GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (3/22–26)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers NSA's domestic surveillance authority, Microsoft's software flaws and small business, CMMC assessment planning, JAIC, DoD's audit of large contractors, green federal procurement, and a military contracts bribery scheme in Alaska.
Cyber
"Gen. Paul Nakasone is not eager to embrace new authorities that would allow the National Security Agency to use its surveillance tools within the United States and pushed for other ways to gain the visibility needed to detect hacks like those recently executed by suspected nation-state actors."
"The number of entities in the U.S. that remain vulnerable to the recently announced Microsoft Exchange Server software flaws is dropping, according to a National Security Council spokesperson."
"With cyberterrorism acknowledged as an ever-increasing threat to national security, it came as no surprise when the Defense Department last year introduced a more robust cybersecurity framework in the form of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)."
Defense
"The Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has launched a DoD-wide development platform meant to accelerate testing and adoption of AI tools across the department. JAIC Director Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael Groen said this week that the Joint Common Foundation is in its “initial operating capability,” but will build it up to full operational capability through doing block upgrades."
"Defense Department contracting officers overruled the Pentagon’s auditors and paid Boeing and Lockheed Martin nearly a combined $100 million that the companies might not have been entitled to, according to a recent review of a small sample of contracts by the Pentagon’s office of inspector general. The names of the companies in connection with the review are previously unreported. Auditors had questioned costs that the contractors had billed the government."
Commentary
"Every year the federal government spends more than $500 billion purchasing goods and services to support its operations. That’s roughly the size of Sweden’s economy, and it makes the United States government the single biggest consumer in the world."
Justice
"Acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Wilson announced that Ryan Dalbec, 42, Raihana Nadem, a/k/a/ Raihana Dalbec, 27, of Virginia, and Brian Lowell Nash II, 30, of Washington, have been charged in a 26 count indictment with conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering involving millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military contracts in Alaska. "
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