FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Building depth into your cyber-expert bench. Contributor Jillian Hamilton explains, “Colleges either cannot or are not providing the right skills for cybersecurity professions, so it is up to employers to tell cybersecurity professionals how to get into the field and how to grow. . . . Recruiters may feel like it is a race to fill open cybersecurity positions. Perhaps the best way to attract entry-level talent is to demonstrate how they can progress through a three-step career path within their company. Focusing on continuous training and the steps necessary to advance may help you both attract and retain emerging cybersecurity talent.”
2. DoD and Sequestration. Contributor Chandler Harris considers long-term effects of short-term solutions: “For example, because of deferred depot maintenance, certain armed forces could face equipment readiness shortfalls and delays in resetting the force, increases in depot rates that would lead to more expensive maintenance costs, and limited depot workforce capabilities. Plus, the reduction of installation support services will likely lead to higher future costs for these services due to facility degradation.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. DefenseMediaNetworks.Com Craig Collins reports, “Twelve years after the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, America’s longest war – a war fought halfway around the world, largely by all-volunteer ground forces subjected to multiple deployments which, in many cases, have added up to several years of service in theater – has taken its toll on the mental health of many service members. . . . Nearly 1 million active-duty service members have been diagnosed with at least one mental disorder since 2000, and between 2003 and 2011, the number of them diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increased by a factor of six.”
2. Bottom of the War Funding Barrel. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “A source of potential conflict arose during [Wednesday’s] hearing with US Army leadership at the Senate Armed Services Airland subcommittee, when Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., warned that supplemental wartime funding, which the Army has said it needs well after the war in Afghanistan ends, may not be forthcoming. . . . All of the services have come to rely heavily on OCO budgets to fund all manner of training, advising and humanitarian assistance activities across the globe, and many operations in the increasingly important continent of Africa are funded through the supplemental budget.”
3. The fight in Syria—government gains. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have recaptured the rebel-held Syrian border town of Rankous . . . . The capture of Rankous was the latest stage of an offensive by the army and fighters from Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah to seal off the border region and secure the main highway leading north from Damascus towards central Syria, Homs, and the Mediterranean coast. . . . The rebels still control a few smaller villages in the region, but have seen their supply lines across the border with Lebanon largely severed. Rebel fighters still control most of eastern Syria and the north, and are fighting Assad’s forces in north of the coastal province of Latakia.”
4. Spinning Ukraine. Reuters reports from Moscow, “Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused NATO on Thursday of using the crisis in Ukraine to boost its appeal to members and justify its existence by rallying them against an imaginary threat. Russia and the West are locked in a Cold War-style stand-off over Ukraine and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Moscow to pull back troops from the Ukrainian border or face consequences if they intervene. . . . ‘The constant accusations against us by the secretary general convince [Russia] that the alliance is trying to use the crisis in Ukraine to rally its ranks in the face of an imaginary external threat to NATO members and to strengthen demand for the alliance . . . in the 21st century’ . . .”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Contractors compromised. NextGov.Com’s Rebecca Carroll reports, “Personal information of about 80,000 employees of federal contractors was compromised in a cyberattack last month, including credit card details of as many as 25,000 . . . . A suspect believed to be primarily responsible for the breach has already been apprehended, the company confirmed. The attack was widespread and also exposed other companies and federal agencies . . . .”
2. Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1 (GMV) on its way. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “The special ops command has said that it wants to buy 1,297 GMVs to replace the current 1,072 Humvee-based GMVs it has in its inventory. Budget documents show that SOCOM had previously planned to spend about $24 million on the program in fiscal 2014 for the first 101 vehicles, at a price tag of at $245,000 per vehicle.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Navy’s Railgun—far out. Wired.Com’s Allen McDuffee reports, “The U.S. Navy is tapping the power of the Force to wage war. Its latest weapon is an electromagnetic railgun launcher. It uses a form of electromagnetic energy known as the Lorentz force to hurl a 23-pound projectile at speeds exceeding Mach 7. Engineers already have tested this futuristic weapon on land, and the Navy plans to begin sea trials aboard a Joint High Speed Vessel Millinocket in 2016. ‘The electromagnetic railgun represents an incredible new offensive capability for the U.S. Navy,’ Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller, the Navy’s chief engineer, said in a statement. ‘This capability will allow us to effectively counter a wide range of threats at a relatively low cost, while keeping our ships and sailors safer by removing the need to carry as many high-explosive weapons.’”
2. Heartbleed update. Christian Science Monitor’s Mark Clayton reports, “Heartbleed has existed “in the wild” – that is, openly on the Internet, for two years – yet because of the nature of the bug it’s virtually impossible to tell whether anyone using it has actually attacked the web’s corporate workhorses – the website, e-mail, database, and chat servers. . . . [W]hile major websites may be able to conduct a quick fix by updating their software, they are unlikely to know with any certainty whether critical data, including their digital certificates used to authenticate and encrypt data traveling between the websites and the site’s users, have been compromised.”
3. GSA’s Virtual Quick Stop. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “The General Services Administration is developing a new way for agencies to purchase goods and services by combining data and expertise into a common platform. . . . Here’s how it works: The agency official seeking goods or services will enter the common acquisition platform through a digital portal and choose the type of service or product needed. The portal will then guide the purchaser through a ‘virtual hallway’ containing a wide array of information on the chosen products or services, such as subject matter expertise or data on prices paid by other agencies.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. No kidding: “The tea-leaf reading for a prospective Hillary Clinton 2016 run got a little bit easier Tuesday when the former secretary of state said she was ‘thinking about’ a presidential bid. ‘I am obviously flattered and deeply honored to have people ask me and people encourage me,’ Clinton said at a marketing conference in California, according to NBC News. ‘I am thinking about it. But I’m going to continue to think about it for a while,’ she added, squashing hopes of a formal announcement at that moment or anytime soon.”
2. Not in our House! “Republicans are beginning to nudge GOP Rep. Vance McAllister out of Congress. Just two days after video footage of him in a romantic encounter with a staffer became public, the state Republican chairman has tried unsuccessfully to reach McAllister by telephone to encourage him to resign, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Meanwhile, in Washington, several top House Republican leadership officials do not believe the first-term Republican can survive this scandal.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “A dangerous new era: US must take lead in cybersecurity.” Christian Science Monitor contributor Jarno Limnell argues, “As alarms go off in Ukraine and all over the world, the cybersecurity situation demands leadership that can only come from the US. Europe and the world must move beyond current qualms about US computer spying and accept a US leadership role on global cybersecurity. Just as critically, the US must claim that role.”
2. “Why Crimea matters.” Reuters contributor Mark Leonard argues, “This is the essence of the dilemma facing the West. React too meekly, and encourage further territorial expansion and regional arms races. But react too strongly, and risk driving other countries to sidestep global institutions and blunt western power.”
3. “Is It Time for the U.S. to Partner With China in Space?” DefenseOne.Com contributor Marina Koren argues, “Only three countries have ever managed to launch humans into space: the United States, Russia and China. . . . It may be time for the U.S. to acknowledge the elephant in the room, and invite [China] to join us in space exploration.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Political art.
