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Supercomputing consortium further solidifies White House partnership with tech on coronavirus response

The White House’s loose partnership with the tech industry on coronavirus response continues to take shape with the announcement of a supercomputing consortium to speed the work of COVID-19 researchers.

Government, industry and academic partners have volunteered supercomputing time and other resources to researchers who are studying ways to limit the virus’ spread. The White House unveiled the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium on Sunday.

Combined, the consortium’s 16 systems equal 330 petaflops of supercomputing capacity that can complete, in hours or days, the required calculations on bioinformatics, epidemiology, molecular modeling and health-care system response. Additional cloud computing resources are forthcoming.

“The Department of Energy is home to the world’s fastest and most powerful supercomputers, and we are excited to partner with leaders across the scientific community who will use our world class innovation and technology to combat COVID-19,” said Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette in the announcement.

Five DOE national laboratories, the National Science Foundation and NASA belong to the consortium, which was convened by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

OSTP encouraged researchers to submit COVID-19 research proposals for review and matching with computing resources via an online portal. A panel of scientists and computing researchers will assess the public health benefits of each proposal.

“Accelerating the process of discovery to unlock treatments and a cure for COVID-19 is of vital importance to us all,” said Dario Gil, director of IBM research, in a statement. “By bringing together the world’s most advanced supercomputers and matching them with the best ideas and expertise, this consortium can drive real progress in this global fight.”

IBM’s Summit is the most powerful supercomputer on the planet, according to the tech company. The POWER9-based supercomputer has already allowed researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee to screen about 8,000 compounds for those most likely to bind to the coronavirus’ main “spike” protein — preventing it from infecting host cells.

The 77 small-molecule drug compounds recommended can now be experimentally tested.

Other industry partners in the consortium are Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Academic partners are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

OSTP’s consortium comes on the heels of its release of the most extensive collection of machine-readable coronavirus literature for data and text mining by the tech industry on behalf of scientists.

On March 11, the office held an initial call with tech companies seeking artificial intelligence breakthroughs in coronavirus response.

“America is coming together to fight COVID-19,” said Michael Kratsios, U.S. chief technology officer, in a statement. “And that means unleashing the full capacity of our world-class supercomputers to rapidly advance scientific research for treatments and a vaccine.”

White House tells agencies to use technology to the ‘greatest extent practicable’ during coronavirus

The White House issued a memo Sunday urging agencies to maximize the use of technology during the coronavirus pandemic to best continue normal operations.

The guidance from the Office of Management and Budget calls on agencies to update their .gov websites and virtual private networks, revisit identity and access management policies, and lean on collaboration and electronic signature platforms to keep the workforce connected and productive.

“By aggressively embracing technology to support business processes, the Federal Government is better positioned to maintain the safety and well-being of the Federal workforce and the American public while supporting the continued delivery of vital mission services,” states the memo, signed by Deputy Director for Management Margaret Weichert. “In response to the national emergency for COVID-19, agencies are directed to use the breadth of available technology capabilities to fulfill service gaps and deliver mission outcomes.”

OMB’s guidance comes as the federal government has moved to a state of “maximum teleworking” during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Some agencies have experienced strain on their networks and ambiguity with how to deal with contractors. On Friday, OMB also urged contracting officers to extend teleworking to private-sector contractors.

For agencies to continue interfacing with citizens, OMB urged agencies to provide updated information through their website and conduct needed interactions over the phone. For forms that need to be signed, OMB urged agencies to use e-signatures to “the fullest extent practicable.” Weichert herself signed the memo digitally.

To ensure continued access for employees, agencies should re-authenticate user accounts remotely, the memo says. For some agencies, users need to login to networks from their offices for their accounts to remain active. Avoiding entering offices and keeping government face-to-face interactions to a minimum remains the priority, the memo states.

The memo also addresses the cybersecurity risks of moving work online. While it urges agencies to remain vigilant, it said agencies should take “risk-based decisions as appropriate” to meet the needs of continuing operations. The memo tells agencies to update VPNs, remind employees not to forward government material to non-government platforms and provide guidance on protecting information security.

Contractors should telework too

OMB issued a separate memo Friday urging contracting officers to extend teleworking opportunities to government contractors. The memo comes after contractors were left in limbo over whether they were still required to report to government buildings or could access their work remotely.

The memo, also signed by Weichert, tells agencies “to work with their contractors, if they haven’t already, to evaluate and maximize telework for contractor employees, wherever possible.”

The memo also asks the government to be flexible on deadlines that could be missed due to contractors that fall ill or are unable to telework but must remain in self-isolation.

“Equally important, agencies should be flexible in providing extensions to performance dates if telework or other flexible work solutions, such as virtual work environments, are not possible, or if a contractor is unable to perform in a timely manner due to quarantining, social distancing, or other COVID-19 related interruptions,” Weichert wrote in the memo.

Contracts that pertain to national security and other critical duties should have mobile-ready personnel to ensure the duties are carried out. Also, agencies should consider “retooling” contracts that deal with logistics and security to meet pandemic response tasks, the memo states.

Contracting officers have new powers with the president’s declaration of a national state of emergency, such as being able to quickly buy larger quantities of goods and services known as “micro-purchases.” Other powers granted to agencies with the president’s triggering of the Defense Production Act include rated orders, which can compel companies to make critical supplies deemed essential for the nation’s security and safety.

“(T)he acquisition workforce should feel fully empowered to use the acquisition flexibilities, as needed, consistent with good business judgment in response to this national emergency,” Weichert writes in the memo.

And instead of holding industry day meetings or conducting face-to-face meetings, “agencies should consider virtual activities, such as online industry conferences, video proposals, and other innovative steps in planning their acquisitions,” the memo goes on to say.

Contractors demand maximum telework authority as coronavirus furloughs loom

Contractors want the government to afford them the same telework flexibilities federal employees have been granted in its coronavirus response.

Agencies have begun sending contract employees home without the authority to telework, and those responsible for nonessential functions may soon be furloughed.

The Department of Homeland Security has identified critical infrastructure sectors that will need to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic. That list includes essential companies and workforces in health care, law enforcement, food and safety, energy, communications and IT, and the defense industrial base, among others.

But for those people or companies that don’t fit the list or that provide services that can wait, they, for now, appear to be largely left in the dark. Though DHS recommends they be asked to telework when possible, saying that “in-person, non-mandatory activities should be delayed until the resumption of normal operations,” the Office of Management and Budget hasn’t issued any broad policy for contractor telework.

Some work, particularly in the intelligence and cybersecurity space, requires contract employees on site. If those employees aren’t permitted to do their jobs in-person, companies’ bottom lines will start to take a hit, Ryan Bradel, the attorney leading Ward & Berry’s government contracts practice, told FedScoop.

“A couple of weeks is doable, but if this thing goes on for months, I don’t know if the government is in the position to pay for furloughed employees for that period of time,” Bradel said. “We’re really in uncharted territory here.”

The only precedent is the partial government shutdown from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, caused by a budget impasse, where a law was later passed providing back pay to furloughed contractors. But early estimates have coronavirus restrictions lasting months, not weeks, Bradel said.

In a Wednesday letter, the Professional Services Council trade association called on the Office of Management and Budget to issue comprehensive guidance to all federal acquisition officials allowing maximum telework for contractors. The Federal Acquisition Regulation permits contractor telework, said David Berteau, president and CEO of PSC.

Normally PSC wants contracting officers to make the best call for each contract, but in this case, teleworking clauses need to be added so employees can social distance for their health and safety.

“In these circumstances, you don’t want thousands of different decisions,” Berteau said.

But departments continue to direct contractors to work with their COs to this point.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Mark Esper urging the Department of Defense to issue clear telework and paid leave guidance for employees and contract personnel.

“[A]t present, guidance issued by OMB, [the Office of Personnel Management], and [DOD] have ambiguity that is creating confusion and anxiety,” Warner wrote. “Personnel whose duties and responsibilities do not immediately contribute to a critical national security function would benefit from a clear directive instructing them to work remotely and would make a significant impact for our nation.”

Employees also remain unclear on whether administrative, weather and safety, sick, or annual leave applies to time off, if they exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, are exposed or have to take care of sick family.

The same day as the Warner letter, DOD released an internal letter dated March 10 in which Kim Herrington, acting principal director of Defense Pricing and Contracting, encouraged COs to engage with contractors to determine welfare and safety measures.

“It is vital that close communication and coordination between these stakeholders continue as the situation evolves, and the team should consider all potential scenarios at the contract level as the impacts may vary based on the specific situation or location,” Herrington wrote.

Thursday letters to contractors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Security Administration had a similar message.

Bradel is encouraging his clients to maintain open lines of communication with COs and other government contacts stressing the pressure contractors are under.

“I’ve had a lot of calls with clients, where they’re asking, ‘What do we do?’” Bradel said.

Only in the last 48 hours had Bradel heard of contractors laying off a few employees, and he said none appeared to be in “serious financial trouble, yet.”

But small and midsize companies that rely on day-to-day billing will go out of business in a prolonged COVID-19 scenario, which means the government will have lost its base of service providers once the crisis ends, Bradel said.

“Agencies are going to have to try and maintain some cash flow, so these companies can stay in business,” he said. “I have no doubt that organized efforts to pass some legislation are in the offing.”

Jackson Barnett contributed to this report.

Air Force’s JADC2 tests delayed at least two months

The next round of testing of the futuristic technology system that will connect the military’s data across global domains is delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the chief of staff of the Air Force announced.

The Air Force is postponing data integration demonstrations for the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system until at least June, Gen. David Goldfein said.

The network-of-networks is compared to a military Internet-of-Things (IoT). With such complexity in its interconnectivity, the system relies on testing events where drones, ships, fighter jets, and other military weapons and hardware are brought together to integrate the data coming in from sensors.

Goldfein stressed that the test’s original April date is not being canceled, only delayed to the summer to ensure that work on the system continues.

“It’s really important that we are postponing it and not canceling it,” Goldfein said during a press conference at the Pentagon. “A number of industry leaders are also involved in this.”

The demonstrations will include many private companies contracted to help develop the technology that aims to connect “every sensor, every shooter.” Once data is better integrated, the military can use automation and eventually artificial intelligence for decision-making across the domains of air, land, sea, cyber and space.

The last three-day demonstration in December connected data from sensors on the Air Force’s F-22 and a Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The tests have been scheduled to occur every four months, a timeline the Air Force hopes to keep despite the virus’s rapid spread.

“We want to get right back on track as soon as the conditions allow us to,” Goldfein said. With the extra time this current delay affords, the Air Force is trying to “advance some of the technologies,” he added.

A new doctrine

As Joint All Domain Operations — the larger strategy that JADC2 falls under for how the military services work more closely across all domains of warfighting — continues to emerge as the plan to address near-peer threats, the Air Force has come out with new doctrine to better present and support the concept.

On March 5 Goldfein signed the 8-page document that defines Joint All Domain Operations, JADC2 and outlined the technology’s use in the Air Force’s future fights.

The goal of having operations across air, land, sea, cyber and space is to achieve a “convergence of effects” that give the U.S. military an edge in a fight with a near-pear competitor like China, the document reads. It is a new way of fighting that will require the Air Force to change how it “thinks and conduct operations.” Military commanders have previously stated the U.S. cannot rely on having superiority in any one area any longer.

The central technical challenge, as laid out in the doctrine, is turning large amounts of data from many sources into “actionable intelligence.” That will mean creating an all-new data architecture, Goldfein has previously said.

“Even a robust JADC2 system will not guarantee continual reachback in a contested environment,” the doctrine reads, referring to the ability to receive intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance from sensors. Because of this, all-domain operations will have to rely on less centralized planning, the doctrine states.

The doctrine also gives a new definition for JADC2: “the art and science of decision making that rapidly translate decisions into actions, leveraging capabilities across all domains with mission partners to achieve operational and information advantage in both competition and conflict.”

VA wants 180,000 new devices to support telework, telehealth during pandemic

Money to purchase 180,000 devices for telework and telehealth is part of the the Department of Veterans Affairs’ supplemental appropriations request to Congress, sources familiar with the matter told FedScoop.

Specifically, the VA says it needs 100,000 laptops to support “maximum telework” directives, 30,000 laptops for telehealth operations and 50,000 iPads for veterans to be able to access telehealth, the sources said.

The hardware falls under a $1.2 billion request for the department’s “Information Technology Systems account” to support the “quick shift” to telehealth and social distance working, according to an Office and Management and Budget memo earlier this week. Overall the VA is requesting $16.6 billion in extra fiscal 2020 funds to ensure it can continue its operations during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

It’s unclear exactly how much the hardware will cost, or how much it will cost to transport the devices across the country to hospitals, administrative staff and veterans. The current system for distribution can ship iPads to veterans that are pre-linked to their health records, said Douglas Boyer, chief health informatics officer for the South Texas VA hospital in San Antonio.

Boyer confirmed that the VA is planning to ramp up telehealth capabilities to meet the demand as veterans are asked to stay home from elective health care, but could not confirm the number of iPads the VA is expecting to buy.

“The entire VA has really aggressively prepared for this,” Boyer said.

The OMB memo to Congress noted the VA also needs to upgrade bandwidth to conduct teleworking operations — something that other agencies are struggling with — as well as telehealth on top of that.

Boyer said that so far the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA hospital has not had any “bumps in the road yet” with more than 115 employees teleworking and more in the pipeline to be approved to work remotely.

A source familiar with the IT budget request said it is likely to increase before it is passed into law. Congressional appropriators are still sizing up OMB’s supplemental request, which totals $45.8 billion across the entire government. It could be folded into other coronavirus-response legislation or passed on its own, reports said.

To put the $1.2 billion IT request in perspective: The VA requested nearly $5 billion for its entire Office of Information and Technology budget for fiscal 2021.

Department-level officials did not return a request for comment on the details of the supplemental request.

The VA predicts 20 percent of veterans, who tend to be older than the general population and have underlying health conditions, to be infected with the virus. Already 130 veterans have tested positive and two have died, according to the department.

The VA serves around 9 million veterans at its 170 medical centers across the country. Since it’s the nation’s largest health system, it is also prepping to back up the private-sector health care system if hospitals become overwhelmed with patients who have contracted COVID-19.

The VA has previously touted its telehealth capabilities as a means to reach veterans who live in rural areas.

“By the end of FY 2020, all primary care and mental health providers will be able to deliver care to patients, both in-person and via a mobile or web-based device,” Richard Stone, the executive-in-charge of the Veterans Health Administration, told lawmakers in February. The unprecedented speed of the virus’s spread and the need to send non-mission critical staff home to work remotely has caused the VA to need the extra funding. It’s unclear how they will manage all the new devices that need already tight bandwidth to operate.

Speaking of the VA’s telehealth preparedness, Boyer said: “This has uniquely positioned us to be able to respond to a situation just like this and expect the best possible outcomes,”

DOD bans streaming websites to lessen strain during coronavirus telework

The defense agency that operates the network teleworkers are logging into during the coronavirus pandemic has blocked media streaming websites like YouTube, Pandora, Netflix and others as network strain has slowed access to critical enterprise services, such as email.

The Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Networks — the organization that secures, operates, and defends the Department of Defense‘s networks — may soon also block social media websites to “maximize operational bandwidth available for COVID-19 response,” according to a memo from the chief of naval operations shared with FedScoop.

Charles Prichard, a DOD spokesman, confirmed the action: “Due to the current increased remote work demands, the Department will eliminate the capability to stream video and music on DoD networks, except for mission-critical activities,” he told FedScoop.

The moves come at a time when the military services are struggling with the impact of large portions of their workforces being asked to telework to fight the spread of coronavirus.

The Department of the Navy‘s Navy-Marine Corps Information (NMCI) network, for instance, is experiencing delays on its Outlook system used for email and other enterprise functions, Joe Gradisher, a spokesman for the Navy’s deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told FedScoop.

“Data shows internal NMCI users are clogging Outlook Web Access (OWA) access needed for social distant users,” Gradisher said.

The Air Force is expanding its network capacity to meet the “unprecedented demand for telework capabilities,” Bryan Lewis, an Air Force spokesman said in an email.

“Our networks are telework ready and capable to fully support the mission-critical duties performed by the department,” Lewis said. “For example, due to the increased remote work demands, there are plans to eliminate the capability to stream video and music on DoD networks, except for mission critical activities.”.

At least one teleworker is having easy access: the Air Force’s top military commander, Gen. David Goldfein. Goldfein noted during a press conference Wednesday he and his deputy are alternating teleworking from their homes.

“We are sending a message to every echelon of command of the Air Force that if the chief of staff of the Air Force can do it, then they can to,” Goldfein said. He added that he has access to classified material at his home, something that is not the case for other employees.

The DOD Office of the CIO is also doing its part to nudge personnel toward good network and cyber hygiene while working remotely on the department’s virtual private networks (VPNs).

The office issued a “dos and don’ts list” that gives teleworkers a two-page summary of ways to ensure network access and cybersecurity while working remotely. It instructs users to do things like encrypt their home Wi-Fi and limit the file sizes of email attachments. The list was released as DOD has been “stress-testing teleworking arrangements,” Lisa Hershman, DOD’s chief management officer, said Monday at a virtual town hall event.

 

 

Assume ‘malicious parties’ are waiting to pounce on telework traffic, NIST tells agencies

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is advising agencies to ensure the cybersecurity of any internal resources they make available to teleworkers through remote access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remote access technologies are, by nature, exposed to more external threats, notes the NIST Information Technology Laboratory bulletin issued Thursday. The advisory follows a separate guidance Wednesday by the Office of Management and Budget for agencies minimize face-to-face interactions as the coronavirus spreads.

The lab’s Computer Security Division suggested limiting remote access to as few teleworkers as possible to decrease the risk of compromise. The typical civilian agency worker is accessing their agency’s network with desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets via remote access software like virtual private networks (VPNs) and portals.

“An organization should assume that external facilities, networks, and devices contain hostile threats that will attempt to gain access to the organization’s data and resources,” reads the bulletin. “Organizations should assume that malicious parties will gain control of telework client devices and attempt to recover sensitive data from them or leverage the devices to gain access to the enterprise network.”

Based on that assumption, NIST made four recommendations to improve telework security:

Remote access tech like laptops and cellphones are more likely to be lost or stolen once they leave the office. Unsecured networks used to access any organization’s internal resources are susceptible to eavesdropping and “man-in-the-middle” attacks to intercept and alter communications.

NIST advised either encrypting device storage, encrypting all sensitive data stored on client devices or not storing sensitive data on those devices at all. Strong multi-factor identification deters people from handing their devices to unapproved people for use, the bulletin notes.

Anti-virus tech, verifying a device’s security posture before allowing remote access or establishing a separate network for BYOD all mitigate malware, which has more avenues to infect teleworkers’ devices, according to the bulletin.

NIST identified four remote access methods by architecture: tunneling, portals, direct application access, remote desktop access.

Tunneling establishes secure communications between a telework device and a remote access server, typically a VPN gateway, and protects them through cryptography.

A portal server allows access to applications through a, generally web-based, central interface that telework devices access. Most portals are secure sockets layer VPNs.

Direct application access doesn’t use remote access software but instead lets teleworkers access a single, secure application directly like webmail. Teleworkers use a web browser to connect using a hypertext transfer protocol secure to a web server that authenticates them before granting email access.

Remote desktop access — where a teleworker remotely controls their office desktop from an outside device — is the least secure.

“Generally, remote desktop access solutions, such as those using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or Virtual Network Computing (VNC), should only be used for exceptional cases after a careful analysis of the security risks,” reads the bulletin. “The other types of remote access solutions described in this bulletin offer superior security capabilities.”

Agency-approved messaging services adjust to crush of federal telework

As the tsunami of teleworking federal employees strains government networks, messaging platforms are seeing a spike in interest for their use, companies told FedScoop.

Connecting federal employees for meetings is an important slice of the IT capacity that the government now needs as it races to replace person-to-person interactions with online communications. Google G Suite, Slack, Zoom and Cisco’s Webex Meetings and its Secure Cloud for Defense are some of the software-as-a-service applications approved by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and for agency use.

Tools like Webex, which allows video and audio interactions, are replacing conference rooms, with many new federal customers being added to the company’s growing list of clients, Carl De Groote, head of Cisco’s federal division, told FedScoop on Thursday.

The messaging platform Wickr is also “ramping up” its rollout of secure enterprise communications services to the government, CEO Joel Wallenstrom told FedScoop. The Silicon Valley company is working to add hundreds of thousands of new users to its system in the next few weeks, scaling up a timeline that originally had a few thousand over the next few months. Wickr does not have its own FedRAMP approval, but stores data on secure Amazon Web Services servers that do.

FedRAMP has 177 approved cloud services providers — a list that employees who are teleworking can use to find secure messaging platforms, Robin Carnahan, former director of state and local practice at 18F, during a virtual Code for America summit March 12.

“It really is an easy way to prove to your leadership team that these things are well-vetted and approved and aren’t going to cause big security problems,” Carnahan said.

Agencies know they need more IT capabilities to meet the demand that may remain at “maximum telework” for weeks or months due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Tuesday the Office of Management and Budget requested more than $45 billion for supplemental funding, tens of millions of which could go to boosting IT for telework. The appropriations are expected to be added to a massive economic stimulus bill that Congress is writing in response to the pandemic, aides told CNN.

Some of the groundwork was already in place for teleworking as the government had practiced remote work before. Some units in the government, like the General Services Administration’s 18F organization, use Slack as a primary means of communication since most of its employees work remotely across the country.

Cisco’s Webex platform was already used in several agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security, according to FedRAMP’s website.

“We are really extending our capabilities and helping the government scale,” De Groote said.

Keeping security in mind

De Groote said Cisco is also receiving added interest in services like virtual private networks (VPNs), multi-factor authentication and having zero-trust protections in place.

“The perimeter disappears as workers go mobile,” De Groote said of having zero-trust procedures in place, which require authentication at every layer of security instead of a once-and-done login system.

Some of the government’s procedural and security steps will impede the rapid acquisition of some new technology, but those steps will hopefully keep security primary as the potential attack surface expands, said Wickr’sWallenstrom. 

The increased interest his company has received from the government would not have been able to translate to action without the relationships his company has with organizations like the Defense Innovation Unit. Their ability to scale up fast is also supported by prime contractors like General Dynamics Information Technology that provides a “really good partnership,” Wallenstrom added.

Security in collaboration technologies themselves is important, but so is the security consciousness of the people using it, Jason Yakencheck, the president of the technology trade association ISACA’s local DC chapter, said in a statement.

“Bad actors view the crisis as an opportunity to take advantage of fears or unfamiliar teleworking conditions to spread malware or steal sensitive information,” Yakencheck said. The National Institute for Standards and Technology also published a reminder of telework cybersecurity guidelines this week.

Census pushes Americans to online form as COVID-19 disrupts 2020 field count

Less than a week after officially kicking off the 2020 census, the Census Bureau has suspended field operations for the decennial survey until April 1 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

During that period, the bureau is directing Americans to use the count’s online self-response portal so that it can avoid sending census employees door-to-door at the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus.

As of March 15, more than 5 million Americans have already responded to the census online. The online self-response portal officially went online March 12. In total, the survey has received more than 11 million responses.

Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham “strongly” encourages Americans to respond to the census online “using a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet,” or by phone or mail if they prefer, during this lapse in field response operations.

“It has never been easier to respond to the census, and the 2020 Census will count everyone accurately,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “We recognize that many people plan to access the 2020 Census through other response modes, such as phone or paper, which is why the 2020 Census has such a nimble design.”

The 2020 count is supposed to be completed by July 31, the bureau said, but that date “can and will be adjusted if necessary as the situation evolves in order to achieve a complete and accurate count” — a likely occurrence as the federal government continues to take more aggressive measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

The online portal, however, was built to take the load off the traditional in-person census outreach and make the count more convenient to digital-savvy Americans.

FedScoop recently spoke to Zack Schwartz, deputy division chief of the U.S. Census Bureau‘s Communications Directorate, at the IT Modernization Summit about the census’ online portal and IT backbone.

“It is incredibly expensive to send someone to your door time and time again to try to get a response. It’s a huge cost savings,” Schwartz said. It could save American taxpayers and the bureau “billions of dollars possibly as opposed to continuing to send people to your door, continuing to print documents and forms that just aren’t needed.”

On top of the savings, it’s a way for the government to interact with citizens in the 21st century as they’ve come to expect in other parts of their lives.

“We knew that the American public was ready to respond online, was ready to use the internet, whether it’s in the back of an Uber, whether it’s on the metro in the morning on your cellphone, or whether it’s on your desktop PC on even on your lunch break, we needed that in order to get a high self-response rate,” Schwartz said. “We knew we needed a modern way for people to interact with the government.”

Pentagon opens bids on 5G prototypes at military bases

The Department of Defense has issued a call for prototypes to test 5G use cases at a handful of military bases around the U.S.

In recent weeks, the department issued a series of requests for prototype proposals to the National Spectrum Consortium to support the military’s experiments with 5G-related technologies. Under the first three solicitations released so far, work will take place at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia; Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington; and U.S. Naval Base San Diego. 

The three requests for proposals are split among different 5G use cases, each with separate awards to support the pilot project’s needs for testbeds, network enhancements and applications.

The bases in Georgia and San Diego are building “smart warehouse and asset management” prototypes.

Per the solicitations: “These 5G enabled smart warehouse technologies should improve the efficiency, accuracy, security, and safety of materiel and supply handling, management, storage, and distribution. Specifically, this project will leverage 5G networking in a warehouse test environment to identify, test and confirm 5G enabled warehouse and logistics improvements that increase the efficiency and safety of warehouse operations. The intended outcome of this project is a 5G-enabled Smart Warehouse that can not only improve the efficiency and safety of current processes, but also serve as a proving ground for testing, refining, and validating emerging 5G enabled technologies.”

Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, on the other hand, is developing an augmented reality/virtual reality prototype to “to demonstrate how 5G communications technologies can support realistic distributed training and develop deployable equipment and systems to integrate these technologies into ongoing training operations.”

DOD is also working on another pilot at Hill Air Force Base in Utah for 5G dynamic spectrum sharing. The call for prototypes for that is expected soon.

Bidding on these projects is open to only members of the National Spectrum Consortium in good standing through an other transaction agreement (OTA) the DOD has already awarded to the consortium. DOD says in the solicitation that NSC is an “open consortium with a low barrier for membership,” so any private organizations can join to compete for the contracts.

The consortium includes major telecommunications companies and government contractors, academic and nonprofit organizations and smaller companies.

The bidding period for each project ends in late April.

The prototypes developed in partnership between the military and the consortium’s members “will help ensure that the US continues to have the technical edge on the battlefield. We strongly encourage our members to collaborate and respond to these important [solicitations] to supports innovation and make sure that the United States remains a global technology leader on 5G,” said Joseph Dyer, chief strategy officer of the National Spectrum Consortium.

The base testbeds are meant to be as much about development for the military as they are for the commercial sector. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Lisa Porter told reporters last fall that “the uses cases we’re looking at have obvious military and commercial relevance.”

“5G is really ultimately about ubiquitous connectivity,” Porter said. “It’s not just cellphones and cat videos. It’s really everything getting connected to everything else … there’s a lot we don’t know as things are going to emerge. But one thing we can confidently say is there’s going to be a lot of complexity. And with complexity comes much greater attack surfaces, much more vulnerability — we have to understand those, and as we work through use cases that are relevant to us and relevant to the commercial sector, what we hope we can do together is understand how we mitigate those vulnerabilities and get out ahead of that.”