FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Post-breach cybersecurity sprint. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “In a Friday afternoon news dump, Office of Personnel Management officials acknowledged for the first time that an earlier breach of employee data included security clearance background investigations. That includes the SF-86 and SF-85 forms of current, former, and prospective employees (so even if you submitted the forms and were later denied, or declined the position yourself, your information was still leaked). In the wake of the breach, White House Chief Information Officer Tony Scott is calling for a 30-day ‘cybersecurity sprint’ to strengthen government networks. It consists of four chief priorities . . . .”
Background check: what to expect. Contributor Andrew Levine explains, “A lot of misconceptions about the security clearance process circulate throughout the years, in some instances nearly rising to urban myth status. All too often, these misunderstandings relate to an applicant’s interaction with an investigator, almost all of which takes place during the personal interview. . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Report on Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan. From the DoD 2015 report to Congress: “On January 1, 2015, U.S. and coalition forces began a new phase of their involvement in Afghanistan with the start of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led train, advise, and assist (TAA) mission called Resolute Support (RS). After 13 years of combat operations, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission formally ended on December 31, 2014. Simultaneously, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) transitioned from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) to Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS), contributing to both the NATO RS mission and continuing U.S. counterterrorism efforts against the remnants of al Qaeda. . . .”
ISIS’ secrets of success. Reuters’ Samia Nakhoul reports, “A year after declaring his caliphate, it is clear that the secret of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s success is the army and state he has built from the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s military, and the allegiance he has won or coerced from alienated Sunni Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and beyond. In that year, the self-appointed caliph has expanded his turf from eastern Syria and western Iraq to include adherents in pockets of war-racked Libya and Egypt’s lawless Sinai peninsula. He has set his sights on Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, and his Islamic State has launched an online magazine for Turks, who have volunteered for his jihad in hundreds if not thousands.”
Georgian NATO limbo. Christian Science Monitor’s Paul Rimple reports, “NATO membership is further off since Russia occupies the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That followed Georgia’s brief war with Russia in 2008. NATO membership requires control of the entirety of a member’s territory. Nonetheless, Georgians still aspire to joining the military alliance. But while Georgian support for Western integration is still very high, it appears to be ebbing. In an April poll conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center, 65 percent of respondents approved of the government’s stated goal to join NATO. Last year, the number was 72 percent.”
War for water. AP reports, “North Korea says it has been hit by its worst drought in a century, resulting in extensive damage to agriculture. . . . North Korea suffered a devastating famine during the 1990s that is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Contractors and the breach. Government Executive’s Charles S. Clark reports, “Like federal employees, federal contractors are waiting for agencies to explain exactly what the OPM data breach affecting 4 million employees means for them. . . . Contractor representatives say they’re monitoring the National Archives and Records Administration, whose Information Security Oversight Office posted a proposed rule in the Federal Register last month to update policy detailing how agencies should designate, safeguard, disseminate and dispose of information that by law or regulation is sensitive but not formally classified.”
Grumman on Triton radar problems. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. Navy unmanned aircraft experts are asking Northrop Grumman Corp. to correct deficiencies in the air-to-air radar system aboard the MQ-4C Triton maritime patrol drone before making a production decision on the Triton by the end of this year. Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $39.1 million contract modification Monday to the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego to enhance the Triton’s air-to-air radar, which flew for the first time aboard a Triton unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) last April.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Russia’s microwave cannon, and more. Christian Science Monitor’s Fred Weir reports, “Russia is unveiling its 21st century weaponry, including a microwave cannon that can disable drones and warheads, as well as a new generation of fighting robots. The Army 2015 show that opens Tuesday near Moscow will be Russia’s biggest ever arms exhibition. And it will showcase a revived arms industry that no longer just recycles and updates old Soviet designs, but has a catalog filled with advanced modern weaponry for both domestic use and for export.” See also, “Putin: 40+ ICBMs targeted for 2015 nuclear force boost.”
Border tech. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Mass migration driven by climate change is pushing the global demand for border security solutions. It is not just that climate change displaces people through floods, storms, and rising sea levels; it also displaces them through scarcity of food and water, and by the conflicts that are in turn sparked by scarcity and migration. Companies specializing in border solutions are developing new technologies to help border agents track and identify illegal migrants.”
Digitize everything. Fierce Government IT’s Dibya Sikar reports, “The federal government’s top technology official said June 15 that ‘the digitization of everything’ will help accelerate a new technological model that infuses cybersecurity as a core component. ‘This digitization is relentless and it won’t stop and it’s accelerating and it’s changing everything, including government,’ Tony Scott, the federal chief information officer, told government employees during his keynote at the inaugural CIO Council IT Symposium in Washington, D.C.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Que pasa? “One day after Republican Jeb Bush stood before a multi-racial crowd in Miami to declare his presidential bid, top conservative talker Ann Coulter, author of a new book warning of the dangers of illegal immigration, accused the former Florida governor of pandering to Latinos. Coulter, who is meeting with lawmakers Tuesday in the latest sign of the influence of her book Adios America, told Secrets she was not wowed by Bush’s event which included Hispanics.”
Boehnered. “Speaker John Boehner is sending a stern message to his Republican conference: Either you’re on the team or you’re not. House GOP leaders booted three conservative members off the whip team for voting against a procedural rule last week that structured how a trade package was brought to the floor. . . . And leadership may not be done with defectors just yet. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his allies could strip gavels from a handful of subcommittee chairmen who voted against the trade rule as well.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“Has China learned how to build the perfect U.S. spy?” Reuters contributor Matthew Gault argues, “Espionage is a long game, not a race, and countries are patient. Blackmail is a quick, brutal method of acquiring information in the short term.”
“In war on IS, solutions may be everywhere.” Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board argues, “The war is no longer ‘over there’ but one originating almost everywhere, with a responsibility to end it becoming more widespread.”
“Is the military drawdown happening too fast and at the wrong time?” Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller argues, “. . . the world remains a dangerous and unstable place. The militant Islamic group ISIS is on the march in Iraq and Syria, filling the power vacuum left by the U.S. military pullout. Iran, meanwhile, inches closer to developing nuclear weapons, and farther east, China is flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by building military bases and airfields on previously uninhabited reefs. I’d hate to see a U.S. military drawdown happen too quickly, and at the wrong time.”
