Log4j Attacks Java Worldwide
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The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement this week on the urgency of the Log4j threat. CISA calls on vendors of impacted software to “immediately identify, mitigate, and patch the wide array of products using this software.”
“A successful exploit of this weakness would mean that someone could take complete control of the affected system,” said Steve Alter with Germany’s Interior Ministry. Germany has activated its national IT crisis center in response to an “extremely critical” flaw in the widely used Log4j software tool that the government says has already been exploited internationally, reports Tech Xplore. Germany is urging users of Java software to patch their systems as quickly as possible.
Denver 7 has MSU Denver computer science professor and cybersecurity expert Dr. Steve Beaty explaining the Log4j bug, which impacts the logging framework for Java, log4j, which is run on millions of servers around the world. Logging is the continuous saving of information in an operating system. He said the vulnerability is not new, but a newer version of Log4j recently brought it to light.
Military recruits are required to sign a statement acknowledging the DoD’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate before training, reports USNI News. Recruits are required to get the vaccine, regardless of the branch, in accordance with the guidance that mandate vaccines for service members.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe becomes first spacecraft to “touch” the sun, reports CNN. Sixty years after NASA set the goal, and three years after its Parker Solar Probe launched, the spacecraft has become the first to “touch the sun.” The Parker Solar Probe has successfully flown through the sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere, to sample particles and our star’s magnetic fields. “Parker Solar Probe ‘touching the sun’ is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: December 13, 2021, reports USNI.
ATF Investigator finds the Bonhomme Richard fire was deliberately set, no direct physical evidence points to the accused sailor, reports USNI. The fire likely was set to ignite cardboard boxes in a stowage area packed with assorted items that fire investigators ruled out as the ignition source. Matthew Beals, a special agent with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, told a Navy judge that he concluded in the ATF investigation that the fire was deliberately set by Seaman Apprentice Ryan Mays, a deck crewman allegedly spotted in the area before the fire broke out, with a lighter that was found at some point in Mays’ possession.
Four more are sentenced in the US Coast Guard test-fixing scheme, reports gCaptain. Four defendants are among 31 individuals, including 28 maritime industry workers, charged in a November 2020 indictment alleging bribes to fix Coast Guard mariner credentialing licenses. So far, 24 have pleaded guilty to unlawfully receiving licenses, while another four pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States by acting as intermediaries in the scheme. Another three defendants are former Coast Guard employees charged with running the scheme and are awaiting trial.
Navy’s East Coast amphibious fleet completes its move to Virginia, reports Military Times. The Navy has completed the shift of its East Coast amphibious fleet to Hampton Roads, VA, with the arrival of the USS Iwo Jima from Mayport, FL. Six months preparations went into moving the ship’s 1,150 sailors and their families. “It feels good to be back in Hampton Roads,” CAPT Judd Krier said, noting that the Iwo Jima’s home port had been Norfolk until 2014.
Thousands of Afghan allies and families still trapped under Taliban control, reports New York Post. The nonprofit No One Left Behind says that it is tracking more than 10,000 Afghans in the pipeline for a Special Immigrant Visa and also tracking another 38,000 family members of SIV holders or applicants who remain in Afghanistan and have asked for aid.
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces carried out a deadly operation in eastern Syria, reports Al Jazeera. Kurdish special forces backed by the US military killed five suspected fighters in an airborne operation in eastern Syria’s Deir Az Zor province, according to the Kurdish forces. The SDF, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, controls the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeastern Syria, and said in a statement Monday that the raid took place near the village of al-Busaira.
Pentagon watchdog: US should insist TransDigm refund $20 million in “excess profit,” reports Defense News. A new report from the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General recommends the department seek a refund of at least $20.8 million from TransDigm, a company long under fire for what Defense Department officials say is a pattern of collecting “excess profit.” TransDigm, which makes spare parts for both commercial and military aircraft, in 2019 refunded $16 million to the Pentagon, though a top executive noted this was not an admission of wrongdoing and was simply “in the best interest of the company.”
The agency ensuring safe drinking water for more than 5.7 million Marylanders needs nearly three times the staff and twice the budget, reports NPR. The findings are from an EPA analysis. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) wrote a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan (R) demanding the governor shore up the drinking water program.
A federal loan Maryland was counting on to finance construction of the new Nice/Middleton Bridge is in “significant jeopardy,” a top Maryland Transportation Authority official said last week. The state applied for a $200 million loan through the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program in mid-2019, expecting the approval process to take about a year, reports Maryland Matters.
Contracts:
Caelum Research Corp., Rockville, Maryland, was awarded a $96,000,000 hybrid (firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials) contract for information technology support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 24 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 8, 2027. US Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-22-D-0002).
Bell Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $21,608,360 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001922F0974) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001921G0012). This order provides engineering and logistics support, to include support for AH-1Z production aircraft and sustainment efforts for UH-1Y and AH-1Z aircraft for the Marine Corps; support for AH-1Z production aircraft for the government of Bahrain; and support for UH-1Y and AH-1Z production aircraft for the government of the Czech Republic. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (80%); and Patuxent River, Maryland (20%), and is expected to be completed in February 2023. Fiscal 2022 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,475,713; fiscal 2022 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,000,000; fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds on the amount of $207,429; and non US Department of Defense funds in the amount of $11,066,109 will be obligated at time of award; $1,000,000 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded an $8,442,746 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001922F1014) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001921G0006). This order provides continued integrated logistics and engineering support, in support of the Harpoon/Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response missile system and Harpoon launch systems for the Navy and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in St. Charles, Missouri (91.89%); St. Louis, Missouri (5.47%); and Yorktown, Virginia (2.64%), and is expected to be completed in February 2023. Fiscal 2022 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,085,523; and FMS funds in the amount of $6,357,223 will be obligated at time of award, $2,085,523 of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
