5 priorities for the federal RPA Community of Practice in 2021

Agencies plan to generate demand and optimize processes for automation in 2021, among three other priorities announced by the federal Robotic Process Automation Community of Practice’s executive sponsor on Tuesday.

The RPA CoP consists of more than 1,000 employees from 65 agencies planning to encourage their components to invest resources in targeted automations after standardizing business processes, said Gerard Badorrek, who’s also the chief financial officer at the General Services Administration.

GSA has an “Eliminate, Optimize and Automate” program Badorrek wants the RPA CoP to expand governmentwide.

“One of the first pilots we looked at doing, we realized we could simply eliminate the process,” Badorrek said Tuesday during ACT-IAC‘s Digital Transformation Summit.

The RPA CoP has already released a Federal RPA Program Playbook and State of Federal RPA Report and is planning to issue an Eliminate, Optimize, Automate Handbook on process optimization later this year.

Other practice areas the RPA CoP is focusing on are:

• automation deployment to design efficient factories;
• technology management to get the right systems approvals, partner with IT organizations and ensure security compliance; and
• program design and agile management to involve Centers of Excellence and assign roles and responsibilities.

The RPA CoP is also placing an emphasis on peer-to-peer engagement this year.

“We want to set up some mentoring between agencies that have solved problems and that are more advanced with agencies that are starting the process,” Badorrek said. “I think that’s going to be a tremendous opportunity for us.”

The RPA CoP already created a use case inventory categorizing RPA instances by functional areas like finance, procurement and human resources. Next, it will update that inventory with common agency RPA applications.

At the same time, the RPA CoP is discussing the possibility of the first governmentwide automation and what that might look like, Badorrek said.

Government made “good progress” on RPA from 2019 to 2020 with 23 agencies responsible for more than doubling the total number of automations from 219 to 460 projects, according to the State of Federal RPA Report.

Agencies saw a 70% increase in average RPA program maturity with eight programs advancing from Level 1 maturity and five reaching Level 4 for the first time as government takes on more complex business processes.

The RPA CoP gauges maturity based on four factors:

• measurable outcomes, like number of automations in production and hours of capacity created annually;
• program scope and demand, which looks at implementation across an agency’s business units and strength of the pipeline;
• development capacity and technology, which looks at the ability to produce many solutions and security; and
• program capabilities, namely the benefits and expertise offered through process optimization and intelligent automation.

Badorrek wants to see even more aggressive implementation of RPA projects in 2021 with more mature agencies taking the lead on collaborations.

“First we need to take an approach that large-scale, governmentwide implementation of emerging technologies is much more effective working as a team,” Badorrek said. “Rather than as individual agencies running their own races.”

CMMC Accreditation Body sees more board members depart

The third-party accreditation body working to implement the Department of Defense‘s new contractor cybersecurity standards announced the forthcoming loss of two key board members recently, the organization announced Tuesday.

The departures of Ben Tchoubineh and Nicole Dean came as a normal part of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body’s development, leaders of the board said. Both were founding board members, volunteering since the CMMC-AB was incorporated in January 2020 to oversee the accreditation, education and certification process for assessors enforcing DOD’s new CMMC standards.

No new members have been announced to replace the departing members, but both will remain on board to train their replacements.

“Their efforts leave us well-positioned to move forward with a world-class training program,”  Karlton Johnson, CMMC-AB board chair, said in a statement about the two departures.

Tchoubineh, the president of several cyber-training companies, led efforts to stand up training oversight for the Accreditation Body. His departure comes as those training policies are being revamped after an initial round of feedback from industry, including making training compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I’m exceedingly proud of the work that the CMMC-AB Board has accomplished to stand up a world-class Accreditation and Certification body in just 15 months and with few resources,” Tchoubineh said in a statement. “I’m humbled and grateful to have worked with so many incredibly selfless and accomplished patriotic volunteers who stepped up to do what’s needed to secure our nation.”

Tchoubineh’s companies could become eligible for contracts and partnerships with the AB to deliver training services once he fully transitions off the AB. While a board member, he has been forbidden by the AB’s code of ethics from any self-dealing. But once gone, those restrictions are lifted on his businesses pursuing work in the CMMC ecosystem.

“As Board members transition, they will be expected to adhere to the Conflict of Interest documents they signed and conduct themselves accordingly. The board remains diligent towards employing strong ethics in all of the organization’s actions and activities,” the AB said in a statement to FedScoop regarding conflicts of interest.

Dean, who is chief information security officer of Accenture Federal Services, has been one of the few women to serve on the AB. In the first months of the AB’s development in 2020, she often led webinars and public communications about the AB’s progress.

“During my time on the CMMC-AB Board, we’ve accomplished many things, and I look forward to building on our successes as a member of the CMMC-AB’s Industry Advisory Council,” Dean said in a statement. “The relationships we’ve forged with the DoD over the last year will ensure the CMMC-AB is able to deliver critical cybersecurity standards for the defense industrial base.”

The board is in the process of trying to recruit full-time professional staff to transition from its current focus on minute details to becoming more of a strategic adviser, a goal it has been trying to achieve for months. 

Carr: FCC must continue freeing up spectrum for 5G

The Federal Communications Commission must continue to free up wireless spectrum, often used by federal agencies, for commercial 5G services if the U.S. wants to maintain its leadership in the space ahead of competitors like China, said Commissioner Brendan Carr.

The senior Republican on the commission proposed a spectrum calendar to free up and auction off airwaves as quickly as possible, during an American Enterprise Institute event Monday.

During the Trump administration, the Republican-controlled FCC opened up more than 6 gigahertz of spectrum for licensed 5G services, in addition to thousands of megahertz of unlicensed spectrum, a trend Carr wants to see continued.

“We need to be clear-eyed about our spectrum policy going forward,” Carr said. “Whether we like it or not, freeing up more spectrum requires FCC leadership that accumulates political capital and has the willingness to spend it.”

Carr’s spectrum calendar for 2021 calls for:

• the auctioning of 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band at power levels supporting 5G builds, which is likely to be voted on this week;
• the auctioning of 100 MHz in the 2.5 GHz band, “prime” mid-band spectrum;
• adopting an order permitting very low-powered devices to operate and allowing client-to-client devices to communicate in the 6 GHz band, promoting augmented and virtual reality applications;
• seeking comment, including from federal agencies, on increasing power levels for Citizens Broadband Radio Service operations in the 3.5 GHz band;
• starting proceedings to update rules for the “vastly underutilized” U-NII-2C band; and
• working with Congress to reauthorize the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, which expired for most bands at the end of fiscal 2022.

In 2022, Carr wants the FCC to hold an auction for the 1300-1350 MHz band, which federal agencies could vacate by next year, and another auction in the 42 GHz millimeter wave band.

For 2023 and beyond, Carr envisions auctions in the lower 3 GHz band; 4.8 GHz band, which other countries have licensed exclusively for 5G; and portions of the 7.25-8.4 GHz band.

As for 5G infrastructure, Carr wants the broadband maps Congress gave the FCC $98 million to complete finished this fall and not next year.

“Getting those maps is the key to unlocking the funding that will be needed to close the digital divide,” Carr said. “If we need to allocate more agency resources to this effort, then we should do it.”

Carr desires a version 1.0, minimalist approach to the maps to streamline the process. They need only contain information needed to allocate money from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II and 5G Fund, Carr said.

The Republican-run FCC practiced a “light touch” approach to infrastructure regulation, and the Democrat-led FCC should continue to make it easier to build 5G infrastructure on federal lands, Carr said. A Federal Lands Desk should be designated to coordinate with federal agencies, he added.

Carr also urged the creation of thousands of tower technician and telecommunications crew jobs in partnership with trade schools and cautioned against subsidizing “overbuilding” in the form of new entrants in the 5G space.

Restoring net neutrality, which would prevent internet service providers from charging different rates depending on the type of communication, is a big issue for Democrats. The Republican-run FCC overturned those protections, and Carr argued the successful performance of U.S. networks during increased pandemic traffic levels was proof it was the right decision.

China has seen a 40% reduction in download speeds, and European countries asked Netflix to reduce its video quality during the pandemic, Carr said.

“We should also see the push for the return to Title II Net Neutrality for what it is: a push for rate regulation,” he said. “Those backing this misguided policy simply refuse to accept the reality that the internet has flourished since we repealed the ill-advised Title II regulations.”

Army working on new cyber, electromagnetic weapons after large-scale test event

The Army recently concluded a large event that tested new cyber and electromagnetic spectrum weapons in its tactical operations.

The event, Cyber Quest 2021, was hosted by Army Futures Command and brought in users from across the service to test 15 new technologies from more than a dozen vendors, senior leaders told reporters Monday. Many of the lessons learned from the 13-day event will be put into procurement requirements documents for new technologies the Army is focused on as part of its broader strategy to deter great power conflict.

“This is unique because of the dialog it allows,” said Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, commanding general of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence that helped lead Cyber Quest. Hersey said the partnership with industry was a rare opportunity to get new tech into the hands of on-the-ground operators and allow for vendors to receive feedback.

One of the new parts of the annual exercise was a close partnership with the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning in Georgia. It’s a partnership that’s expected to continue as the Army tries to ramp up the development of robotic vehicles and operations that will rely on networking units together.

“The exercise really is the first of its kind that we have done,” Hersey said on a call with reporters.

One of the exercises during the event had a platoon of soldiers tasked with defending an airbase in the Indo-Pacific against a simulated attack. The team was able to operate anti-jamming radios and track enemy movements by their electromagnetic signatures.

Troops on the ground used new tools to detect enemies, send data back up the chain of command, have it analyzed and then sent back — something that often takes longer than they can afford. Soldiers were even able to link a small drone to their network to inform movements.

Building anti-jamming radios and other electromagnetic-spectrum manipulation tools is a new tech-focus for the military after two decades of relatively low-tech conflict. The Department of Defense sees these types of tech as critical in thwarting war with China, the U.S.’s No. 1 strategic competitor. U.S. military leaders anticipate China would be very technical in its maneuvering, deploying cyberattacks, satellite jamming and network interference in a battlefield scenario, something American forces have not recently experienced.

The Army also tested the use of an offensive cybersecurity measure of using code that can mask some of the signatures of an American-led cyberattack. The highly secretive tool is one of the ways the U.S. wants to ensure its offensive measures are not traced back to the homeland, Col. John Transue, acting director for Army Cyber-Capability Development Integration Directorate (C-CDID).

The code uses pattern recognition to obfuscate the digital signatures left by cyber warriors. Developed by Accenture, it would not only be used by the Army but across the cyber workforce and be able to be “changing from mission to mission,” Transue said.

The larger tests during Cyber Quest 2021 will play an important role in the Army’s drawn-out acquisition process. 

“The testing that goes on helps inform the requirement documents,” Col. Chris Haffey said on the call with reporters.

The tests are one way to talk directly with industry and have soldier feedback on products within the confines of the traditional acquisition process, moving the military away from arduous and complex requirements-writing.

“This year was about seeing what we could do together,” said Maj. Nelson Reynolds, a United Kingdom exchange officer stationed at Army Futures Command who worked on Cyber Quest.

Government agencies harness RPA ‘bots’ to build capacity, improve services

Federal and state government workers are beginning to benefit from a growing army of digital robots designed to streamline agency workloads and quicken the delivery of public services.

The robots — or more accurately, robotic process automation (RPA) applications — are gaining widening adoption across government agencies, according to a new survey of federal and state government business, program and IT officials.

More than 6 in 10 federal respondents — and 4 in 10 state respondents — in the survey said their agency now uses RPA technology to facilitate work. And it appears the momentum for using RPA technology is building quickly in government. Of those at agencies putting RPA to work, two-thirds have begun piloting, or deploying RPA within the last 12 months.

The findings are based on a new survey, completed by 167 prequalified executives at federal and state government agencies, responsible for their agencies’ business, program or enterprise operations, including IT, customer service and acquisition officials. The survey was conducted by FedScoop and StateScoop, with underwriting support from UiPath, a leading provider of RPA software solutions

Among other key findings:

• 6 in 10 federal respondents — and half of state respondents — view RPA as a building block to harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning, by accelerating data gathering and improving data quality.
• RPA is being put to work in widening range of applications, including efforts to streamline data collection and processing, document management, identity verification and to respond automatically to citizens’ information requests.
• While the number of RPA applications varies according to agency size and experience, among respondents familiar with the numbers, half said their agency had developed or deployed more than 50 RPA robots as of the end of last year.
• 1 in 3 respondents said that RPA technology has saved between 5,000 and 50,000 hours of routine work, allowing employees to re-channel their time and efforts to more value-added areas of public service.

Because RPA requires little or no coding, and can be deployed with minimal training, it is relatively easy for employees to apply it successfully to automate all kinds of business processes and online services, according to James Walker, chief technology officer for public sector at UiPath.

The study suggests that once RPA’s benefits are demonstrated in one area, it opens up consideration for uses elsewhere.

But RPA also provides a way to help budget-constrained agencies boost capacity, observed Walker. “Automation can begin to liberate agency staff from repetitive, lower-valued — but necessary — work and enable them to focus on higher-valued tasks needed to achieve their mission.”

Read the full report, “RPA’s expanding role in government,” for the detailed findings, or contact automation@uipath.com to learn more about automating workflows.

 This article was produced by FedScoop and StateScoop and underwritten by UiPath.

Coast Guard adding Wi-Fi to cutters, tablets to command posts

The U.S Coast Guard, a year into its self-described “tech revolution,” is working to install Wi-Fi on its cutters to increase connectivity and modernizing other legacy systems in command posts.

The “underway Wi-Fi” will be added to two cutters this year in a pilot program, Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the Coast Guard, said in his State of the Coast Guard address last week. The pilot program, meant for vessels that are not at anchor, aims to also help guardsmen stay connected to family while deployed, a capability currently limited by the ’90s-era tech Schultz wants to replace.

The guard will also be replacing old desktops in command posts with mobile “two-in-one tablets” that will give leaders the ability to work from anywhere. Approximately 3,000 tablets will also be distributed to training centers across the country.

“At last year’s State of the Coast Guard, I announced a ‘tech revolution,'” Shultz said. “Since then, we’ve leaped-frogged ahead and — with the help of Congress — put the Coast Guard on a much better trajectory with regard to [command, control, communications, computers, combat systems and intelligence].”

The Coast Guard has struggled to modernize its systems, its leaders have said. Many of the systems that directly impact operations like countering drug smugglers or rescuing distressed vessels had to operate with limited connectivity and data. Watchdog agencies also found vessel tracking systems contained duplicate and faulty records due to a lack of automation.

Since his last State of the Coast Guard address, Schultz said the service has made some concrete progress with the launch of new apps and moving to systems that could support teleworking.

“In the past year, we’ve migrated to a cloud-based suite of collaboration tools and have increased the ability to connect our workforce, whether that be improved cutter connectivity both underway and in-port, or greatly enhanced telework capability,” the commandant said.

Much is left to be done, Schultz acknowledged. Work is still underway to modernize financial systems and other administrative tasks still largely done by hand. Schultz committed to using “big data” to further reduce costs.

The Coast Guard continues to rely on outside help for cybersecurity. About 20 cybersecurity auxiliarists — volunteers that work part-time — are now assisting on research and development projects to keep data secure from hackers, Schultz announced.

First TMF award of 2021 comes hours after watershed $1B appropriation

The Department of Labor received $9.6 million from the Technology Modernization Fund to update its enterprise data platform, less than a day after lawmakers put a historic $1 billion into the funding vehicle.

DOL will use its funds to improve the availability and accessibility of data for other agencies, developers and researchers, as well as improve evidence-based decision making across its enforcement, compliance and unemployment insurance missions.

The TMF award is also a win for the three-year-old fund itself, which had only garnered $150 million in total appropriations prior to President Biden signing the American Rescue Plan Act into law Thursday.

“Technology is a key enabler for government in providing better services to the American public,” said David Shive, chief information officer at the General Services Administration and a TMF Board member, in the announcement. “The news of the Technology Modernization Fund getting a $1 billion boost from the American Rescue Plan couldn’t have come at a better time, and the TMF Board looks forward to receiving more project proposals like this one from DOL to consider for investment.”

The TMF serves as a streamlined way for agencies to get the money they need to upgrade aging and obsolete information technology.

DOL received one TMF award previously to make its paper-based work visa application process digital in 2018 for a $2 million annual savings.

The latest award comes on TMF’s third anniversary, having funded 11 modernization projects across government to date.

“With this first project approval of 2021, the TMF Board is reinforcing its commitment to invest in federal technology modernization initiatives that enable agencies to better deliver their services to the American public,” said Maria Roat, deputy federal CIO and TMF Board member, in a statement.

How CDM data can drive federal cyber strategies

When the federal government launched its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program, it was intended to give agencies the tools they needed to know definitively who and what assets were operating on their networks, with the goal of reducing cyber risks.

A growing number of agencies, however, are on the cusp of gaining a far more powerful view of their network operations and overall cybersecurity posture, says Frank Dimina, vice president, America and public sector, at Splunk, in a new report.

What agencies and program leaders are starting to appreciate now, he says, is how the CDM program is generating a treasure trove of dynamically-integrated IT operating and security data, capable of helping agencies establish a more comprehensive view of their security posture.

“The added integration and analytics capability of CDM, compared to the underlying monitoring systems, is equivalent to going from looking at snapshots from a point in time, to having the fidelity of a live video feed,” says Dimina, in the new report, “Leveraging CDM to federal cyber strategies.”

The report, produced by FedScoop and underwritten by Splunk, features a series of articles and commentary perspectives that highlight how CDM is poised to help agencies improve their IT operations as well as their security.

One of the ongoing challenges agencies face — and where CDM’s automation capabilities are seen as a potent solution — lies in managing the explosion of data flowing into security and network operation centers from a widening array devices, sensors and applications, says Michael Guercio, business development and strategic program manager at Splunk. That leads to a related challenge of how to remediate a growing number of vulnerabilities.

“Remediation is still a manual process that requires IT teams to allocate valuable time and resources,” he says in the report. “That’s where one of CDM’s underappreciated capabilities comes into play. In addition to the ability to stitch together information from multiple sources, CDM’s tools also provide the ability to automate the execution of identification and potential responses, based on agencies’ most critical threats, their risk posture and their risk threshold.”

Guercio points to Splunk’s Phantom platform as example of the kind of tools available through the CDM program that are available to help agencies with those challenges.

Phantom provides an orchestration automation and response technology to help correlate data and create a single picture of the agency’s cybersecurity posture. “It also can automate remediation processes and augment existing NAC technologies across the tool stack,” he says.

“It doesn’t matter if an agency is using ForeScout, or if they’re using Cisco ISE, or even within a more federated agency’s IT organization. Phantom provides the automation of these tools into one service so that agencies have a single, easy-to-interpret view with checks and downstream actions initiated without human intervention.”

The report also highlights how CDM has helped agencies reduce operating costs, by identifying under-utilized assets and software licensing costs.

Read more about how CDM data integration and security analytics are enabling real-time visibility and operational efficiencies at federal agencies. And learn more about Splunk’s “Data-to-Everything Platform” capabilities for the public sector.

This article was produced by FedScoop and sponsored by Splunk.

Top Army general vows for new cyber talent management system

As the Army rethinks talent management, it wants to ensure that uniformed cybersecurity experts have a quick path to promotion and that they don’t end up being pushed out by the service’s strict physical standards, its top general said Thursday.

The Army wants its new talent management system to focus on skills and career paths like cybersecurity that are not necessarily related to physical combat. Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army, told reporters Thursday during a call with the Defense Writers Group that the Army is in the process of evaluating the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) and rank promotion process in part to make sure that tech talent can stay in uniform longer.

“If you are a cyber whiz, maybe you do not have to have a 600 on the test,” he said, referring to the top score for the new ACFT. “[W]e are going from an industrial age personnel management system to a 21st-century talent management system.”

Under the ACFT, introduced late last year, fitness requirements are set by occupation, one change made to move towards a system that can retain soldiers with a diversity of skills.

McConville also said the Army needs new ways to reward and promote cyber personnel in the enlisted ranks. He described a soldier he met as “one of the best in the world at cyber,” but added he was only a sergeant, a rank he felt did not reflect his experience and talents.

McConville sees changing compensation and promotion based on domain-specific talent as the future for the Army.

“We don’t want to disenfranchise any of these people in the Army,” he said of soldiers with technical skills who can run into roadblocks in a system designed to promote those with battlefield strengths.

The Army has a talent management task force charged with finding ways to promote and retain new skill sets to meet new challenges. The task force is also working to eliminate unconscious bias in promotions. It has already rolled out changes for field-grade officers, like colonels and majors, that can guarantee certain career paths to not waste talent. Now, it is piloting new ways to promote enlisted soldiers including new rubrics for testing and interviews and shifting authorities to local commanders that have a better sense for squad cohesion.

Other ongoing Army talent initiatives include new technology education options for officers, like courses in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

ATARC intends to merge agency and vendor zero trust working groups

The Advanced Technology Academic Research Center’s parallel zero trust working groups for federal agencies and vendors intend to merge once the government side establishes use cases.

A merger will allow the more than 15 agencies and 15 vendors participating to begin zero trust logistics and building and showcasing proofs of concept, said Gerald Caron, director of enterprise network management in the State Department‘s Bureau of Information Resources.

Caron co-chairs the agency working group and developed a zero-trust architecture that subgroups are using to define use cases.

“While the government is doing their deliveries and getting level set on requirements and architectures and definitions and concepts and use cases … we are feeding that to the vendors, so they can get started,” Caron said during an ATARC event Thursday.

Caron helped stand up ATARC’s Trusted Internet Connection 3.0 Demonstration Center, a physical test environment allowing federal agencies to try out cloud and infrastructure solutions for securing their networks.

With ATARC’s TIC 3.0 Working Group deemed a success, its members were grandfathered into the Zero Trust Working Group “because we believe TIC fits into the overall architecture of zero trust,” Caron said.

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox has further agreed to join the working group and work with its members as his program transitions toward a zero-trust concept. That way the CDM program will get direct feedback from government officials and vendor representatives.

And Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha will have someone from his office participate in the working group as well.

“Having those two entities, I think, makes this working group pretty powerful — for lack of a better term,” Caron said. “It’s great participation, and we’re really influencing the government at this point.”

The working group will demystify zero trust by providing technical requirements agencies can use, said Trafenia Salzman, security architect at the Small Business Administration.

“It’s really helpful as an architect or an engineer or an analyst to be able to implement that in your environment,” said Salzman, who co-chairs the Zero Trust Working Group.

Salzman’s team at SBA is currently inventorying security tools and gathering information on processes before it implements a zero trust plan for the agency.

Meanwhile Caron is helping implement zero-trust infrastructure at the State Department and also serving as acting chief information officer for the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

HHS OIG is also inventorying security tools with plans for a multi-year, multiple project zero trust program.

“I’d rather be effective than compliant, so I think zero trust really focuses on effectiveness because you focus on what you want to protect,” Caron said. “I really believe in that, and compliance can fall into place as you go.”