NIST: Rethink Cyber Hardware, Software Design

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 reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is set to release an overhauled systems security engineering document it hopes will change the way software and computer designers think about cybersecurity, FCW reports. An updated draft of NIST’s 800-160 document will be released for public comment on May 4. Its lead author, Ron Ross, says the report will open a difficult discussion about how federal agencies approach cybersecurity and also how US business and general population should consider cybersecurity as a foundational component of any technology that touches the internet.

The Chinese government’s control over the internet could get even tighter, with regulators floating a proposal for the state to take 1 percent stakes in major Chinese internet companies, reports The Wall Street Journal. Under the proposal, for which China’s internet and media regulators have been soliciting companies’ opinions, the government also would take a board seat at companies where it buys such “special management shares” to gain more direct influence over company policies on content and censorship.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awards technology research contracts to eight companies under the agency’s Ground X-Vehicle Technology program, seeking to deliver crew/vehicle survivability through means other than traditional, heavy, passive armor solutions, reports Defense Update. DARPA expects these capabilities will improve combat efficiency and reduce the cost of ground combat vehicles.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) withdrew his BRAC amendment to an annual defense bill, but only because of procedural issues, reports The Hill.

The House Armed Services Committee considers legislation to allow the US Air Force to finally junk the famed Lockheed Martin F-117A Nighthawk, the pioneer of the stealth aircraft revolution, Flightglobal reports. The aircraft officially retired from service in April 2008, but Congress demanded all aircraft mothballed from Sept. 30, 2006, onward be maintained “in a condition that would allow recall of that aircraft to future service.”

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump outlined his “America first” foreign policy platform Wednesday, promising to build up the US military, force allies to invest more in defense, and emphasized stability over what he called nation-building overreach, Defense News reports. Mr. Trump promised that after he becomes commander in chief, he will convene a summit with NATO allies and Asian allies to “discuss a re-balancing of financial commitments” and “take a fresh look at how we can adopt new strategies for tackling our common challenges.”

NASA astronauts are receiving “driver’s ed” on Boeing simulators as they prepare for the first flights the US will send into space since the space shuttle retired in 2011, The Washington Post reports. Some of the pilots already have experience in space, but Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is a new spacecraft that will fly for the first time when it lifts off in late 2017.

The European Patent Office announces its annual shortlist for European Inventor Awards, which honors a range of scientists across industries who have created ground-breaking products and technologies, NextGov reports.  The EPO also awarded three lifetime achievement awards: Alain Carpentier of France, for the first self-regulating implantable artificial heart, which the EPO says could help the 100,000 people waiting for heart transplants every year; Tore Curstedt of Sweden, for his treatment to help premature babies breathe through a medication that has treated over 3 million babies with respiratory issues since it was approved; and Anton van Zanten, for inventing electronic stability control for cars, which the EPO says has prevented roughly 260,000 car accidents in Europe alone since its introduction.

Contract:

Raytheon Co., Dulles, VA, is being awarded a $21,592,886 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to continue the software upgrade transition in support of the MQ-8 fire scout unmanned aircraft system tactical control system 2016 Linux cyber baseline.  Work will be performed in Dulles, VA, and is expected to be completed in October 2018.  Fiscal 2015 and 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,824,101 will be obligated at time of award, of which $325,000 will expire at the end of the fiscal year.  This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(1).  The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, MD, is the contracting activity (N00019-16-C-0027).