Steve Orrin, chief technology officer at Intel’s federal arm, and Cameron Chehreh, CTO of Dell Technologies’ federal business, wrote in a joint article published Monday on Nextgov that a 5G-enabled architecture requires government agencies to implement a risk-based approach to security that takes into consideration the whole data lifecycle.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna, president and CEO of SolarWinds, wrote in a blog post published Thursday that in light of the cyber attack, the software company will implement measures centered around three key areas: further securing its internal environment, improving product development environment and ensuring the integrity and security of the products it delivers.

Cybersecurity experts are urging government agencies to accelerate the adoption of zero trust capabilities in the wake of a cyber attack involving a vulnerability in SolarWinds’ Orion software, FedScoop reported Saturday. “They’re kind of operating on the fly,” Stephen Kovac, vice president of global government and compliance at Zscaler. “They’re buying one solution and thinking they’ve got zero trust now.” 

Steven Septoff, vice president for U.S. federal at Dell Technologies, said agencies looking to meet the goals of the Federal Data Strategy should prioritize security as they modernize their information technology platforms to better protect government data, FedScoop reported Thursday. "Security has got to be [built] within the technology … as you’re modernizing your IT infrastructure,” he said.

Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and a four-time Wash100 Award winner, issued a memo in mid-December formalizing the creation of a program that would provide participating defense contractors more access to special access programs or classified initiatives, the Air Force Magazine reported Monday.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems combined a small unmanned aerial system and a Ghost Robotics-built robot dog to map and identify indoor threats using optical scanning and artificial intelligence for a tech demonstration held in December, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

A Teledyne Technologies business has unveiled two new ruggedized gallium nitride, high electron mobility transistors designed for high-reliability space, avionics and military applications. The 30-amp TDG650E30B and 15-amp TDG650E15B GaN HEMTs are the latest additions to Teledyne e2v HiRel’s family of 650-volt products based on GaN Systems’ technology.

A Raytheon Technologies business unit has secured a $12.7M contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop phased array antenna technology using a “building blocks” approach for the second phase of DARPA’s Millimeter-Wave Digital Arrays program. “Millimeter-wave is less crowded than other parts of the RF spectrum on the battlefield, but current hardware is complex, tailored to a specific task and not interoperable,” said Tay Fitzgerald, vice president for advanced concepts and technology at Raytheon Intelligence & Space.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station and host a two-week demonstration of the SharkSat payload once it leaves the ISS. SharkSat is intended to test and demonstrate multiprocessor systems, digital receivers, integrated circuits and other electronic components to facilitate the development of a Ka-band software defined radio that could have potential applications in 5G, space-to-ground and space-to-space communications.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Simulators Division awarded $10M in AFWERX Small Business Innovative Research Phase II contracts to 10 companies selected through a two-day pitch day to identify technologies that could help improve aircrew training, the service said Monday.

The Homeland Security & Defense Forum’s virtual Border Security Symposium held in December featured a panel discussion on the role of 5G in border security. Mark Adams, senior director of advanced mission capabilities at Peraton, introduced the panel discussion, citing the application of internet of things connectivity in homeland security.

Matt Kraning, chief technology officer and co-founder of Expanse, wrote in a guest piece published Thursday on Nextgov that the Department of Defense and federal civilian agencies looking to accelerate the acquisition process and deliver more innovative platforms should advance program protection. “In order to be effective and comprehensive, a program protection model should start where an attacker would first begin to surveil a vendor in cyberspace: in its exposed internet presence, such as websites, file transfer services and remote access protocols,” he said.

Kymeta has announced a $30M investment from Hanwha Systems to help the former expand its global market presence and further develop its low-Earth orbit antenna technology and other next-generation capabilities.

Hawk Carlisle, president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association, wrote in an article published Monday in National Defense magazine that NDIA gives the defense industrial base a score of 75 and a C rating in the “Vital Signs 2021" report set to be released in December. Carlisle said the score indicates that the defense industrial base continues to face a challenging environment amid the COVID19 pandemic.

Jeff Ryder, vice president of growth and strategy at General Motors’ defense unit, said GM Defense sees a $25B market in developing new military products based on the parent company’s existing vehicles, technologies and parts, CNBC reported Monday. “That’s an addressable market that we feel we have a right to win and pursue. And that’s what we’re doing,” he said.