Friday Finale & This Time Last Year
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Financial matters. Contributor Sean Bigley advises, “If you are the target of a criminal financial investigation, you most likely would assume that law enforcement agents are combing through your bank account and credit card records looking for the proverbial ‘smoking gun.’ What you may not know, is that – absent a specific statute requiring otherwise – they do not need a search warrant to do so. . . . At least in theory, the same rule applies to security clearance background investigations.”
Office etiquette. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “They say a team is only as strong as its weakest link? I beg to differ. I’ve worked on a variety of professional teams throughout the year and several times found there was one, very clear, very distinct link. What generally happens is the rest of the team picks up the slack. Bad mouthing is never a good idea, and it’s often tough to single out a single, low performing coworker. This is a situation that calls for extreme caution – the lazy coworker can drive you nuts, but you don’t want to step in like a tattle-tale telling the boss how Suzy didn’t get her part of the assignment in on time. But . . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
Army’s hybrid warfare. Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber reports, “Here at the National Training Center – a sprawling and rugged military complex about the size of Rhode Island, positioned about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas – the Army is preparing for what it calls a hybrid war: a battle against a mix of traditional military and militant fighters. Example might include the type of war Russia has waged in Eastern Ukraine and the one Iran is supporting in Yemen.”
ISIS in Saudi Arabia. Christian Science Monitor contributor Aya Batrawy reports, “An alleged new affiliate of the Islamic State group in Saudi Arabia has claimed responsibility for an attack that targeted a mosque used by police special forces in the kingdom’s southwest on Thursday, killing 15 people. It was one of the deadliest attacks in years against Saudi security forces that battled a wave of Al Qaeda attacks about a decade ago and which have come under sporadic attacks in recent weeks in the capital, Riyadh, by militants purportedly linked to the Islamic State group.”
Afghan army helo crash. Reuters’ Ismail Sameem reports, “An Afghan military helicopter crashed, killing all 17 people on board on Thursday, officials said, in a blow for a fledgling air force whose resources have been stretched since the withdrawal of most international troops last year. The Taliban, mounting a growing insurgency, said it shot down the helicopter in the southern province of Zabul, but a government official blamed a technical failure and said there had been no gunfire.” See also, “Helicopter Crash Deals Blow to Afghan Air Force” and “Afghan security forces ‘keep getting better and better’, says NATO commander in Afghanistan.”
CONTRACT WATCH
Denise Turner Roth confirmed for GSA. Federal Times’ Michael Hardy reports, “General Services acting Administrator Denise Turner Roth, who stepped into the acting role in February after former administrator Dan Tangherlini officially left the agency, has been confirmed by the Senate to be new administrator. President Barack Obama nominated Roth to the position in May. In a statement, he said Roth has helped make the agency more efficient, innovative and effective and she is a capable leader with management experience that will serve well in her position.”
Reapers to Spain. Defense News reports, “Spain will buy four Reaper surveillance drones, the defence ministry said Thursday, making it the fifth European nation to equip itself with the US-made devices. The defence ministry budget for 2016, which was presented in parliament on Tuesday, sets aside €25 million ($27 million) to buy four reconnaissance drones and two ground stations. The entire five-year drone program has a budget of €171 million. The defence ministry has selected the bid from privately owned US firm General Atomics . . . .”
Perimeter security growth. Military & Aerospace Electronics’ Editor John Keller reports, “The worldwide market for perimeter security will grow from $14 billion this year to $20.3 billion by 2020, driven by the rising number of perimeter intrusions, predict analysts at market researcher MarketsandMarkets in Dallas. This represents a combined annual growth rate of 7.6 percent. . . . Perimeter security refers to an organization’s capability to monitor its premises and guard against any intrusion. The rising intrusion rate has caused organizations to look for solutions that manage intrusions in real time, warn of a particular intrusion, and take actions to mitigate it.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Electronic Frontier Foundation takes on NSA. Vice News’ Justin Ling reports, “It’s taken seven years of legal wrangling, but one group of pro-privacy activists are hoping an appeals court will finally declare a critical part of the National Security Agency’s spying apparatus unconstitutional. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been challenging the NSA’s bulk data collection program in court since 2008, largely running on whisteblower testimony from Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who alleges the NSA inserted technology into the internet company’s infrastructure that allowed it to collect and analyze the data. Klein’s allegations were later bolstered by Edward Snowden, who has published a raft of material detailing how the process — referred to as ‘upstream collection’ — works.”
Robotic risks. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The rush to automate more factory processes may look like it’s saving money, but to Ken Westin, a senior security analyst at Tripwire, it’s a dangerous trend that’s spreading cyber vulnerabilities across entire industries. And it will only get worse. Westin says that too much or unsafely implemented automation in chemical and pharmaceutical plants will result in a catastrophic, and largely avoidable, cyber attack in the next two years.”
DARPA’s cybersecurity project. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “U.S. military researchers will brief industry next month on an upcoming cyber security project to develop fundamentally new defenses against distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyber attacks on U.S. military data networks. . . . The DARPA XD3 program will seek to develop fundamentally new DDoS defenses that afford far greater resilience to these attacks, across a broader range of contexts, than existing approaches or evolutionary extensions can. DDoS attacks are attempts to overwhelm and crash computer network servers with an overwhelming number of online queries from many different nodes on the Internet.” See also, “VA to have comprehensive cybersecurity plan by month’s end.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Facts is facts. “White House press secretary Josh Earnest doubled down on President Obama’s remarks that Republican critics of the Iran deal share ‘common cause’ with hardliners in Iran that shout ‘Death to America.’ Earnest said it is a ‘statement of fact’ that both Republicans in Congress and hardliners in Iran are opposed to the deal and want it to go down in defeat.”
Reporter gone wild. “Donald Trump was not happy with Fox News and Megyn Kelly for the tough questions he got during Thursday’s prime-time Republican presidential debate. The businessman told reporters after the debate that he thought Kelly, a star Fox broadcaster and one of three debate moderators, ‘behaved very badly,’ according to a report by BuzzFeed. ‘The questions to me were far tougher, and that I — supposedly, according to what everyone’s telling me, I won the debate, according to the call-ins and everything,’ Trump told reporters after the debate . . . .”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
“The Anglo-Saxons love of secrets … and a good fight.” Reuters contributor John Lloyd argues, “The Anglo-Saxons, who had been leery of a fight in the past, now think they need strong, silent services to help them fight. These attitudes are changeable and recent, but for the present, they mark a difference. The Anglo-Saxons, for now, like a fight, and protect the services which will help them have one, if it comes to that.”
“Four tips to make you a better negotiator.” Fast Company contributor Tamar Jacobs advises, “It’s a mistake to believe that if you’re truly deserving, good things will be offered to you without you ever having to request them. They won’t. Only Cinderella had a fairy godmother. Which means you’ll need to win Prince Charming (or that lucrative account or compensation package) all on your own. Here are four strategies to help you do it. . . .”
“Why an Iran Deal for North Korea Won’t Happen.” The Diplomat contributor Robert E. Kelly argues, “For a state like North Korea – small, dysfunctional, backward, broke – to achieve nuclear weapons is rather astounding. As a sheer economic venture, nuclear weapons represent a tremendous investment. This huge expense suggests both the depth of fear in Pyongyang over external regime change, and just how much it would demand in order to give up those weapons.”
