The Department of the Treasury’s internal watchdog found several faults in the Internal Revenue Service‘s cloud security practices relating to Enterprise Case Management, an Amazon Web Services-hosted platform intended to replace legacy systems for processing tax audit information. In a March 27 report, the inspector general noted that the IRS failed to meet certain action […]
The National Reconnaissance Office has exercised two-year stage 2 options on existing contracts with satellite operators Kleos Space and Spire Global under the Strategic Commercial Enhancements broad agency announcement program, which aims to identify private-sector providers of space-based capabilities such as image collection, remote sensing and hyperspectral data. Kleos is expected to test the accuracy […]
Derek Tournear, the director of the Space Development Agency, recently spoke about how the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture is designed to survive attacks across several domains. The PWSA is a planned seven-layer satellite constellation meant to provide warfighters with data transport and missile-tracking capabilities. An initial set of 10 spacecraft was sent into orbit aboard […]
Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the program executive officer for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, wants to prepare its supply chain for future conflicts by shifting away from a just-in-time approach that delivers materials just before they are needed and keeps inventories low. Speaking at a panel discussion during the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in Maryland, […]
Catherine Cahill, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, says the United States is lagging in granting permissions for drone research and testing, hampering commercial development and endangering human fliers. She noted that her office only received Federal Aviation Administration clearance to evaluate such aircraft in February despite […]
Jeff Shilling, the National Cancer Institute’s chief information officer, had a recent interview with Federal News Network where he discussed his approach to migrating information technology systems to the cloud. NCI aims to set up two cloud environments covering all new development activities. According to Shilling, the agency has already transferred several of its virtual […]
The Social Security Administration’s failure to follow advice from its internal watchdog has cost the agency $3.2 billion. A March report from the agency’s Office of the Inspector General indicated that 183 recommendations to adopt Agile software development and planning practices as well as cloud-based enabling solutions have not yet been implemented. According to the […]
Military and intelligence organizations participated in the Bravo 10 Opana hackathon hosted by the Department of the Air Force from March 20 to 24 in Florida. Such events are intended to serve as venues for commercial firms to rapidly develop prototypes supporting Department of Defense programs. Stuart Wagner, the DAF’s chief digital transformation officer and […]
The Department of Defense’s Directorate for Digital Services has set up a website for Hack the Pentagon, a series of cybersecurity challenges that have white-hat hackers hunt for vulnerabilities in public-facing systems in exchange for money. A DOD press release said that over 2,100 exploits have been found at over 40 bug bounty events overseen […]
The United States and several allies issued a joint statement on March 30, forming an alliance dedicated to supporting groups vulnerable to cyberattacks and other forms of repression from authoritarian governments. The nations joining the U.S. in the Strategic Dialogue on Cybersecurity of Civil Society Under Threat of Transnational Repression are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, […]
