Cyber Scene - Up In the Air
By krahal
With a nod to Charles Dickens, this Cyber Scene will take us to the tale of two grounded US cities—Washington DC and New York City, even as debates, be they financial or foreign affairs, are fully in best or possibly worst ethereal times.
For background, here we are again as the US budget is running late. Agreeing on a compromise still appears to be incredibly difficult. As a reminder, funding decisions are expected to run annually. Much of the funding the US approves is not to be drawn on one fiscal year, but often delivered in multi-year doses ("tranches") for multi-year projects. Think submarines, satellites or cyber. Think pay checks. The challenge at the budget door may be resolved this week but only through December 20, 2024, when it starts the new year with last year's problems. The "best of times" is that government workers, US military, and contractors will almost get through the December holidays and sidestep furloughs of the past, but the old movie we have seen too often is popping up again. Additionally, any remaining trickle-down economic impact would linger.
Here is the quasi-good news, ad interim. The 22 September Wall Street Journal's Katy Stech Ferek summarizes the current status:
"The proposal, backed by top Republicans and Democrats, would extend government funding until Dec. 20, giving Congress more time to figure out how much money to allocate each federal agency for the next fiscal year. The government faces a partial closure at the end of this month if lawmakers don't pass an extension."
One episode of this movie comes from Leo Shane III at Military Times regarding what the short-term extension might include. According to Mr. Shane, Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Rob Wittman "…is confident Congress will pass a short-term budget extension in the next few weeks and eventually finalize plans for $833B in defense sending for fiscal year 2025." Unfortunately, the first months of FY 2025 (starting 1 October 2024) will have come and gone by the time this is nailed down. Moreover, he notes that getting the seven remaining appropriations bills done in time is unlikely, once "the time" is nailed down. So as of this writing, the continuing resolution (CR), in budget-speak, is expected to wrap up this short-term legislation tracking to be finished, for the time-being, by the week of 30 September.
For those interested in what is likely to make the cut, or not, The Hill's Aris Folley provides a roundup as of 22 September. As is noted above, the three-month timeline was cited as the preference due to support from Democrats and from Republicans who are "defense hawks." More funding ($231M) appears likely to be included, given Secret Service shortages and the recent assassination attempts against the former president. Additional issues that may make the cut are funding for submarines ($2B short), the Department of Veterans Affairs ($12B short) including the Paralympic Program, and FEMA ($10B).
Moving along to other defense issues, Breaking Defense's Theresa Hitchens on 20 September offered "up in the air" issues. The Space Rapid Capabilities Office Director Kelly Hammett explained the urgency for keeping the SCAR (Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource) program flowing, as "…top brass have begun to worry more about the possible great power conflict with China and/or Russia." Given that SCAR antennas are outdated and in serious need of replacement, both military commanders and Pentagon officials are asking for more funding. They point out that these urgent needs are particularly those who need field modernized antennas to replace the antiquated parabolic ones in Satellite Control Network (SCN). The reasoning and urgency are as follows:
"In the last six months, the importance of SCAR to the future comms architecture for space has been significantly elevated. Why? It's recognized that in a time of conflict, the legacy SCN does not have the capacity to be able to see to the necessary assets to fight the fight when things go from a peacetime footing to a dynamic space operations environment," he said. "When we shift to that footing, the necessary cadence of commanding and controlling satellites to move, hide, run, and fight goes up significantly."
The article goes on to explain the urgent need, given locations around the world and the missions addressed. Since the relatively new Space Force intends to field more satellites, 18-20 more modern phased-array antennas would take on tracking, telemetry, and command requirements.
The SCAR program is not alone in the air above. Jason Rainbow from Space News 20 September investigates issues that executives working on emerging space-based computing capabilities related to advancing Artificial Intelligence (AI) societal benefits need "stronger collaboration between policymakers and technology leaders."
During the World Satellite Business Week in Paris, Rika Nakazawa, the Chief of Commercial Innovation for Japan's telecoms NTT, suggested using private forums for policymakers and industry players to be educated about AI. Another perspective came from Clint Crosier, Amazon Web Services Director of Aerospace and Satellites. He explained to the conference "…how the cloud computing behemoth partnered with French geospatial analytics company Alteia in November (2023) to assess global infrastructure from space for the World Bank." Mr. Crosier added that the companies provided the World Bank with a set of target areas for infrastructure improvements, especially underdeveloped nations, using AI-based prediction capabilities. He said more computing power is needed in orbit, given the demand for advanced AI and Machine Learning (ML) tools for sectors such as environmental management, agriculture, healthcare, insurance and energy. He closed by underscoring how insufficient humans can be: "We're going to be bringing down so much data…it will be physically impossible for us as humans to organize the data--analyze, disseminate and make real-time insights of the data without the use of AI ML."
The Times' David E. Sanger and Madeleine Ngo on 23 September bring us to return, partially, to earth: US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and others are looking to ban Chinese-developed software from internet-connected cars in the US, justifying the move on national security grounds as it did regarding Huawei. The action is intended to prevent Chinese intelligence agencies from monitoring these vehicles or using the vehicles' electronics as a pathway into the US electric grid or other critical infrastructure. Similarly, the exclusion of Chinese-imported cars is also viewed as an opportunity for increasing US automotive jobs. NSA Sullivan offers details: "Many of these technologies collect large volumes of information on drivers" as they also connect with personal devices, other cars, and US critical infrastructure. This decision was cast as a cyber vulnerability issue.
The Post's Joseph Menn and Ellen Nakashima also study the concern of a Chinese network of "…260,000 internet-connected cameras, routers and other devices that the Chinese government had been using to spy on sensitive organizations." FBI Director Christopher A. Wray considered it as not only a successful disruption, but "…one round in a much longer fight." The most recent attack, a botnet dubbed Flax Typhoon was run out of Beijing. An earlier cyberattack known as Volt Typhoon compromised office routers to delve deeper.
This week New York City is, once again, abnormally brimming with luminaries as the US welcomes the United Nations General Assembly for the 79th time. As a reminder, the permanent UN Security Council comprises the US, UK, France, China, and Russia plus 10, 2-year term, rotating countries. Big debates run from 23-26 September. although the whole program encumbers about 2 weeks. Permanent members number 193 plus Vatican, Palestine and the EU as observers. For this year, the election of the president of 79th UNGA is the former Prime Minister of Cameroon, His Excellency Philémon Yang. The serving President of the US, Mr. Biden, is, as customary, the host while Secretary of State Blinken seems to be "everyman, everywhere."
To see previous articles, please visit the Cyber Scene Archive.