Security Enhanced Android was designed to identify and address gaps in Android’s security regarding applications, including problems with malicious and bad apps. The project page says the new version will limit damage from bad apps.

NSA said the release will not cure all of Android’s vulnerabilities will but should address certain gaps in app security.

The SE Android project is based off of SE Linux. NSA said in September that the project was still in its early development stages, according to InformationWeek.

PCWorld reports the updates are aimed at the Pentagon and other organizations using strict access-control policies. Developers hope to eventually release a packaged version of the more secure Android platform, which would compile NSA’s various Android programs.

The network “will provide deeper and broader cyber capabilities and services to our clients on their terms – when they need it and where they need it,” said Joe Mahaffee, Booz Allen executive vice president and chief information security officer. 

Booz Allen said the initial network launch includes four centers in Maryland, four in Virginia and one in New Jersey.

Booz Allen said a center near Fort Meade, Md., the National Security Agency, the U.S. Cyber Command and the Defense Cyber Crime Center will focus on cyber, forensics, malware and software analytics.

The Cyber Security Operations Center in Northern Virginia is the primary location for the company’s networks and systems. Booz Allen said this center provides round-the-clock emergency response, mobile forensics, cyber analytics, intelligence and network monitoring.

NIST image

In October, the director of the National Security Agency wanted to make clear to a Baltimore audience his views on the intelligence community using cloud computing.

“We need to go from our legacy databases to the cloud,” Army Gen. Keith Alexander said.

Alexander explained that cloud computing offers a better end-to-end view of networks and makes the community more secure, rather than less secure, as commonly believed.

Now, the Army is looking to develop a cloud-based tool for intelligence collection and analysis. Federal News Radio reports this effort is gaining some steam and the Army wants to keep the momentum going.

The Distributed Common Ground System – Army has been in development for several years now. The idea is to give soldiers quick and efficient access to intelligence while in combat.

Mary Lynn Schnurr, the chief information officer for Army intelligence, said that intelligence should not just be available to commanders. Rather, the optimal system would enable all soldiers to use the intelligence when they find documents or other digital information that they must analyze quickly.

“Soldiers, when they go on a raid and they pull that pocket litter out, they want to be able to look at those phone numbers and find linkages and they want to be able to do it right away,” she said at a recent event sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

“So we’ve put tools in place like TSETS, tactical site exploitation tools, that allow them to do exploitation right at the pointy end, right at the place of capture.”

The Army currently is rolling out version three of DCGS-A. According to Federal News Radio, the new version intends to fix shortcomings that commanders in Afghanistan claimed prevented intelligence personnel from piecing together large volumes of information placed across many databases.

Geospatial information is one of those pieces of information commanders want to get to soldiers in the field. The Army wants the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide the information and the National Security Agency to provide cryptological help. The Defense Intelligence Agency and the Marine Corps already provide the information.

An app mall is also in the works, allowing intelligence users to pick widgets that work for them. Schnurr says this is one part of a shift from hardware to software.

“That’s a way that we can achieve some great efficiencies: by changing the model we operate in,” she said.

dhs.gov

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, for example, plans to increase cybersecurity research spending by 50 percent over the next five years, according to an ExecutiveGov report 

As the government is making moves to spend more in cybersecurity, contractors too are gearing up for projects in the cyber field. A recent report by the Washington Post indicated that many firms are now turning to cybersecurity.

SAIC Inc. recently opened an innovation center in Fort Meade last year, near the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.

Booz Allen Hamilton for its part opted to build a cyber network that can work with multiple clients nationwide from their McLean-based facility. 

Booz Allen Chief Operating Officer Horacio Rozanski noted his firm is serving clients on the West Coast out of Red Bank, N.J. and Federal Aviation Administration clients out of Huntsville, Ala.

“Having that capability, we believe, is going to be market-driving,” he said.

Dave Melcher

Contractors are also looking to drive up revenue by what SAIC officials call “readiness and sustainment” of old equipment, trucks and aircraft. SAIC recently won two task orders worth $600 million to sustain blast proof trucks in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

ITT Exelis President and CEO David Melcher told the Post that sustainment work is the way to go.

“If you’re going to cut out the new systems, what are you going to do? You’re going to fix up the old systems,” he said. Contractors are also doing the work for contract wins themselves, rather than subcontracting the work.

Amidst panels and discussions was the official launch of the MarkLogic Public Sector Twitter handle, @MarkLogicPubSec and the MarkLogic Public Sector Facebook page.

“This year’s MarkLogic Government Summit gave public sector professionals an opportunity to learn how their peers, other organizations, and corporations are taking advantage of Big Data to achieve mission success,” said Randall Jackson, vice president, MarkLogic Public Sector.

“We look forward to continuing to drive the big data conversation and provide a ‘go-to’ resource for Big Data information through our new online outlets including Twitter and Facebook,” he added.

This year’s keynote speakers included former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and NSA Gen. Michael Hayden and former chief technology officer of the C.I.A. Bob Flores. Both speakers provided real life examples of the data deluge and the importance of being able to analyze it quickly to keep the U.S. safe.

Up to a hundred Veteran-owned small business leaders with a focus on cyber and IT had the chance to hear about opportunities in the cyber environment from Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Edward Chow.

Maryland has all the ingredients a state needs to become a force in federal contracting: regional concentration of government agencies, defense facilities, high-tech industry and leading academic institutions. State leaders are pushing hard for Maryland to become a leader in the newly booming cybersecurity industry.

Keynote speaker Dennis Bartko, Special Assistant to the Director for Cyber at the National Security Agency, described key challenges in cybersecurity today and NSA’s intelligence role. He said NSA recognizes no trade-off between individual liberties and national security. “We protect both,” he said, “and we must, because our mission is firmly based on the Constitution.”

Executives from ARGO-Systems, TeleCommunication Systems, and SAIC headed the industry discussion. Frederick J. Ferrer, ARINC’s Director for Cyberspace, headed the event, introducing panel discussions and was happy with the way the event turned out.

“The goal of today’s conference has been to empower, engage, and educate Maryland’s Veteran-owned Small Businesses, so they can take advantage of the cyber opportunities in today’s market,”  said Ferrer. “I believe we have accomplished some of that, and now I’m looking forward to hearing some of your success stories in the future.”

The Coyote program includes two fully-programmable cryptographic system-on-chip secure network processors, BlackRiver-AARIS-777 and Havasu-AARIS-457.

BlackRiver-AARIS-777 is top-secret certified and the Havasu-AARIS-457 is below certified.

Both support a variety of suite A, legacy and suite B algorithms, which cover a wide range of voice, network and data-at-rest products and applications. Each can be applied to NSA’s future key management initiative.

ITT said the processors are interoperable with military and government communications equipment and encryption devices.  

The convention attracts seasoned computer experts, and this year’s event is expected to exceed more than 10,000 attendees. Among the government agencies hoping to find new talent are NASA and the NSA.

According to Reuters, NSA is hiring about 1,500 people during the fiscal year and another 1,500 next year, most of them cyber experts. Richard George, technical director of the agency’s information assurance directorate, told Reuters NSA has a shortage of hacking talent.

“Today, it’s cyber warriors that we’re looking for, not rocket scientists,” George said. “That’s the race that we’re in today and we need the best and brightest to be ready to take on this cyber warrior status.”

Defcon began as an annual party for members of Canada-based online group, “Platinum Net,” and has been providing an anonymous trade show for hackers to compete, learn and show off their talents since 1993. Anonymity is assured by a $150 cash-only entrance fee.

Included in this year’s agenda are events like key speakers, hacking contests, games and workshops. Agencies will keep a close on the prospective talent, which are needed in the government to strengthen internal networks and discover weaknesses in security.

Keith B. Alexander, U.S. Cyber Command/NSA

With at least 5,000 new pieces of malware show up online a day, simply deploying a firewall and fixing things when they break isn’t good enough, according to U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency head Gen. Keith B. Alexander.

“We can no longer depend on a static defense,” said Alexander, spoke at the University of Tulsa on Monday, The Tulsa World reports. He noted that as electricity and water systems become increasingly computerized and interconnected, they too could be brought down by a cyber attack.

Alexander spoke of the electric grid in the Northeast that collapsed in 2003 because of software anomalies. He also mentioned the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric dam in Russia, which suffered a turbine failure in 2009 and killed 75 people because its stability software was down.

Concern about civil liberties often emerges in talks about cybersecurity, and Alexander said he and his team worry about it, too.

“We’re not asking for one over the other; we should have both civil liberties and protection,” he said. “As Americans, we should demand it.”

NSA’s cyber activities are both defensive and offensive in nature, though the general said he could not offer details on particular offensive operations. He did say the rules of computerized warfare are still being determined, such as what happens when an attack is routed through an adversarial country, a neutral nation or the United States, itself.

“These are issues we have to work our way through, because the laws and boundaries aren’t clear,” he said.

Image: nsa.gov

The National Security Agency has launched two new digital communications efforts designed to educate prospective employees on career opportunities as part of a move to tap the best and brightest to support the agency’s cybersecurity initiatives, according to an NSA press release.

Available from iTunes, the NSA Career Links Smartphone application delivers real-time agency updates to the user’s iPhone, including information about job opportunities, career fairs and NSA news.

NSA is also employing smartphone tagging on many of its print-based recruitment ads. Users with smartphones equipped with the iOS or Android operating systems can use their phones to scan these tags, which will launch a video related to the ad’s content.

“We are looking for people in the science, technology, engineering, and math skill fields,” said Kathy Hutson, associate director for human resources. “We are using a variety of marketing tools from . . . billboards to our newest digital recruitment tools. Our need for these skills is enormous; therefore, we need to be using cool, high-tech tools.”