Ban Ransomware Payments?

by  Nikki Davidson

Given the surge of ransomware attacks and increasing costs of payments to unlock stolen data in 2024, some states have banned public ransomware payments. But experts are divided on whether it's the right move.

In 2021, North Carolina became the first state to prohibit public ransomware payments, even going so far as to ban negotiations with cyber criminals. It was a groundbreaking move. Florida followed suit in 2022, but its legislation took a less stringent approach, covering a narrower range of entities and omitting some of the stricter provisions found in North Carolina's law.

North Carolina and Florida's bans are the only ones that exist at the state level, but they have ignited a nationwide conversation about the best way to combat this pervasive cyber threat. Years later, experts still haven't come to a unified conclusion about whether it's the right approach.

 Read full story at GovTech…

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How to Fine-Tune AI for Prosperity

by  David Totman

Artificial intelligence could put us on the path to a booming economic future, but getting there will take some serious course corrections.

When Chad Syverson loads the US Bureau of Labor Statistics website these days looking for the latest data on productivity, he does so with a sense of optimism that he hasn't felt in ages.

The numbers for the last year or so have been generally strong for various financial and business reasons, rebounding from the early days of the pandemic. And though the quarterly numbers are notoriously noisy and inconsistent, the University of Chicago economist is scrutinizing the data to spot any early clues that AI-driven economic growth has begun.

Any effect on the current statistics, he says, will likely still be quite small and won't be “world-changing,” so he's not surprised that signs of AI's impact haven't been detected yet.

 Read full story at MIT Technology Review…

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Microsoft Starts Developing Tools to Prevent Another Global IT Outage

by  Sam Sabin

Security vendors have asked Microsoft to make it easier for them to operate outside of the Windows kernel.

… David Weston, Microsoft's vice president of enterprise and operating system security, wrote in the blog post that many of the company's ecosystem partners asked Microsoft to design new tools that would help them operate away from the Windows kernel.

• Broadcom, CrowdStrike, ESET, SentinelOne, Sophos, Trend Micro and Trellix all participated in the summit.
• Weston said Microsoft is now developing tools that should help vendors follow certain secure-by-design principles, provide anti-tampering protections, and meet performance needs outside of the kernel.

Between the lines: Part of the reason the CrowdStrike incident was so detrimental was that the faulty content update was sent straight to the Windows kernel, which manages the operating system's memory, processing power and more.

 Read full story at Axios…

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Yes, You Can Upgrade That Old PC to Windows 11, Even if Microsoft Says No.

by  Ed Bott

If your PC runs Windows 10, you can ignore those pesky compatibility checks and upgrade to Windows 11.

There are two options available for upgrading to Windows 11 on a PC that doesn't satisfy the operating system's compatibility requirements. One is fully documented by Microsoft but still requires PCs to pass a lower compatibility threshold. The other is an undocumented hack that bypasses Microsoft's compatibility checker completely.

So, which one should you choose? That depends on the issues that are preventing your PC from upgrading.

 Read full story at ZDNet…

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DOE Announces Better Buildings Initiative Progress Report, Highlights Nearly $22 Billion in Energy Savings

by  U.S. Dep't of Energy

New Report Recognizes Public and Private Sector Organizations Working with DOE to Demonstrate Proven Pathways to Combat the Climate Crisis

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today published the “2024 Better Buildings Initiative Progress Report”, which highlights the achievements of DOE's Better Buildings public and private sector partners as they decarbonize and increase the energy efficiency of the nation's buildings, manufacturing plants, and homes. The report shows that program partners—including 28 Fortune 100 companies and more than 90 state and local governments—have collectively saved nearly $22 billion through efficiency improvements and cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions by more than 220 million metric tons since 2011, an amount roughly equivalent to combined annual emissions of 29 million homes. Through the Better Buildings Initiative, DOE is helping accelerate cost-effective decarbonization …

“DOE's Better Buildings Initiative is helping organizations of all sizes from every corner of the country and every sector of the economy lower energy costs and save money—to the tune of $22 billion,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

 Read full story at U.S. Dep't of Energy…

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US Nuclear, Coal Power Sites Could Host Up to 269 GWe of New Nuclear Capacity: DOE

by  Brian Martucci

Up to 145 coal sites in 36 states and 41 nuclear sites in 31 states, including some recently retired plants, are potentially suitable for nuclear repowering, DOE said.

The DOE report, “Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant and Coal Power Plant Sites for New Nuclear Capacity,” ... examined operating or recently-retired U.S. coal power plants for new nuclear potential.

The 145 coal sites the report examined could host 128 GW to 174 GW of nuclear electric-generating capacity, depending on the size of the reactors used in repowering, DOE said. Thirty-six states have potentially suitable coal sites and 31 states have potentially suitable nuclear sites.

All told, the nuclear and coal power plant sites DOE's report examined could host up to 269 GW of new nuclear generation capacity using 600-MWe reactors, significantly more than the approximately 200 GW of advanced reactor capacity envisioned by 2050 in DOE's 2022 advanced nuclear liftoff report

 Read full story at UtilityDive…

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Utility Can't Charge Data Centers More for Power, FERC Says

by  Sean Wolfe

FERC rejected a proposal from a utility that requested to create new wholesale power sales rate schedules for large loads.

In late August, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected a proposal from Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin) that requested to create new wholesale power sales rate schedules for cryptocurrency centers and other large loads.

Basin made the proposal in March, which requested three crypto blockchain rate schedules and a new large load schedule for other non-crypto loads greater than 75 MW, according to law firm Troutman Pepper. …

For crypto loads located within SPP and MISO, Basin proposed procuring energy to serve at market prices, later passing down the actual costs to its cooperative members, who would in turn pass the costs onto the crypto loads.

 Read full story at Power Grid International…

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