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FedWire: dwellr app, HHS datasets and DARPA budget

2013_04_fedwire2001FedWire is FedScoop’s afternoon roundup of news and notes from the federal IT community. Send your links and videos to tips@fedscoop.com.

A thousand datasets and counting.

DOD: Another sequester would increase risk.

Introducing challenge.sites.usa.gov.

Find stats on the go with Census’ dwellr app.

Challenges to auditing federal financials statements.

DARPA budget request aims to fund promising ideas.

Remarkable electrical properties of topological insulators.

Expanded body armor analysis work to protect soldiers.

First lady honors international women of courage.

Census Bureau’s Avi Bender on innovation in government

Avi Bender, chief technology officer at the Census Bureau, discusses innovation in government in this FedScoopTV interview.

Budget breakdown: Windfall for workforce, R&D and STEM education

Despite what many consider a very modest pay raise for government employees, the budget request for fiscal year 2015 appears to actually invest in the federal workforce.

Unveiled March 4, the FY 2015 budget request proposed a 1 percent pay increase for government employees, but emphasized more significant investments in training, development and recruitment initiatives for the federal workforce.

Beth Cobert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters in call OMB will be launching pilot programs to look at recruiting and hiring processes to improve diversity and decrease skills gaps in the workforce.

In a White House news conference, OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the administration is “pleased we can do the 1 percent increase” in pay for federal employees.

Burwell, Cobert and Steven VanRoekel, U.S. chief information officer, stressed it’s critical to have the right kind of talent in the federal government. VanRoekel cited the Presidential Innovation Fellows program as an example of how bringing external talent into government can make a great impact, in particular when that talent partners with federal agencies.

The talent aspect also plays into federal IT acquisition, and the enhancements the administration has acknowledged the process needs. Burwell said reforming how the government does IT procurement relies on improving the existing workforce, recruiting the “best and brightest” and attracting the best companies to work with.

IT spending takes a hit

The 2015 request for IT spending is down $2.3 billion from what was enacted in the 2014 fiscal year, slashed from $81.4 billion to $79.1 billion, VanRoekel said. The amount requested for civilian agencies remained nearly the same, while defense spending saw a $2.2 billion decrease.

Savings from shared services and strategic sourcing initiatives have helped decrease IT spend, VanRoekel said. He cited the PortfolioStat program — which has identified $1.6 billion in savings — and pointed also to the “dramatic consolidation of IT services throughout government.”

“We can no longer separate the effectiveness of federal programs from the smart use of IT,” VanRoekel said.

And that smart use of IT will include open data. Federal agencies will continue to unlock government data so entrepreneurs and innovators can leverage its potential, VanRoekel said. For example, the Commerce Department will invest to unleash economic statistical data in FY 2015, making it easier for entrepreneurs and innovators to use that information for public benefit.

According to VanRoekel and Cobert, the streamlining of commodities such as core administrative functions, human resources, IT and finance will improve the customer experience with government and cut costs.

VanRoekel listed a few examples of what can be expected in FY 2015:

Open data and R&D

Cobert also laid out the president’s management agenda, which generally revolves around four key elements: effectiveness – delivering better, faster, smarter services to citizens and businesses; efficiency – increasing quality in value in the core operations and enhancing government productivity; economic growth – opening up federal data and the results of research and development to the private sector; people and culture – unlocking the full potential of today’s federal workforce.

The president’s budget request also proposed $135.4 billion be allocated toward federal research and development, an increase of 1.2 percent or $1.7 billion more than FY 2014-enacted levels. The budget calls for $69.5 billion for defense R&D, and $65.9 billion for nondefense R&D — both up from FY 2014.

There will be $2.9 billion for federal investments in science, technology, engineering and math education, a 3.7 percent increase over 2014 funding levels.

Several agencies received large amounts of budget funding for their R&D efforts:

Federal R&D programs such as the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development, and the National Nanotechnology Initiative all received at least $1.5 billion each.

“By continuing the administration’s record of steady support for research and development across the full spectrum of scientific and technological domains—including such diverse priorities as biomedicine, advanced manufacturing, climate science, cybersecurity, natural resource management, space exploration, and national security—the budget ensures that the United States will be an incubator of innovation and economic growth for many years to come,” said John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser to the president.

IAI’s Al Weisner on mobile driving biggest change in government

Al Weisner, senior vice president at IAI, chats with FedScoopTV about how mobile as a tech trend is driving the biggest change in government.

FedWire: SpaceWeek, budgets, and climate future

2013_04_fedwire2001FedWire is FedScoop’s afternoon roundup of news and notes from the federal IT community. Send your links and videos to tips@fedscoop.com.

Clean cars, clean fuel.

#SpaceWeek: science on the cosmic frontier.

Following the (LED) light.

An opportunity budget.

Preparing for our climate future.

NASA Commercial Crew partners meet space system milestones.

Wrapping up Military Saves Week.

Investing in tech and infrastructure:

FCC CIO David Bray on mobile as disruptive technology

David Bray, CIO at the Federal Communications Commission, talks with FedScoopTV about disruptive technologies in the federal government.

FDA seeks to up social media surveillance

The Food and Drug Administration is looking for another way to leverage social media to meet its mission needs. The agency posted a Sources Sought Notice on FedBizOpps in late February for use of social media that would give FDA another arm with which to monitor its risks in real time.

The rise of social media, particularly user-generated content, has created new opportunities to interact with the public, and FDA said it would like to act on those opportunities. The agency now seeks new capabilities to monitor how effective its ongoing risk communication efforts are, saying it needed “both historical and ‘real-time’ monitoring and analyses of a representative sample of social media websites.”

According to the notice, the objective is to provide FDA with:

• Analyses of social media that provide baselines on consumer sentiment prior to FDA communication and that depict changes in social media buzz following FDA communications;
• In-house capability for social media monitoring; and
• Surveillance through social media listening for early detection of adverse events and food-borne illness

The scope of work includes social media buzz reports, a social media dashboard and quarterly surveillance reports related to specific product classes. In addition, the contractor would provide FDA with the proper training for this program, and 24/7 access to a dashboard, which will enable FDA to create its own reports a using near real-time or historical social media data.

Responses to the notice should be submitted by March 7 to FDA.

Major companies underreport cyber-risks, study finds

Large technology and telecommunications providers are twice as concerned about cyber-risks from outsourcing vendors and are twice as likely to report those concerns in public financial documents than the vast majority of the Fortune 1000, new research has found.

According to the study, “Willis Special Report: 10K Disclosures – How Technology and Telecom Companies Describe Their Cyber Liability Exposures,” released today by Willis Group Holdings plc, the technology and telecommunications companies that provide the infrastructure services for all other sectors of the economy disclosed concerns about cyber-risks stemming from outsourced vendor services at a significantly higher rate than other members of the Fortune 1000.

“Technology and telecommunications providers that are at the heart of our cyber-infrastructure – which, increasingly, is our business infrastructure – are indirectly telling us that our dependencies on vendors may make us more vulnerable than many companies realize,” said Christopher Keegan, a senior vice president with Willis North America and co-author of the study.

The results suggest a large percentage of the companies that make up the Fortune 1000 fail to report the same critical cyber-risks that their service providers are reporting, Keegan said.

“If you’re a passenger in an airplane and you see the pilot putting on a parachute, it’s probably a good idea to take notice,” he said.

The study found technology and telecommunications companies reported concerns about the potential for outsourced vendor risk at a rate more than double of other large corporations (25 percent versus 12 percent). Outsourced vendors are identified in the study as any organization providing data, IT or security services.

“We find this compelling because these companies are by and large the cyber-vendors for the rest of the Fortune 1000,” said Ann Longmore, the head of Willis’ executive risk practice and co-author of the study. “They’re seeing a big risk involving their own kind.”

The study comes on the heels of several large data breaches at major retailers, including Target and Neiman Marcus. The Target breach, which led to the theft of credit card and personal information of more than 110 million consumers, began with an email phishing attack against one of Target’s service providers — a Pennsylvania-based heating, air conditioning and refrigeration company that had access to the retailer’s network.

The Willis report, however, found the tech/telecom sector disclosed individual cyber-risks at rates higher than the Fortune 1000 as a whole. The exposures disclosed at significantly higher rates were: loss or disclosure of confidential information, loss of reputation, malicious acts and cyber-liability.

“If a company is a heavy user of outsourced IT services, then perhaps they should be reporting these risks at levels similar to the service providers themselves, as the vendors’ risks or failures could also be experienced by the consumer company should there be a vendor incident,” the report states. “Though a customer’s risk assessment may differ depending upon the criticality of the service or technology, individual companies must evaluate whether their procured vendor services are material.”

2014_03_WillisRiskReport

FedWire: Titan closes government, women in STEM, and mining research data

2013_04_fedwire2001FedWire is FedScoop’s afternoon roundup of news and notes from the federal IT community. Send your links and videos to tips@fedscoop.com.

Snow storm Titan shuts down government.

Getting a head start for women in STEM.

Hagel talks Ukraine and budget on “Face the Nation.”

Mining research data.

Helping schools be more “future ready.”

Researcher explores virtual humans research.

First of four new manufacturing innovation institute competitions launched.

New White House effort to empower boys and young men of color.

NASA astronauts congratulate Academy Award winner “Gravity”:

 

Hagel to NATO: Allies need to invest more in future modernization

2014_03_HagelNATOsummit Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel talks with European defense ministers in Brussels, Feb. 26, 2014. (Photo: DOD)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week delivered a sobering message to America’s military allies in Europe: The United States expects NATO countries to be smarter about how they spend their dwindling defense budgets and to modernize.

“I made clear my conviction to buy readiness and to buy capability and combat power with the savings the United States military achieves through a smaller force. We expect NATO allies to do the same,” Hagel said, speaking Feb. 27 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he met with his European counterparts during a two-day NATO defense ministers conference.

“We must focus not only on how much we spend, but how we spend it strategically and is it effective, and are we together,” Hagel said. “These are tough budget issues we’re all having to face. But when you are in those kinds of environments, you need to prioritize.”

Hagel’s comments come as he prepares to deliver a drastically reduced post-war Pentagon budget to Congress and as NATO faces one of the first major European security crises in decades as Russian forces expanded their control of Ukraine’s Crimea region. And while it may be too early to declare the return of the Cold War with Russia, it is certainly not too early to acknowledge the cold, hard reality NATO countries face in the post-Afghanistan era.

“As allied nations confront fiscal pressure on both sides of the Atlantic and as NATO transitions out of its combat mission in Afghanistan, many of us plan to field smaller military forces in the years ahead,” Hagel said. “That is understandable. It’s realistic. This is a time to set priorities, to make difficult choices, and to reinvest in the key capabilities we will all need for the future, including those that have been neglected over the last decade of war.”

According to the Pentagon, during his meetings in Brussels, Hagel stressed the need for America’s NATO allies to invest in global reach, technological superiority and leading-edge capabilities such as cybersecurity and special operations.

“Resources have to match the mission and capabilities are critically important,” Hagel said. “And it’s critically important that this institution, this organization continue to keep the edge that we’ve had over the years since it was established — that technological edge.”

The technological edge Hagel referred to revolves around several key areas. In addition to cybersecurity, Hagel and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen are promoting more investment in precision strike weapons, command, control and communications integration and interoperability, and greater information sharing through an enhanced surveillance and intelligence architecture powered by NATO-controlled high-endurance drones.

According to Rasmussen, NATO’s Connected Forces Initiative — an effort to enhance communications and integration between NATO countries — will be a main focus of discussion during the next NATO Summit, scheduled to take place in September in Wales.

“We are looking at ways to fill capability gaps,” Rasmussen said. “I appreciate that the European Council in December adopted conclusions with a focus on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, including drones, and a focus on air-to-air refueling. I think European allies could come forward with more contributions to missile defense.”

One of NATO’s key technology programs is the Alliance Ground Surveillance system, which is being built around five Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. Fifteen NATO countries are participating in the acquisition of the system, which is scheduled to come online in 2017.

But there remain significant doubts as to whether or not the pace of European investment will be strong enough to maintain needed modernization efforts. The combined defense expenditures of all 28 NATO members in 2013 totaled $1.02 trillion. And while that still means NATO is by far the largest military force in the world, the capability gap referred to by Rasmussen has largely fallen on the shoulders of the United States. And that gap may get worse before it gets better.

According to NATO analysis, between 2007 and 2013, the share of U.S. expenditures has increased from 68 percent to 73 percent, while European expenditures continued to decrease as a whole.

“In my lifetime, post-World War II, I don’t know of a more uncertain, tenuous, complicated, dangerous time in the world in most regions of the world than today,” Hagel said. “Technology has driven new threats … that we didn’t have 10 years ago. Cyber warfare, the potential of destruction to a country via a cyber attack without anyone firing a shot, with an uncertainty of where it’s coming from; the paralysis that it could bring to a nation, essentially decimating an economy. That’s just but one example,” Hagel said.

“So I think if, for no other reason, that new environment, the new realities that face us all, present a new kind of challenge — and it’s not a challenge that can be deferred,” he said, responding to questions about how the U.S. can convince a reluctant Europe to invest savings from troop reductions in modernization programs. “This is a challenge that’s right now, that is absolutely right now.”