The General Services Administration has proposed regulatory changes on how contractors inform the government about cyber incidents and how they secure confidential government information in solicitations. 

The GSA wants to update its General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation to include the new rules — Case 2016-G511 and 2016-G515 — according to a Federal Register notice posted Friday.

GSAR Case 2016-G511 would require contractors to comply with agency cyber requirements and standards to protect GSA information when submitting statements of work and responding to solicitations.  

The GSAR Case 2016-G515 rule would then update the agency’s 9297.2C policy to include standards on how the GSA and its contractors manage information technology systems, protect personally identifiable information and other confidential information and report cyber breach. 

The 9297.2C is currently not available for public comment but the GSA wants to open the policy for public and industry input for further improvement. 

“It establishes the requirement for contractors to preserve images of affected systems and ensure contractor employees receive appropriate training for reporting cyber incidents,” the GSA said in the notice. 

The U.S. Army issued a 118-page manual in October detailing the service branch’s goals for future information warfare missions, FifthDomain.com reported.

The guide entitled “The Conduct of Information Operations” discusses the six stages of the Army’s information warfare strategy which may include disrupting communications systems, monitoring persons of interest and fostering cyberattacks.

Lt. Col Joey Sullinger, a public affairs officer at the Army Combined Arms Center, noted that the manual will provide Army leaders and IO professionals with the essential information needed to conduct effective IO work in compliance with Army ethics.

The guide also contains details on the use of social media for intelligence gathering operations.

The inspector general for the National Security Agency wants to expand his office’s subpoena authority to require telecommunications companies that provide records to the government to join interviews about investigations and audits on the NSA, FCW.com reported Monday.

Robert Storch made the call after the House advanced a bill that would expand IG testimonial subpoena powers to contractors, grant recipients and former federal employees.

The watchdog said his office currently has limited ability “to compel people from outside the agency who are employed privately to talk to our people.”

Such additional authorities are expected to promote accountability and to help better monitor NSA activities.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., comes after Congress and advocacy groups criticized the NSA for admitting it overcollected hundreds of millions of phone records from telco companies. The agency attributed the violation to “technical irregularities.”

To further improve oversight, Storch said he also wants to require the NSA to declassify or provide the public with summaries of other products in the future.

Early in 2018, the IG released the first ever unclassified version of the agency’s semi-annual report to Congress.

The document provided information on cybersecurity problems within the agency, additional insight on issues like the impact of foreign surveillance programs on domestic spying and the number of complaints against the NSA.

The U.S. Army is testing a new web-enabled command post system built to consolidate existing mission systems and programs into a single user interface to speed up information sharing between service members and commanders, C4ISRnet reported Monday.

The Army recently put its new Command Post Computing Environment into a Network Integration Evaluation for initial operational test.

Col. Arthur Sellers, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, said the system made shared understanding faster for the troops that tested the technology. 

“Because it is more intuitive, because it is web-enabled I can do things quicker with my subordinate units,” Sellers noted. “Speed can be very decisive, especially against our near peer threat on the future battlefield.”

CP CE would replace the Army’s Command Post of the Future system. Unlike the older tool, the new command post system only requires a laptop for soldiers to access communication systems. 

AASKI, BowHead, ESP, Future Skies, General Dynamics and ManTech are among the contractors helping develop CP CE.

“We did the adopt and modify. We took a [commercial off the shelf] product and modified that to make the capability delivery,” said Col. Troy Crosby, program manager for mission command within the Army PEO-C3T. 

CP CE must pass the Network Integration Evaluation and an Army interoperability certification test before troops can use the system in the field. 

The Department of Homeland Security‘s Science and Technology Directorate has partnered with its Dutch counterparts to provide up to $2.5M for cybersecurity research and development efforts, the DHS said Friday.

Five U.S.-Netherlands research teams will work on projects addressing Distributed Denial of Defense Security and Industrial Controls Systems Security issues. The work will build on previous cyber research under the two countries’ collaborative agreement.

“The capabilities developed by the joint research teams will benefit both countries today and into the future. We hope this is the first of many joint ventures with our international partners,” said William Bryan, DHS senior official for the Under Secretary for Science and Technology.

In May 2017, DHS S&T and two organizations under the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security began seeking participants for the cybersecurity R&D program. The directorate allocated $1.25M for the effort while the Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research and National Cyber Security Center provided the equivalent amount in euros.

The five teams are:\n

• New York University and Delft University of Technology
• University of Southern California – Information Sciences Institute and University of Twente
• University of California and University of Twente
• University of Texas and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
• University of California and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently underscored the importance of having sufficient defense funding when it comes to maintaining the competitive advantage of the U.S.

Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford expressed confidence in the military’s ability to defend the country against potential adversaries, the Defense Department reported Saturday.

Dunford noted, however, that the lack of “sustained predictable, adequate levels of funding” combined with a failure to “look carefully at those areas where we are challenged” would likely erode such confidence in the coming years.

His remarks come as the Defense Department prepares a $700B alternative budget proposal for 2020 to meet President Trump’s call for spending cuts across federal agencies. The revised DoD proposal is $33B lower than an earlier department draft.