Weekly Briefing: Defense Networks & Cyber

The latest defense networks & cyber news and analysis from Breaking Defense.

SDA & DARPA: June Demos To Prove Optical Sat Link Capability "Getting a laser beam on a spacecraft to point to a laser receiver on another spacecraft accurately enough with the right power levels, the right waveforms, etc.,– it's not an easy thing," said General Atomics VP Nick Bucci.

Frontline Geek Squads: SOCOM's Secret Weapon Deploying data scientists alongside special ops troops lets them solve intelligence-sharing problems "in minutes or hours," said Special Operations Command's first-ever CTO.

Microsoft Pushes Urgent Fixes Overnight As Threat Actors Compromise Exchange Servers Worldwide The cyberespionage campaign is said to be affecting the U.S. defense industrial base, think tanks, and "hundreds of thousands" of organizations globally. Microsoft is implicating China.

AFRL's Golden Horde To Test Swarming Munitions In Digital 'Colosseum' The new simulation environment will use 'digital twins' to rapidly test and iterate "collaborative autonomous networked technologies," AFRL explains.

Exclusive: NORTHCOM Developing, Testing AI Tools To Implement JADC2 The command is leading a virtual exercise, called the Global Information Dominance Exercise (GIDE) 2, March 18-23 to test three "decision aids" using AI to speed commanders' ability to act.

HASC Chair Slams F-35, 500-Ship Fleet; Highlights Cyber "What does the F-35 give us? Is there a way to cut our losses?" asked Rep. Adam Smith, who wants a mixed force of different types of fighters: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

CYBERCOM Plays 'Key Role' As SolarWinds Unfolds: Gen. Nakasone As the government investigation continues, security firm FireEye published details of newly discovered backdoor, SUNSHUTTLE, which has "possible connection" to the SolarWinds hack.

Agile Product Management: How To Build Weapons Faster & Better Combining agile software development with product management is the secret weapon that can help the DoD maintain America's innovation advantage — and protect its global preeminence.

Advice For DIU At Five: Don't Just Grow, LEAD "DIU is punching above its weight and having an impact beyond its size," acquisition guru Bill Greenwalt says. "Still, that will not be enough….  Unless the rest of the Department and Congress learns these lessons, we will continue to fall behind China."

DARPA's Rapid Power Grid Restoration Tech Goes Live Some of the tech built to quickly restore power after a cyberattack is now operational on parts of the U.S. grid, with more deployments to follow. This week's news of RedEcho shows, yet again, it can't happen soon enough.

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