Gerry Connolly: “We Couldn’t Function…Without Private-Sector Partners”

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.