The Wrap: Army’s LLM Approach; Iran Busted for Campaign Hacks; Fed CIOs Tell all at Tech Tonic

Welcome to The Wrap for Tuesday, August 20!

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

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Army’s AI LLM Approach

The 美国军队 ’s tech shop is putting in a lot of work these days on large language model generative AI technologies with an “as a service” twist. That was the top-line news from Army CIO Leo Garciga during his keynote address today at AFCEA International ’s TechNet Augusta 2024 in Augusta, Ga. Garciga said “the idea of as a service in [the generative AI] space is going to be really, really important,” and explained that the Army is currently focused on “spending a lot of the time on the front end” by asking “what problem are you trying to solve” before deploying an LLM. Taking early root in the AI effort are some of the Army’s less whiz-bang functions, he said. “I’m really focused on large language models right now,” Garciga said. “What we’re really finding, and our observations have been: conversational AI … That’s where we’re seeing a lot of folks work through [for back-office stuff].” He continued: “The Army has a lot of tasks … How do we better search, go through those tasks … It would be nice if we could just get some lift to get there faster and reduce that cognitive burden. [There’s] lot of work in that space – a lot of work in the mission space, on the cyber side, in this area, too – but we’re seeing mostly back-office.” Please do click through for the whole story, including timing of an upcoming guidance release on achieving continuous authorization for DevSecOps platforms.

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Iran Busted for Campaign Hacks

Who’s behind recent phishing attacks designed to gain access to the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns? U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are?pointing the finger?mostly at Iran – but also Russia – for the ongoing infiltration attempts, and specifically at Tehran for hacking efforts against Republican operative Roger Stone that made news earlier this month. A late Monday release from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) , and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) focused mostly on Iran but also roped Russia into the picture, saying that both countries “have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world.” The remedies against those kinds of assaults feature all of the cyber hygiene basics. “Using strong passwords and only official email accounts for official business, updating software, avoiding clicking on links or opening attachments from suspicious emails before confirming their authenticity with the sender, and turning on multi-factor authentication will drastically improve online security and safety,” the three agencies said.

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DoD Clobbered on GPS Work

Speaking of getting busted, a White House advisory group focused on Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies is giving the government – and specifically the United States Department of Defense – a hefty earful of criticism over long-standing GPS policy structure that it says results in slow action to embrace? positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems alternatives. In a?memo?publicly released on August 9, the National Space-based PNT Advisory Board argues that DoD’s GPS management suffers from poor governance, and it recommends shifting authority and accountability for PNT decision-making beyond the DoD’s GPS program. “Simply put, the Board believes that the 20-year-old framework for GPS governance and the current policy statements establish neither the priority that the system deserves nor sufficiently clear accountability for its performance,” the memo reads.

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What Fed CIOs Really Think – Sept. 19 at Tech Tonic

If part of your gig involves trying to unravel that mystery, then please do swing by Tech Tonic on Sept. 19?at Morton's The Steakhouse in Washington, D.C. from 5-9 p.m., where we will debut MeriTalk’s new?“Federal CIO Forecast”?research compiled in recent weeks from exclusive one-on-one interviews with 12 Federal agency tech chiefs – the Digital Dozen. Plus, we’ll be hosting Capitol Hill’s leading tech legislator Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who will help sort through those CIO aspirations against the policy and funding realities of Congress. It’s not all business: Tech Tonic also will feature a recap of MeriTalk’s Sept. 13th Government and Industry?CIO Cricket Match, which benefits the USO and gives tech biggies from government and industry a heck of a good workout. The Tech Tonic go button is a click away.

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].