SAIC and CSC will sponsor the 5th Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) that will take place over the next few days. During competition, students will try to defend their networks from intrusion while keeping them online and providing services (like e-mail) and carrying out everyday functions (i.e. adding new users).

The competition includes the following schools: Community College of Baltimore County; Towson University; the University of Maryland Baltimore County; Asheville-Buncombe Technical College; Millersville University in Pennsylvania. The winner will represent the region in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio, Texas, in April.

Larry Cox of SAIC

Larry Cox, senior VP and general manager of SAIC’s Intelligence and Information Solutions business unit, said of the exercise “Defense of our cyber infrastructure is imperative, and competitions such as the CCDC provide students with an exciting and challenging introduction to careers in science, technology, and engineering.”

Jim Menendez of CSC

CSC’s cybersecurity experts will judge the competition, serving as referees and scoring the exercises. “CSC is dedicated to developing cutting-edge, long-term solutions to the evolving cyber threat environment, and an important component of these efforts is the development of next generation cybersecurity curricula and workforce,” said James Menendez, vice president of CSC’s Global Security Solutions.

Cybersecurity is a growing field, and major integrators are getting in on the action.  To learn more about this dynamic and engaging topic, be sure to register for the Potomac Officers Club event on March 25th featuring Jim Lewis of CSIS.

Click here to visit the Potomac Officers Club’s registration page.

Jim Lewis of CSIS

Last April, President Obama issued a challenge to corporations and individuals: It’s time to reinvigorate America’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) educational enterprise. Looks like Walt Havenstein, SAIC’s new CEO, is picking up the torch. Just recently Havenstein told a paper in Huntsville, Ala., where SAIC employs 2,300: “STEM is a way of getting young people interested in science … our emphasis, as employees, is to reach out to the young people as mentors.” Havenstein cited a robot-building competition for elementary through and high school students among those efforts.

Meanwhile, President Obama is continuing the call for greater involvement from companies, foundations, and others to help young people nationwide excel in science and math. The other week, the White House launched an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to continue improve to STEM. Check out Obama’s talk here:

How is your business helping to reinvigorate America’s STEM educational enterprise?

Share your comments here.

Walt Havenstein became CEO of SAIC on September 21. He also serves as a member of SAIC’s board of directors. Before his appointment as CEO, Havenstein served as COO and member of the board of directors for BAE Systems plc, and president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., BAE Systems plc’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary. Havenstein will succeed Ken Dahlberg, the company’s chairman and CEO, who has stepped down in keeping with SAIC’s mandatory retirement policy for executive officers. Dahlberg will remain chairman of the board of directors through June 2010.

Here’s a re-cap of a few executive transitions since early June: Larry Prior moved to ManTech, Walt Havenstein moved to SAIC, and Tony Zinni moved to BAE.  In his first interview since taking office, Larry Prior talked about his top priorities and how he’s furthering ManTech’s position as an ‘essential partner’ in cyber and national security. Here are some

Larry Prior

highlights:

• “Systems engineering and technical assistance as well as mission support, for example, require lots of experience and core technical talent. That’s a great opportunity for industry.”
• “Government needs to re-badge. It needs to bring talent in that does planning, budgeting, source selection, and acquisition management. They need to make sure, however, they can also execute on missions across every agency.”
• “Cyber is a wonderful opportunity for us to expand our business…we’re focused on several questions: How do we help defend networks that aren’t in our typical space? How do we help improve network resiliency everywhere we go?“

Jim Moran on Cyber Threats

Congressman Jim Moran

spoke with Congressman Jim Moran on the subject recently, and here are the highlights:

• “…there should always be a constructive tension between the private and public sectors.  We tipped that balance in the last few years by outsourcing inherently governmental work, in my opinion.  That’s why I support Secretary Gates’ effort to establish 20,000 more acquisition personnel as an example…”
• “On the whole I’d have to say there is a relatively negative attitude towards contractors and we are working every day to improve that image and to try to discourage the kinds of activities and rhetoric that underscore people’s negative feelings towards contactors. It is a two way street.”
• “We need to march forward and not be intimidated by… Cyber Attacks.”
• “…it behooves the IT contractors particularly to work with my office and with Gerry Connolly’s and Steny Hoyer’s, people who represent large IT defense workforces.  The more participation and contact we have, the better results we get for all concerned..”

Melissa Hathaway Resigns

Melissa Hathaway

Melissa Hathaway, Top 10 Beltway Game Changer to Watch in ‘09, resigned her post as current acting Senior Director of Cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils.  Ms. Hathaway recused herself from consideration for the position of Cyber Czar two weeks ago, citing personal reasons.  She intends to continue her work in the interest of national cybersecurity in the private sector.

Hacker Conference Hacked by Spies

Jeff Moss, prominent hacker, founder of the BlackHat hacker organization, and member of the DHS advisory board on cybersecurity, hosted his annual DEFCON hacker convention in Las Vegas this week.  But when four “South Korean journalists’”  interviews did not cover normal topics for the conference, the four were escorted out of the conference. In fact, the Korean visitors were “intelligence gathering” individuals: spies. The incident comes after the July 4th distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) on U.S. and South Korean government and private computer networks.

India Emerges as GovCon Market

No, this isn’t about outsourcing IT solutions to India, but rather selling DoD and military services to India. India’s defense budget for fiscal ‘09-10 will increase by almost 35%, in an effort to modernize its mostly Soviet-era materiel.  India will spend over $30 billion a year on defense for the next five years, and American defense contractors are leading the charge to strengthen America’s strongest and most populous ally in South Asia:

• Raytheon has secured $82 million in contracts to modernize India’s air navigation systems
• Lockheed has completed delivery of six C-130J aircraft for $1.1 billion and is negotiating the sale of another six for $1.1 billion next year.

It seems like American money is making a round-trip, jetting to India through outsourced jobs and coming right back through defense contracting dollars (or rupees).

Gerry Connolly

Gerry Connolly (D) is the freshman Congressman from Virginia’s 11th District, including parts of Fairfax and Prince William Counties.  He replaced Tom Davis (R) after Tom’s retirement last year, and has some big shoes to fill as an advocate for the GovCon community.  Here are some highlights from our interview:

• I think there’s a looming personnel crisis, both in the demographic bulge of baby boomers getting ready to retire, and in the failure of the federal government to properly staff up for large procurement contracts.
• It’s easy to demonize a whole industry, but I don’t think it’s productive and I don’t think it’s fair.
• I don’t see federal contractors as anything but a resource for the federal government.
• Streamlining regulations is something Congress wants to do to level the playing field and rationalize the current process.

Check out the full interview here.

AT&T to Test Einstein 3 Cyber Initiative

Michael Chertoff

AT&T’s pilot program will test whether Einstein 3 can safely and effectively monitor only government agency networks and sidestep privacy concerns.

What’s the difference between Einstein 3 and earlier models? Michael Chertoff puts it in layman’s terms: “Intrusion detection is like a cop with a radar gun on a highway who catches you speeding or drunk and phones ahead to somebody at the other end.  Einstein 3 is a cop who actually arrests you and pulls you off the road when he sees you driving drunk.”

Michael Chertoff will address the Potomac Officers’ Club on July 16.  Click here to register.

GovCon Goes Green

There’s plenty of government green in green technology:

• SAIC and General Atomics are splitting $35 million in DARPA biofuel contracts, breeding algae that produce a substitute for jet fuel.
• Raytheon has saved $11 million in energy costs by increasing energy efficiency by 38% since 2002.
• Lockheed Martin is building a major solar power plant in Arizona that will power 73,000 homes and generate an estimated $1 billion in revenue

Tony Zinni

Tony Zinni on Smart Power

Tony Zinni, BAE’s CEO, is interested in “smart power,” the U.S. government’s nonmilitary efforts to improve economic and political stability in war-torn or dangerously dysfunctional countries.  Zinni said BAE’s smart power strategy will focus on “stabilization and reconstruction, and more balanced approaches to international and national security issues,” Zinni said.  As funding for large, costly weapons systems is cut from the DoD budget, “smart power” will become an increasingly important market to large defense firms.

War 2.0

Mossad reports that Israel would be allowed to fly through Saudi airspace it decides to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.  But will it have to?  An Israeli drill in the late ’90s established that military facilities could be literally destroyed through cyber infiltration, and an Air Force study has confirmed U.S. offensive cyber capabilities. Obama was right when he said “The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground,” because if a cyberattack is successful, it immediately becomes infinately scalable ammunition.

It’s official: Walt Havenstein has been named CEO of SAIC, the scientific, engineering, and technology applications company with 45,000 employees. Havenstein will become CEO on September 21. He will also become member of SAIC’s board of directors.

Havenstein most recently served as chief operating officer and member of the board of directors for BAE Systems plc, and president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., the company’s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary. Havenstein will succeed Ken Dahlberg, the company’s chairman and CEO, who will step down in keeping with SAIC’s mandatory retirement policy for executive officers (Dahlberg is reportedly 64; the mandatory retirement age is 65.) However, Dahlberg will remain chairman through June 2010.

“The board and I are extremely pleased to have Walt join the company’s executive management team,” says Dahlberg. “He has demonstrated an outstanding record of success at BAE Systems, where he managed the company’s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, with 53,000 employees and annual sales in excess of $20 billion … Walt brings more than 25 years of experience not only in our core competencies, but also in a wide range of services that will provide new avenues of growth for the company. Most importantly, he is committed to a high quality of performance, outstanding customer satisfaction, and high ethical standards — hallmarks of SAIC’s success since 1969.”

“I am pleased to be joining the SAIC leadership team,” adds Havenstein.  “I’m moving from one great company to another and I look forward to contributing to SAIC’s growth as a premier science, technology and engineering firm.”

Industry colleagues are offering their praise. “Having known Walt Havenstein for nearly 40 years, I can say unequivocally that he is a leader and a man of integrity,” says Bill Hoover, president and CEO of AMERICAN SYSTEMS. “Walt respects all with whom he works while demanding nothing less than one’s best efforts at all times.  He has served our country as a Marine officer and as a leader in our industry which is committed to serving our nation’s present day mission. SAIC, our industry and our nation are fortunate to have an individual like Walt during dynamic times like those which we face today.”

Share your comments here.

Walt Havenstein has just resigned as director and chief operating officer of BAE Systems, plc, and has stepped down as president and CEO of BAE Systems, Inc., a fully-owned subsidiary of the global company. Havenstein’s resignation will take effect Friday, June 26, and he will leave BAE Systems, Inc., this coming September. Meanwhile, BAE reports that

Walt Havenstein

General Anthony Zinni has been appointed acting president and CEO of BAE Systems, Inc..

Havenstein has been credited with successfully implementing BAE Systems’ global strategy and ensuring the growth of its US-based business, BAE Systems, Inc. “Walt has been a valued member of the board and the executive team,” says Dick Olver, chairman of BAE Systems.

So, what now for Havenstein? An unnamed source tells The Wall Street Journal that Havenstein is set to head on over to SAIC. Meanwhile, sources exclusive to ExecutiveBiz tell us that Havenstein’s possible new role is “close” but “not a done deal yet.” SAIC, for its part, has made no announcement. We’ll keep you posted.