Humph Day Highlights (already)
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Networking for the . . . not-so-socially inclined. Editor Lindy Kyzer offers, “You have a security clearance, all the right certifications and amazing skills. You’ve put yourself on the market online, but you know in-person networking yields great results and is a critical part of your job search strategy. But you also happen to be a bit . . . socially awkward. . . . Yes, socially awkward job seeker, networking is for you, too. Here are three tips to make the most of it.”
2. Tell your story. Contributor John Holst explains, “You’re looking for work. You have excellent skills. You’re a team player. Your work ethic makes John Henry look like a lazy slob. How do you put all of that information together to tell your story? You’ve already done one of the hardest parts of telling your story: identifying what you want to do. This should make telling your story a bit easier. But you do need to make your profile story intelligible to everyone who is going to read it.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Bad discharges revisited for Vietnam Vets. Military Times’ Andrew Tilghman reports, “The Defense Department has agreed to reconsider the bad-paper discharges for thousands of Vietnam-era veterans who may have suffered from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder but were kicked out of the military in the era before that became a diagnosable condition. In a new rule announced Wednesday, the Pentagon said veterans from the Vietnam era and other past wars with other-than-honorable discharges will be given ‘liberal consideration’ if they seek to correct their military records and provide some evidence of a PTSD diagnosis that existed at the time of their service.”
2. Boots on the ground in Iraq, maybe. Stars & Stripes’ Travis J. Tritten reports, “The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday he would recommend sending U.S. combat troops to Iraq to fight the Islamic State if a proposed international coalition fails to defeat the militants. For now, Gen. Martin Dempsey said he sees no need for ground forces and believes the United States can defeat the Islamist group with air-strikes, training of local fighters and an international coalition.” DefenseNews.Com reports, “Policy Against Ground Troops in Iraq Could Change” and AP reports, “Wary lawmakers ready to OK arms for Syrian rebels.”
3. Jihadist call for unity. LongWarJournal.Org’s Thomas Joscelyn reports, “Two branches of al Qaeda’s international organization, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have released a joint statement urging jihadists in Iraq and Syria to unite against their common enemy, America, ‘the head of infidelity.’ AQIM and AQAP also offer their condolences for the Ahrar al Sham leaders who were killed in an explosion last week.”
4. Ebola and national security. Christian Science Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reports, “Mr. Obama’s plan—to establish treatment centers and training centers capable of turning out 500 local health-care workers and other responders a week, a state-of-the-art hospital for health workers exposed to the Ebola virus, and educational programs on hygiene—is not just a matter of humanitarian duty and reaching hearts and minds. Obama is calling the most devastating outbreak of Ebola ever a ‘national security priority’ for a reason. . . . ‘It’s a potential threat to global security if these countries break down . . . . If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political, and security implications for all of us.’”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. NASA distributes its $7 billion, mostly to Boeing. AviationWeek.Com’s Frank Morring Jr. reports, “Boeing has won the lion’s share of the $6.8 billion NASA wants to spend on its next two human spaceflight vehicles over the next five years, drawing a $4.2 billion share for its CST-100 capsule versus the $2.6 billion SpaceX will get to finish developing and fly the crew version of its Dragon cargo vehicle. Both will work to the same requirements, and both award amounts were based on what the companies said they would need to do the work of getting their vehicles certified to fly four-member crews to the International Space Station . . . .”
2. Honeywell wins $16 million for cockpit displays. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Navy avionics experts needed a variety of cockpit displays for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter-bomber and the EA-18 Growler electronic warfare jets. They found their solution from the Honeywell International Inc. Aerospace segment in Albuquerque, N.M. . . . On this contract modification, Honeywell will do the work in Albuquerque, N.M., and should be finished by February 2016.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Stopping the next Snowden. Politico.Com’s Joseph Marks reports, “The Pentagon plans to issue new rules in the coming months requiring certain contractors that work with classified government networks to monitor what employees are doing in those systems. Information about employees’ browsing on those networks will be combined with data analysis tools to spot suspicious behavior such as a Middle East analyst rooting around in intelligence documents related to China or Russia or an employee accessing documents at unusual hours. The new monitoring regime is designed to give contractors early warnings that one of their employees may be stealing classified information . . . .”
2. NSA eyes on ISIS. Reuters’ Doina Chiacu reports, “As U.S. military leaders outlined their strategy before Congress to fight Islamic State militants on the battlefield, the National Security Agency chief said on Tuesday he was watching the media-savvy group’s cyber capabilities. Asked whether the Sunni Muslim group was planning cyber attacks on U.S. interests, Admiral Mike Rogers said he could not discuss specifics of the organization’s technical capabilities. ‘We need to assume that there will be a cyber dimension increasingly in almost any scenario that we’re dealing with . . . . Counterterrorism is no different. Clearly, ISIL has been very aggressive in the use of media, in the use of technology, in the use of the Internet. It’s something I’m watching’ . . . .”
3. Next generation, proactive cybersecurity. VentureBeat.Com’s Ruth Reader reports, “vArmour is part of a growing number of security companies that are developing products for a virtualized world. Rather than try to lock data into place on a single server, vArmour’s software looks at all of the data flowing into and out of the network. Using big data analytics, vArmour identifies ‘clusters’ of related threat probes and determines whether these communications are normal, suspicious, or a serious threat. . . . A lot of data center security has focused on securing the perimeter, watching what goes in and out of the network, but not what goes on inside the network. So that if a threat were to sneak in undetected, it could make slow, calculated moves over the course of months without anyone really noticing.”
4. Protect the printer. FierceGovernmentIT.Com’s Dibya Sarkar reports, “Individuals and organizations shouldn’t just worry about protecting their computers connected to the Internet from cyber threats and attacks. They also need to worry about the potential for printers, copiers and scanners being hacked. The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently released draft guidance pointing out the risks and vulnerabilities of so-called replication devices, which increasingly also include 3D printers and scanners. Besides reminding people about potential cybersecurity problems, it offers advice on how such devices and information that’s stored or transmitted can be better protected.” Read the draft guidance.
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Gone fishing, again: “Democrats say a new House committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya — set to hold its first public hearing Wednesday — is already falling short of expectations. ‘More than four months after the House established the select committee, we still do not have a time-line for our work, we have not adopted committee rules and we have no investigative plan,’ Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the panel’s senior Democrat, complained Wednesday. ‘We’re not sure exactly where we’re going’ with the committee.”
2. Why work? “Congress just returned from a five week break on Sept. 8 and they are now ready to pack up again. The House and Senate are poised to potentially wrap up business this week, lawmakers say, and if they do, they’ll leave town to campaign and won’t return until after the November election. The Senate was initially scheduled to be in session until Sept. 23 while the House was supposed to be in for business until Oct. 2. Nothing has been publicly announced, but congressional leaders have sent the word out to lawmakers that they can start packing for a nearly two month recess.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “McCain’s coalition of the very, very worried.” Stars & Stripes contributor Jeffrey Goldberg argues, “The Syrian people, the main victims of both the Islamic State and the Assad regime, will find peace and justice only when they are freed both from Assad oppression and jihadist terror. But it won’t be the U.S. that delivers them from these twin evils. I suspect that the new interventionist mood that has taken hold in the U.S. is fleeting, and I hope that McCain knows this as well.”
2. “Avoid a classic blunder: Stay out of religious wars in the Middle East.” Reuters contributor Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman argues, “Muslims in the Middle East are fighting wars of religion. Like the carnage between Protestants and Catholics that haunted Northern Ireland during the last third of the 20th century, there is little anyone can do until local peoples crave peace so intensely they are willing to cultivate it.”
3. “Back for more: The US and Iraq.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Crispian Cuss argues, “The reason Obama was so reticent about what success would look like and what would follow the removal of ISIL is that he knows there are no entirely good options left. He has decided that the least worst option is better than doing nothing. Given what we have seen happen in Iraq over the last months, that is justification enough.”
