Cyber Attacks Not “Existential”
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.
The federal government regularly labels cyber attacks as an “existential” threat which Richard Danzig, an administration cybersecurity expert, believes exaggerates risks and hinders appropriate attention on managing significant cyber risks, according to Inside Cybersecurity. “Cyber attacks are unlikely to imperil the existence of the US,” Mr. Danzig stated. Countries with high-end cyber weapons might deter the US from conducting a focused national defense and should be countered by adopting new standards for vital cybersecurity.
DefSec Chuck Hagel believes that this year’s budget cuts are manageable but he remains concerned about the current law requiring a return to sequestration spending cuts in fiscal year 2016, reports DoD News. Even without sequestration, the Pentagon will continue to make cuts in fiscal 2015 and will continue to reduce its share of the total government budget. Mr. Hagel said if sequestration returns in fiscal 2016, it will require cuts of another $50 billion “in addition to the $490-billion-over-10-years cut that we’re already implementing.”
The chief of naval personnel, VADM Bill Moran, promised not to hold another enlisted retention board (ERB) on his watch, reports the Navy Times. Previous ERBs pink slipped 2,946 sailors to correct overmanning problems but introduced a persisting mistrust in the ranks.
A complex password may not be any safer than a simple one, according to WIRED. Hold Security, the company who discovered that Russian hackers had pilfered 1.2 billion online credentials, found that the “vast majority” of the passwords he uncovered had been stored in plain text on company servers.
Lorraine Martin, Lockheed’s head of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, defended the controversial stealthy jet against recent criticism, reports The Hill. In a letter to the New York Times, Ms. Martin responded to an editorial that indicated that the Pentagon should reassess the $400 billion program and explore buying more F-15, F-16 and F-18 fighter jets. Ms. Martin wrote, “Air dominance cannot be accomplished by buying more fourth-generation aircraft.”
Navy Reserve officer Captain Daniel C. Cross was cleared of two federal misdemeanor charges but found guilty of a third after making a last-minute decision to land his private plane at Norfolk Naval Station amid bad weather this spring, according to PilotOnline.com.
There may not be a procurement until sometime in fiscal 2015, but the DoD appears ready to act on “unified capabilities,” a broad centralization of IT and services shared among partners with hopes of savings and efficiencies while providing better capabilities to the war fighter, reports C4ISR&Networks. This reinforces an effort to move away from legacy, hardware-based systems, and is closer in line with DoD’s Joint Information Environment.
PAE Applied Technologies LLC, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $69,783,348 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to procure range engineering, and operations and maintenance services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Atlantic Test Range and Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations Division. These support services include system operations, laboratory and field testing, marine operations and target support services, engineering, range sustainability, maintenance, data reduction and analysis. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in August 2015. Fiscal 2014 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $5,417,240 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals, and two offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-14-C-0038).
