He will replace DISA’s previous chief of staff, Col. Joel Lindeman. DISA oversees the operation of DoD networks and IT, as well as significant parts of federal communications, mobility, satellite communications and cloud services.

Most recently, Barnhart served as commander of the 844th communications group and director of communications for the Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews. As chief of staff, Barnhart will manage DISA’s 8,000 member organization and $12 billion budget.

In a statement, Barnhart said he will focus on building trust with DISA’s mission partners and ensuring the agency meets its commitments.

“I will always have an open door,” he said. “But please also come armed with ideas on how we can improve our customer relationship with our mission partners. There is always more to be done in this area, and my goal, just like the director’s, is to make DISA the trusted information technology and cyber provider to connect and protect the war fighter in cyberspace.”

The competition took place during a 12-week pilot program, where DISA used robotic process automation (RPA) software to mimic the ability of humans in carrying out a task, in this case preparation for the audit.

“The results quieted almost all the skepticism,” said Priscilla Applegate, an accountant and one of the leaders of the pilot program at DISA. “We were thrilled with the result.”

The pilot, which cost $250,000, used the robot to work on typically human-managed tasks such as compiling and organizing data.

The DISA team preparing for the audit outlined four tasks for the robot to complete: populate SharePoint with general fund property, plant and equipment asset supporting documents; populate SharePoint with working capital funds accounts receivable documents; consolidate SharePoint folders; and populate the general fund financial management workbook.

“We were hopeful using RPA we could free humans from the task of compiling and organizing the data so they could focus on analyzing the data,” Applegate said.

So far, the pilot program has been determined a success.

“I think the man-hours saved by the robot, as well as its accuracy, justified the cost,” said Richard Swonger, the Accounting and Readiness Division supervisory accountant.

The pilot program’s success could impact business processes and help meet DoD and war fighter needs for support in strategic resourcing.

“The pilot should help us establish a path forward to using bots in a secure way in other areas of the agency,” said Roger Greenwell, a risk management executive for DISA.

When complete, the facility will be home to cybersecurity research, training and operations.

The state-owned facility will cost $100 million by the time it is completed.

The construction of the facility reflects a recent push by the state and city governments to develop the cybersecurity industry in Augusta after Army Cyber Command announced its move to Fort Gordon, which will be completed by 2020.

“This visionary approach to cybersecurity underscores our commitment to encouraging innovation and developing a deep talent pool ready to establish Georgia as the safest state in the nation for today’s leaders in technology,” Nathan Deal, Georgia’s governor, said in a press release.

The Army announced it was moving Army Cyber Command headquarters to Fort Gordon, which is outside of Augusta, in 2013. New facilities supporting Army Cyber Operations and Command are expected to be completed in 2019, with the move completed by the end of 2020.

The move is predicted to initially bring 1,500 active duty military, government civilian and contract personnel jobs to Augusta, according to a report by the Augusta Economic Development Authority.

The state’s Hull McKnight building was constructed with the goal of incorporating students and professionals to the growing cybersecurity industry.

“The concept here is that you have a place where a student can walk out of the classroom directly across the hall to do an internship,” Brooks Keel, president of Augusta University told Govtech.com.

Both Augusta University and Augusta Technical college partnered with the Georgia Cyber Center to provide cybersecurity education at the facility. It will provide certificate, undergraduate and graduate level programs.

The second building at the center will include space for partnerships that will include the Army.

The center also will house the Georgia Cyber Range and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Unit.

The Georgia Cyber Range is a practice and testing environment for both students and professionals. Users will be able to practice incident response, conduct testing and access tools to strengthen and secure cyber infrastructures, according to the center’s website.

The Georgia Cybercrime Unit, a department within the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, will be created this year and based out of the Cyber Center in Augusta. The unit will be made up of a team of recently trained investigators and forensic examiners who will focus on cybercrimes.

The Cybercrime Unit also hopes to take advantage of the other organizations at the center.

While the Army Cyber Command is in the process of moving to Fort Gordon, construction on the second building of the Georgia Cyber Center is expected to be complete by the end of 2018.

Timothy Persons, chief scientist of applied research and methods for the Government Accountability Office, testified June 26 before the House of Representatives Subcommittees on Research and Technology and Energy about AI’s implications for policy and research.

In his testimony, Persons highlighted some suggestions for government policy and research on AI that came from a March 2018 GAO report:

Improve data collection and incentivize data sharing

Data is essential to teaching and improving AI. In his testimony Persons emphasized the importance of collecting and labeling high-quality data that can improve machine learning.

It is also important that data can be shared safely without compromising sensitive information such as intellectual property or brand information. Persons pointed to an instance when MITRE, a nonprofit that handles federally funded research, credited data-sharing in the aviation industry with lowering the number of accidents.

Data-sharing, which could include establishing training environments that protect sensitive data, could include nationwide data standardization projects by agencies such as the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Address cybersecurity threats

AI systems are both vulnerable to and can be used for cybersecurity attacks. The costs of cyberattacks on networks and information are high and unevenly distributed between manufacturers and users, Persons said. He suggested policy changes that share the costs of cyberattacks and protecting against them more evenly.

Update the approach to regulations

While AI technology is still developing at a rapid pace, Persons encouraged policymakers to avoid prematurely establishing regulations and instead update the regulatory structure. He pointed to the potential use of AI by law enforcement and the evolving technology in automated vehicles as two potential areas in need of regulation.

Another way to update how AI is regulated could be through establishing regulatory sandboxes, which allow regulators to experiment on a small scale.

Better understand AI’s impact on employment

AI will certainly impact employment across industries. However, right now it is hard to determine which industries will see job loss and which will see job growth in the future. Changes across the workforce caused by AI will require reevaluation of training and education, Persons said.

Explore computational ethics and explainable AI

In the future, AI systems will have to be designed that can operate in environments where not all potential events can be anticipated. Persons emphasized the importance of developing ethical processes for AI and big data research. One of the main concerns, Persons said, is that the ethical standards of those developing AI may not be compatible with the rest of society or those who use the technology.

The CIO/G6 focuses on Army network modernization and resourcing. As deputy, Wang oversaw modernization projects such as the transition to the Joint Regional Security Stacks, which is a network security platform, and managed a $10 billion investment portfolio.

Shortly before his retirement, Wang spoke at a Washington-area AFCEA event about the future of converging Army IT and networks.

“We have functional parts of the Army that continue to build their own separate networks,” Wang said. “Three years ago we started talking about convergence and getting all the operational networks behind the JRSS. We are starting to do that now.”

Prior to serving as deputy CIO, Wang worked for the Navy as part of its intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and information operations program, and as director of corporate operations at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Maj. Gen Garrett Yee has been named acting deputy CIO, said Jess Smith, Army CIO/G6 spokeswoman. In the past Yee has worked on both Army network modernization and cybersecurity.

In May, Yee spoke at the Cyber Threat Intelligence Forum about Army network strategies for the future, which prioritize readiness, modernization and protection from potential cyber threats.

“To put things in perspective, the last time we took on an effort of this magnitude the internet was just beginning to take shape, social media was just a dream, and there was no such thing as software-defined capability,” Yee said.

A permanent replacement has not yet been named.

At NGA, McCarthy oversaw daily business activities and advised the director on issues including strategic planning and corporate governance.

INR is a bureau of the Department of State that provides analysis on all-source intelligence and ensures intelligence activities support foreign policy and national security for the department.

Currently, McCarthy is a member of the board of directors on the National Security Institute at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.

McCarthy has also served as president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, director of Human Capital Management Office and acting director of security within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

“Ellen brings a unique skillset to this nomination, having served on the leadership team that reshaped NGA from the inside,” Jamil Jaffer, National Security Institute founder, said in a news release.

Vinci will leave NGA for the private sector, the agency said. He was appointed in February 2018.

As CTO, Vinci’s role focused on increasing NGA’s ability to use and integrate new technology.

“It is not enough to only focus on machine-learning, computer vision and augmentation technologies—we must be equally committed to the integration of these technologies with out people and processes,” said NGA Director Robert Cardillo when the NGA announced Vinci’s appointment.

In the position, Vinci served as technology adviser to the director and deputy director, chief evangelist who champions technology inside and outside the agency and tackled the technology transformation within the agency, he told C4ISRNET in April.

“I truly believe that agencies across the government need to have CTOs in strong leadership positions for the same reasons that companies have adopted them as direct reports to CEOs,” Vinci said. “You need someone in these agencies that’s thinking about the future, thinking quickly, bringing some of the new ideas from industry, working closely with chief information officers and chief data officers, taking that champion, evangelist approach.”

Prior to his role as CTO, Vinci served at NGA as the associate director for capabilities and director of plans and programs. He also was the founder and CEO of Findyr, a data crowdsourcing technology company.

NGA has not yet named a new person to the role.

In the same release, NGA also announced the appointment of Cindy Daniell as director of research. Daniell has previously served as director of advanced technology programs at SRI international, a research institution based in California.

Her expertise is in imaging sensors, signal processing and compression, chemical, radiological, nuclear and explosive sensors, solar energy an surveillance technologies to NGA.

An electronic application, eApp, will be used to submit background security clearance investigation forms. The application debuted at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore in May.

DISA’s eApp is designed to replace and improve upon the current portal for security clearance check processing, called e-QIP. Using eApp, the subject of the investigation will enter the initial information. DISA said that eApp’s interface will improve user experience through “reworked navigation” and it will include requirements grouped into 10 sections and a section counter to track application progress.

The eApp was announced by the National Background Investigation System Program Office, part of the National Background Investigations Bureau that currently conducts security clearance background investigations.

More than 4 million federal and contract jobs require some level of security clearance and NBIB currently faces more than 710,000 applications waiting to be processed.

In January the Government Accountability Office added security clearance reform to its high-risk list of federal areas in need of reform. “Governmentwide measures for the quality of background investigations have not yet been established, and there have been significant delays in completing some key reform efforts,” a GAO news release said.

In March the Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on the issue.

During the Senate hearing in March, NBIB director Charles S. Phalen, Jr. attributed the backlog of security clearance investigations, in part, to the loss of 4,500 investigators with the termination of a contract in 2014 with US Investigation Services, an investigation services company.

The Professional Services Council (PSC) Foundation — which is the research arm of PSC, the trade association that advocates for government contractors — is researching reforms to the security clearance investigation system. In May, the PSC Foundation formed a security clearance strategic advisory group to assess the federal security clearance process.

DISA said that 1,000 Army users will soon test eApp for usability. A gradual rollout of the app is planned for September or October 2018.

The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center announced June 11 that CERES, which draws it name from central banks, regulators and supervisory entities, will launch July 1.

The CERES Forum will enable central banks, regulators and supervisors to share information about both cyberthreats and regulatory controls. The Forum will allow entities to share best practices related to regulatory controls and gather feedback from industry about effectiveness. Entities will also be able to quickly and securely share information about cyberthreats and incidents that might impact financial services.

The CERES Forum was created in response to increasing cybersecurity threats toward the global financial sector.

“Cyberthreats have become increasingly frequent, complex and sophisticated,” Bill Nelson, FS-ISAC president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. Data breaches and account take-over attacks can harm global payments systems, central banks and regulators, and threaten the international financial system.

In a 2015 survey of central banks by the World Bank, 11 of 14 respondents said they had been the target of cyber attacks.

The new Forum will be separate from the FS-ISAC community and will be designed to ensure member confidentiality. Although operations employees from central banks, regulators and supervisory entities are members of FS-ISAC, the CERES Forum will be created to focus on supervisory and regulatory employees instead.

“Information sharing remains one of the most effective ways to stay ahead of cybercrime,” Nelson said in 2017.