Dutch research organisation TNO is investigating concrete applications of self-sovereign identity (SSI) technology to make citizens lives easier, and enable organisations to make considerable savings in administrative processes.

SSI offers new ways for citizens to manage their privacy, eliminates the need to log in with passwords, and speeds up transactions over the internet and in real life.

We are investigating how SSI can be made suitable for applications, said Rieks Joosten, senior scientist in business information processes and information security at TNO. Perhaps the most important application is the electronic filling of administrative forms. If you want to apply for a mortgage, you need to gather all sorts of information to submit to the lender. Not only do you often have to fill in the same data repeatedly, you also need authorised documents, from your employer and the bank, for example.

Midway through last year, the Netherlands national ombudsman published a report, Keep it simple, which looking at the red tape that citizens face when doing business with government departments and businesses. The report showed that such processes are often time-consuming and frustrating for citizens.

But it is also costly for the parties who have to validate these forms, said Joosten. We estimate that Dutch organisations spend more than 1bn a year on validation.

Using SSI, this can be done more efficiently and effectively in the future. Behind it lie cryptographic technologies, for instance public-key cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs and often blockchain. These technologies give the user control over which personal data is shared with whom, while the recipient can quickly verify this data electronically.

This enables secure and efficient exchange of digital information, said Joosten. Parties can now get quality data that provably originates from organisations that they trust, and hasnt been changed in transit.

SSI can help companies to comply with European privacy legislation and save considerable costs on administrative processes. For citizens, the system saves a huge amount of time and frustration, and can prevent people from giving up in a complex administrative process and therefore not getting what they are entitled to. Also, they no longer have to log in with usernames and passwords.

Joosten added: You fill in a form because you want to get something, say a parking permit or a mortgage. This form is designed so that the provider can get answers to three questions. One, what do I get from you and what do you get from me? Two, do I value what I get more highly than what I give? And three, is the risk Im taking with this transaction acceptable to me?

This allows the provider to decide whether or not to provide what is requested, he said. SSI adds the ability to electronically annotate the form, allowing the provider to specify which organisations it trusts to provide what data.

The users SSI app can read these annotations and, after obtaining the users consent, gets that data from the users digital wallet and sends it to the providers web server, including electronically verifiable proofs of provenance and integrity. So the provider obtains quality data from a source that he or she trusts, said Joosten.

Several local solutions already exist that do this, he added. In the Netherlands, we have IRMA, in Belgium Its Me, and similar initiatives exist in other countries. They support local SSI markets, have their own infrastructure, their own governance and their own forms of credentials.

It resembles how data networks worked in the early days of the internet. We had local area networks [LANs], each using its own protocol. With the advent of IPv4, it became possible to send data across different LANs, all over the world. We are looking for an SSI network infrastructure that is not owned by a single party, and does for local solutions what IPv4 did for LANs.

Although the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are leading the way in Europe with the development of SSI research and applications, Joosten sees the necessity of collaboration. Individual parties, large and small, need to contribute to the bigger picture, he said. We not only need technicians, but also visionaries and people with political and business knowledge.

Some of them will contribute to the horizontal SSI infrastructure, others to vertical SSI markets, and still others to make it all work together, so that SSI can grow organically. We work with lots of parties in communities such as the Dutch Blockchain Coalition or Techruption, consortia such as uNLock, programmes such as EBSI/ESSIF, in events such as Odyssey.org or Rebooting Web of Trust, and others.

Within its SSI Lab in Groningen, TNO works on components that could become part of the SSI infrastructure, integrating where possible with components that others are developing. Also, applications are being developed to support SSI marketplaces and for demonstration purposes.

The SSI Lab is not just for TNO, said Joosten. It provides a safe environment for other organisations to experiment with several technologies, allowing them to experience the state of the art and build a business case for themselves. Also, the SSI Lab develops mental models and other stories for the purpose of aligning the currently different and non-interoperable ways in which people think about SSI.

However, many technological and organisational challenges remain to be resolved before citizens, businesses and public authorities can benefit from SSI. We need to understand exactly how different individuals and organisations will use the same technology, and what needs have to be catered for, said Joosten. We must provide assurances regarding the security and integrity of the various user- and business apps, that can be verified at the business level. To find answers, we work together with many other parties.

Since November last year, the eSSIF-Lab has been launched, with European Union funding available for small enterprises and startups that want to build or improve SSI components. The aim is to create multiple open source interoperable SSI components that are actually used, said Joosten. In fact, the SSI Lab is entering Europe in this way.

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Netherlands investigates innovative privacy technology SSI - ComputerWeekly.com

A deputy within North Carolina Gov. Roy Coopers agency managing information technology for state government is now the departments acting secretary.

Cooper announced this week that Thomas Parrish IV will fill the Cabinet position vacated by Tracy Doaks, who was secretary for five months before taking another job at a nonprofit.

Parrish has most recently been serving as deputy chief information officer within the Department of Information Technology. Hes had 27 years of local and state government experience.

The acting secretary title means Parrish wont be subject for now to any confirmation vote by the state Senate.

Doaks predecessor, Eric Boyette, moved over to the Department of Transportation and was confirmed as DOT secretary by the Senate in June.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) Up to 10,000 Austin ISD students could be starting school without technology come Aug. 18.

According to the Austin Independent School District, it all depends on when vendors can fulfill orders. Due to more people working from home and virtual learning kicking off in schools nationwide, there has been a larger demand for technology.

Depending on our vendors ability to meet computer delivery timelines, this could be between 0 and 10,000 [students] would not yet have supporting technology from AISD, the district said.

According to the AISD website, the district serves around 80,900 students in 129 schools. As of today, the district says it has enough computers to meet all known requests, however it is working to account for requests that havent been made yet.

An order for 9,816 Chromebooks was placed last week, according to AISD, which will replace most of a previous order. Those laptops are expected to arrive in one to three weeks.

Another order for 9,000 Chromebooks was placed Tuesday, the district says. Those are scheduled to come in November.

Some computers will go to students who dont yet have one and others will go toward replacing older Chromebooks.

As for WiFi hot spots, the district says it has 10,000 on hand in addition to the 7,000 already deployed. AISD says another order of 10,000 is also pending.

But the status of the laptops and how many are needed are changing by the day, the district says.

Austin ISD wants to remind parents to initiate or update their requests for technology in the Parent Cloud.

The district also asks graduated seniors who have not yet returned their Chromebooks to do so. In late July, AISD estimated 2,000 to 4,000 Chromebooks were unaccounted for, mostly belonging to seniors and students no longer in the district.

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Up to 10,000 Austin ISD students could be without technology when school starts - KXAN.com

CyberScout chairman and founder Adam Levin shares insights into potential Russian hacks into coronavirus vaccine development and the Twitter bitcoin hack targeting high-profile accounts. He says America needs to tighten up because many people are not as cyber-hygienic as they should be when working from home compared to working in the office.

The top seller of voting machine technology in the U.S., in a pivot from its usual stance, is expected to encourage hackers to attempt to breach its security system in order to identify vulnerabilities fewer than three months away from the presidential election in November.

Election Systems & Software LLC Chief Information Security Officer Chris Wlaschin on Wednesday is expected to unveil an outreach program to security researchers during the annual Black Hat USA convention for hackers, which will behosted remotely this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

In an effort to appeal to outside help, Wlaschin will outline a new vulnerability disclosure policy providing safe harbor protections to legitimate researchers if they identify and notify ES&S of bugs in its systems.

TRUMP CLAIMS MICROSOFT, OTHER TIKTOK SUITORS AGREED TO 'BIG PAYMENT' TO US TREASURY

This marks a change of tone from two years ago when the Omaha, Neb.-based companycriticized a group of hackers at Black Hats sister conference, Defcon, for testing its election equipment. The company claimed security researchers and hackers were only attempting to gain attention online by publishing unrealistic scenarios when real-world polling has safeguards, such as poll workers and fellow voters that made hacking equipment unlikely, according to the Journal.

At the time, Kevin Skoglund, an independent security researcher, identifieda breach in the ES&S systems firewall, making it accessible on the Internet. Instead of notifying ES&S about the issue, Skoglund instead sent his finding to an industry information-sharing center, fearing that ES&S would not take him seriously.

Rather than welcoming the contributions of these researchers with open arms, ES&S and companies like it have repeatedly attempted to demonize cybersecurity researchers and discredit their work, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has been critical of companies, told the Journal.

ES&S has since changed its approach with security researchers, and, last week, the Department of Homeland Security released guidelines for election administrators recommending increased cooperation between security researchers, election officials, and vendors in identifying security vulnerabilities.

TWITTER LINKS HACK TO PHONE-BASED PHISHING ATTACK

Meanwhile, state and local officials are receiving additional tools from the federal government to help defend the nations election systems from cyber threats ahead of the November vote, as intelligence officials continue to warn about foreign efforts to interfere in the U.S. election.

Under a $2.2 million pilot program that began in March, the Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency in partnership with the Center for Internet Security has been deploying software to election offices. It is then placed on devices, including laptops and servers used for voter registration and reporting vote totals, to detect malicious activity. The program was highlighted during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

This is the next step, the evolution of helping state and local entities, said Matt Masterson, a top cybersecurity official within the Department of Homeland Security. This really advances their ability to protect their networks.

Thirty state election offices have already integrated the so-called endpoint detection and response tools, which are routinely used in the private sector but less common at the local level. Through the federal program, officials expect to have this deployed in at least nine additional states by November. Fewer than 100 local government agencies have signed up so far.

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States were left scrambling after it was revealed Russian agents had targeted election systems leading up to the 2016 presidential election. While no evidence surfaced that any votes were altered or voter data manipulated, the actions by a foreign adversary to scrutinize the nations myriad election systems for vulnerabilities prompted changes including enhanced security protocols, more rigorous and regular security reviews, and improved information-sharing across federal, state and local governments.

But cybersecurity experts say the threat has hardly been dulled.

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Just a few weeks ago, Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released a statement noting foreign adversaries are seeking to compromise election infrastructure along with campaigns, candidates, and other political targets. He said the government continues to monitor malicious cyber actors trying to gain access to U.S. state and federal networks, including those responsible for managing elections.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Hackers encouraged to breach US voting technology to test security before election day - Fox Business

By 2050, the U.S. population is estimated to grow to 400 million, and the world population to 9.1 billion, requiring a 70 percent increase in global food production.

UC Merced is one of four campuses across the country uniting to meet that challenge by harnessing the power of innovation and technology to develop precision agriculture for a sustainable future.

Led by the University of Pennsylvania, UC Merced, Purdue University and the University of Florida received a new, $26 million, five-year National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers (ERC) grant to form the NSF Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). ERC are NSFs flagship engineering programs for convergent research to address large-scale societal challenges.

The overall mission of IoT4Ag is to ensure food, energy and water security by developing technology to increase crop production while minimizing the use of energy and water resources and lessening the impact of agricultural practices on the environment. Collectively, the IoT4Ag Center will also create a diverse talent pipeline consisting of K12 and university students, engineers, agriculture professionals and other members of farming communities through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, laboratory and field activities. Bringing together academic, government and industry partners with the farming community, the Center will create an innovation ecosystem that ensures the rapid translation of IoT4Ag practices and technologies into commercial products, and will also ensure that such a transformation is built with sustainable positive economic and social impact in mind.

We aim to engineer cost-effective systems that farmers will adopt, said UC Merced professor Catherine Keske, the campus lead for the new initiative. Well be building upon the momentum UC Merced already has developed in precision agriculture.

The inaugural team at UC Merceds branch of IoT4Ag features the agriculture economics Keske researches, as well as professor Stefano Carpinsrobotics and machine learning, professor Erin Hestirs remote sensing and spatial analysis; and professor Reza Ehsanisprecision ag inventions, though Keske said the work of other faculty members and students from across the campus will be integral to IoT4Ags success.

The ERC are highly competitive and this is theSchool of Engineerings first participation in one. Engineering Dean Mark Matsumoto emphasized that the multidisciplinary nature of the center brings UC Merced researchers nearly limitless opportunities to collaborate with established research universities that are all prestigious members of the Association of American Universities.

The research and related efforts that will be conducted through this grant are important to the well-being of our region by seeking to develop technologies that will improve and sustain agricultural practices, Matsumoto said. I am very pleased that we are a part of this important endeavor one that points to the emerging recognition of the school and the campus.

Part of the ERC mandate is to converge a wide range of academic disciplines in tackling challenges; another is to develop a diverse and inclusive workforce from across the United States. By partnering with industry and a broad community of students, faculty and professionals, the IoT4Ag Center will create an innovation ecosystem to continue these efforts into the coming decades.

The West, Midwest and East Coast are all represented in IoT4Ag, with collaboration nodes and education and research sites across the country, providing limitless opportunities for students, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.

The IoT4Ag Center is divided into three integrated thrusts, with teams of researchers working on sensing, communication and response technologies.

IoT4Ag is housed in the School of Engineering, but the UC Merced branch, in the communication thrust, will include many others: theCenter for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society(CITRIS),UC Water, drone and energy researchers, management of complex systems experts, socio-economists and big-data analysts, as well as the community, region and state.

We want to include everyone who has a perspective on engineering ag, from farmers, farm workers and the children of farm workers among our student body to government and industry partners, Keske said. Like the rest of the team members, Keske will wear several hats as the initiative gets underway.

Shes responsible for diversity and inclusion, and said shes looking to hold focus groups, ask farmers and commodity groups to be on the advisory board for IoT4Ag at UC Merced and visit field sites to survey farm workers, as well.

We want everyone to have a voice in this, Keske said.

Penn has also allocated a considerable part the ERC budget for travel and programs to train students, Keske said. The IoT4Ag plan calls for involving pre-college, community college and university students through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, lab and field work; advising and mentoring; and a variety of social and professional activities to prepare a diverse workforce of the future to address the societal grand challenges of food, energy and water security.

The worlds finite land, water and energy resources demand new technologies and innovations to improve the efficiency and sustainability of all types of food production.

We can create the tech and infrastructure that will help farmers manage their crops down to the finest details of water and soil nutrients, Keske said. Digital technologies have the potential to improve efficiency, equity, safety, nutrition, health and sustainability across the worlds food systems.

Original post:

New engineering research center to focus on agriculture technology - University of California

BEDMINSTER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zelis, the industrys leading claims cost and payments optimization platform with proprietary technology and solutions to price, pay and explain healthcare claims, announced that R. Andrew Eckert has joined the company as its new Chief Executive Officer. A 30-year veteran of the healthcare technology industry, Eckert has had a lifelong focus on enabling healthcare innovation and leading strong teams to their full potential.

During his career, Eckert has served as CEO of some of the healthcare industrys most notable and impactful healthcare technology companies, including TriZetto Corporation, Eclipsys Corporation, and Valence Health. In each case, Eckert helped deliver client success, product and technology innovation and strong growth. Immediately prior to joining Zelis, Eckert was the CEO of Acelity, a global advanced wound care company which was sold to 3M in October 2019. Earlier in his career, Eckert served as CEO of CRC Health Group, a leading behavioral health provider owned by Bain Capital, and SumTotal Systems, a leading education technology software company.

Eckert serves on the Board of Directors of Becton Dickinson, a medical technology company, and as Chair of the Board of Directors of Varian Medical Systems, a radiation oncology treatments and software company.

Zelis mission is to optimize the healthcare payments cycle which we define as pricing, paying and explaining the claim - on behalf of payors, providers and consumers. Andys deep experience leading multiple companies that serve Zelis core constituencies, combined with his track record of driving outstanding client success, makes him a terrific choice to lead Zelis going forward, said Dave Ament, Managing Partner of Parthenon Capital.

I am delighted that Andy is joining Zelis, said Devin OReilly, Managing Director, Bain Capital. Andy is a highly seasoned CEO and he will help position the company to grow, innovate, and transform our industry.

Im thrilled to be joining Zelis. We are a heavyweight in healthcare technology and are at the epicenter of solving some of the industrys most intractable challenges. I believe our company will continue to make a huge impact in making the U.S. healthcare system more understandable and affordable, said Eckert. I look forward to further building and strengthening the companys momentum in serving our clients with innovative solutions.

About Zelis

Zelis is the healthcare industrys leading claims cost and payments optimization platform with superior technology and solutions to price claims, pay claims and explain claims, all at enterprise scale on a claim-by-claim basis. Zelis leverages proprietary technology, robust analytics, extensive payment and provider networks, and innovative claim savings channels to deliver to the industry superior administrative and medical cost savings. Zelis was founded on a belief that there is a better way to determine the cost of a healthcare claim, manage payment related data, and make the claim payment. Zelis provides the industrys only comprehensive, integrated platform to take a claim through the entire pre-payment to payments lifecycle. Zelis ~1000 associates serve more than 700 payor clients, including the top-5 national health plans, Blues plans, regional health plans, TPAs and self-insured employers, and more than 1.5 million providers. Zelis delivers more than $5B of claims savings, $50B of provider payments and 500 million payment data communications annually, and enjoys a highly recurring revenue model and a strong margin profile.

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Zelis Announces 30-Year Healthcare Technology Veteran, R. Andrew Eckert, as New Chief Executive Officer - Business Wire

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "HLA Typing Market by Product, by Technology, by Application, by End-Users, Geography Forecast up to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global HLA typing market is expected to reach USD 990.12 million by 2026 from USD 659.75 million in 2020, rising at a CAGR of ~7%.

There is a rapid growth in the demand for transplant diagnostic products due to factors such as public and private increased funding in target research activities. Majorly the increase in certain diseases such as blood cancers, genetic blood disorders where stem cell transplantation is required, this situation is expected to drive the HLA Typing market. However, the limited reimbursements for target procedures are a restrain for this market.

The global HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) Typing market is segmented based on end-user. The segment of independent reference laboratories accounted for the largest share in the market due to the increased demand for organ transplant procedures, improved and automated diagnostic laboratories, increasing research and development activities outsourced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to independent reference laboratories.

The global HLA Typing market is segmented based on end-user. The independent reference laboratories segment, which accounted for the largest share in the market with increased demand for organ transplant procedures, improved and automated diagnostic laboratories, increasing research and development activities outsourced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to independent reference laboratories.

Further, HLA Typing market segmentation based on product and service includes Reagents & Consumables, Instruments, Software & Services. In this market segment, reagents and consumables play a major role in the market growth because of the early patient profiling during organ transplantation.

Based on technology, the market is divided into molecular assay technologies and non-molecular technologies. By analysis, the molecular assay technology has the majority of the demand in the HLA typing. The molecular assay technology consumes less time as compared to other technology and gives effective results that support market growth.

Moreover, the HLA Typing market based on region is segmented into four regions, including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and RoW. Further, the North America region is accounted for the largest share of the transplant market due to the well-developed market for medical devices, highly improvised healthcare system, a rapid increase in the adoption of the innovative transplant diagnostic technologies.

Globally, the HLA Typing market is growing at a CAGR of ~7.0% during the forecast period of 2020-2026. The factors which are majorly driving this market are innovative technologies in the transplant procedures and increasing transplant procedures, a large number of research and development activities in this field of HLA Typing. Molecular tests include high expenses for the HLA typing test, which is standing as a constraint in this market.

Globally, HLA Typing market is playing a major role in the transplant diagnostic field, giving an accurate analysis of the person's immune system for further transplantation process. An increase in the adoption of cross-matching and chimerism testing during post and pre-transplantation gives the opportunity in the market. However, due to the number of donors compared to donor accepters are very less, the market is facing a major challenge in the growth of the market.

Some of the prominent players in the HLA Typing Market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Omixon, CareDx, Inc, QIAGEN N.V., Luminex, Biofortuna, Illumina, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Takara Bio, TBG Diagnostics Ltd., and F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.

Moreover, the awareness about organ donation and transplantation across the developing countries and emerging technologies are supporting the HLA Typing Market growth globally. This report will enable the market players to understand the key market trends, market dynamics, and critical needs of the end-users. The qualitative and quantitative analysis covered in the study would enhance the user utility of the report.

The competitive analysis of the major players enables users to understand the dynamic strategies such as product innovation, partnerships, merger & acquisitions and joint ventures of the key players.

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/khq6cr

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$990M HLA Typing Market by Product, Technology, Application, End-user and Geography - Forecast to 2026 - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Archaeologists recently discovered 8,000-year-old stone fluted points on the Arabian Peninsula, the same technology developed by Native Americans 13,000 years ago, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

When the stone tools were first unearthed, researchers suspected there was something familiar about them. Scientists took note of the flute-like grooves texturing the sides of the stone points.

The tools examined for the study were found in Manayzah in Yemen and Ad-Dahariz in Oman, researchers said.

"We recognized this technique as ... probably the most famous of the prehistoric techniques used in the American continent," lead researcher Remy Crassard, head of archaeology at the French Center for Archaeology and Social Sciences, told UPI. "It took us little time to recognize it, but it took us more time to understand why fluting was present in Arabia."

For nearly a century, archaeologists have been uncovering evidence of fluted point technology at Native American sites dating between 10,000 and 13,000 years old.

Stone fluted points in the Americas are typically characterized by markings along the bases of spearpoints and blades. In Arabia, the fluting appeared closer to the tips of the ancient stone points.

Native Americans used hafting to more securely fix blades and points to handles and arrows. The people of the Arabian Peninsula used the same technique for a different purpose.

"In Arabia, they were using this same technique to create a flat zone on the back of the points, but as fluting comes from the tip most of the time, the hafting interpretation doesn't work," Crassard said.

"It must have been done for other reasons, and we tried to argue that it was more related to a form of 'bravado' or display of skill," Crassard said.

According to the paper's authors, the technologies are separated by too much time and space to have been the result of cultural exchange. Instead, the latest discovery is an example of cultural convergence.

"There are many examples [of cultural convergence] and from very diverse periods in human history," Crassard said.

"For example, polished stone axes are known from the Western European Neolithic, the Mayan culture of Central America and the 19-20th century tribes of Indonesia," Crassard said. "These three examples were never connected in time and space, but the objects produced and found by archaeologists are very similar."

Originally posted here:

Native American stone tool technology unearthed in Yemen, Oman - UPI News

Jonathan Moneymaker, AEgis

The nature of warfare is changing, and opportunity is high for government contractors who can rise to the challenge.

Theres been a fundamental shift under way, from the counterterrorism focus to an emphasis on the near-peer fight, said AEgisTechnologies Group CEO Jonathan Moneymaker. With new threats come the need for new weapons systems to neutralize those threats.

The Pentagon is looking to increase capabilities in the event of future conflict with adversaries like China and Russia.An advanced engineering solutions provider to the national security community, AEgis recently landed three contracts for work in directed energy systems colloquially, laser weapons. Moneymaker said there is significant opportunity here for GovCons ready to contribute to this emerging warfighting technology.

Directed energy comes in two main forms: high-energy laser weapon systems and high-power microwave systems. While the science behind this has been in the works for more than four decades, its an idea whose time has finally come, Moneymaker said.

All the domains of future warfare, whether space-based operations or more traditional engagements, will be complemented by us having the upper hand in a directed energy laser war scenario, he said. Such weapons could disable enemy satellites, or they could be used to take down swarms of unmanned aerial systems, or UAS.

UAS is a particular focus for AEgis.

Our customers have expressed a need for innovative approaches to detect, identify, track, engage and defeat small UAS or a swarm of small UAS, Moneymaker said. The companys counter-UAS effort includes both land- and aerial-based tracking and targeting tools.

Practical applications

Directed energy is migrating today from the lab bench to practical uses in large-scale weapons systems. Its a complicated technical challenge that involves not just powering the high-energy blasts but also measuring the impact of those strikes. AEgis has been especially engaged in this latter effort.

Its offerings help to determine the effectiveness of high-energy laser weapon systems at test ranges across the Defense Department, supporting elements like the High-Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator, the Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation program and the Air Base Air Defense laser.

Testing the actual effectiveness, the lethality, of a directed energy weapons system is a very complex science problem, Moneymaker said. How much energy is actually propagated through the atmosphere at a specific range on a specific target? How much energy was delivered and what damage inflicted?

This effort is part of AEgiss broader focus on full end-to-end weapons systems development. The greatest challenge there is the operability of the technology, taking a concept merely conceptual for decades and turning it into a working weapons system.

Whether it is the programs were attacking, the capabilities were delivering, the talent were attracting: A core element is that were doing things that have never been done, Moneymaker said. Were taking all this research and observation, and transitioning it to current concept of operations, which is very exciting.

Its a moving target, in the sense, that the defense community is still developing the guidelines for how such systems will operate. Even as policy evolves, GovCons must wrangle with technical challenges as engineers put in place the mechanisms to ensure the right amount of energy is delivered to achieve the desired effect.

To reach that goal line, AEgis found it critical to have an aligned and centralized focus, Moneymaker said.

Were not just trying to incrementally admire the problem or use it as a scientific test bed, he said. Our goal is to transition actual weapons systems for the warfighter. That is the piece that has perhaps been missing, that operational focus, and as a leading mid-market company we are uniquely positioned to address that.

An open field

The directed energy effort, in which DOD is deeply engaged, has a need for a wide variety of GovCon participants. The effort comprises multiple components from diverse disciplines.

There are a multitude of subsystems that make HEL or HPM systems successful, Moneymaker said. There is the laser itself, along with acquisition and tracking systems, beam control aspects how you manipulate the energy of that beam to shoot through the atmospherics. Derivative technologies such as power management or thermal control also play a key role. You need all of these elements and no single contractor has all the components, so partnership and supply chain become critical.

While the barrier to entry can be high, the broader GovCon community could potentially contribute to surfacing best practices to support these varied technical needs.

Thats the collective calling that we need to echo and we need to do it at the speed of modern warfare, Moneymaker said. As we partner together, contractor-to-contractor and contractor-to-government, we align to solve the nations hardest problems in this arena.

While AEgis has been a leader in both research and testing around directed energy, Moneymaker said he sees opportunity for both established and emerging GovCons in this space.

Directed energy systems represent the one of the core discriminators of future warfare, he said. We are proud to have been selected for our recent awards leading these transformative development efforts and look forward to building deeper capabilities into the future.

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AEgis Technologies' Jonathan Moneymaker on Directed Energy Weapon Systems and their Place in Future Warfare - WashingtonExec

L3Harris Technologies Delivers New Advanced Autonomous Vehicle Capability to UKs Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. The Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed (MAST) 13 is a 13-meter (41-foot) long high-speed system capable of fully autonomous navigation. L3Harris photo.

This post has been updated to correct the spelling of the upcoming Navy sensor program, named SPEIR.

A year after L3 and Harris merged into a single $18-billion defense company, the corporation is finding its formerly siloed components can come together to meet some of the Navys and joint forces most complex needs.

Sean Stackley, president of the Integrated Mission Systems segment for L3Harris Technologies, told USNI News in an interview that L3 and Harris each had important pieces of the puzzle to help the Navy achieve its distributed maritime operations concept. But Stackley, who previously served as the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition from 2008 to 2017 and as the acting secretary of the Navy from January to August 2017, said the key to DMO is not just fielding new platforms and tools but rather managing how information flows throughout the network, he said.

Under the Navys DMO vision, rather than deploying concentrated strike groups to a few places around the globe, the Navy would have many dispersed ships and planes that could share data to create a combined picture of the battlespace.

He described the future fight as a combination of aircraft, ships, submarines and ground vehicles manned and unmanned all with sensors and communications devices, feeding data into a battle management system. The challenge will be the ordnance-to-target ratio and picking out the right targets to control the fight. Before the fight starts, the U.S. needs to ensure it has control of the EM spectrum so that network of platforms can communicate, sense and target.

Its really about linking sensors, providing assured communications, having the ability to disrupt the enemys communications in their operating picture. Its everything from electronic support to electronic attack. That is a tremendous challenge because you have to work across the services, work across the platforms, you have to work across industry, you have to work across systems. So theres not one contract thats going to go out for DMO; its going to be incremental. Its going to be an incremental approach to building this capability over time, over systems. And frankly the Air Force and the Navy are taking different approaches. I think there are some best practices across the services that theyll benefit by as each of these get more mature, he explained, saying those were his personal views and not the companys.Im frankly studying the way the Air Force is approaching ABMS [Advanced Battle Management System], and I see a lot of strengths to their approach. Theres a lot of parallel activities to the way theyre contracting ABMS that should allow, if we do it right, should allow the incremental steps that need to be taken to be done in parallel as opposed to one at a time in a series. And Im frankly also spending time with the Navy trying to link up the Navys approach to DMO with the Air Forces approach to ABMS, to at least study the services should be studying each others approaches and best practices should emerge, because otherwise we wont get there, it will take too long.

For example, he said, the Navy is preparing to contract for a ship-based signals intelligence program called Spectral. It also has an upcoming competition for a SPEIR program for electro-optical/infrared targeting. Under DMO, Stackley said, those two could be approached in parallel to ensure the whole network has access to the data they produce, instead of pursuing them separately and waiting for someone down the line to integrate the systems into a larger network.

Traditional (acquisition) says you do the standalone upgrades; inside of DMO, youre constantly looking at the total framework architecture, how do these capabilities integrate on the front end so that on the back end you are, in fact, building a distributed maritime operational capability, he said.

Sean Stackley

Stackley said the company is positioned to adapt to the changing requirements of DMO.

We are on the ocean floor, and we operate from the depths of the sea to the depths of space. We are in every domain. We operate across the entire kill chain, from sensing, communications, tracking, targeting, right down to putting ordnance on target. We operate across the kill chain and across the entire electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. In the acoustic realm, we operate below 10 hertz, and then you move into the [radio frequency] and in the RF end of the EM spectrum were operating above 50 gigahertz. So we dominate I would say spectrum superiority is one of our strengths. And we do this to provide capabilities, solutions, for national security, ours and our allies.

The companys advantage is based on two companies a couple of years ago that had a large number of stand-alone capabilities seeing a match in terms of our separate capabilities, and also seeing the power that comes through integration of these capabilities, understanding where the customer is going in terms of the future fight where that EM spectrum, that spectrum superiority, is so critical. Whether youre talking about the Navys strategy, the Navys vision for distributed maritime operations, or the Air Forces advanced battle management system, it is the same capability the services are looking for, which is to have the advanced sensors at the forward edge, have the information that they collect communicated back through secure data links to platforms, have that information integrated into a common picture so that we can control the spectrum, we can ensure our communications, we can disrupt [adversaries] communications, and we can pull the information from our sensors and get it to where its most needed so that when the time comes we can put ordnance on target rapidly and reliably, Stackley said.

The two companies had different tools in their portfolios prior to the merger that contribute to this new ability to network together tools for fighting in the EM spectrum. For example, Harris focuses on tactical communications, electronic warfare, space payloads and supports FAA air traffic control modernization. L3s portfolio is a bit more diverse and includes electronic components, aircraft modernization, flight simulation, UAS/UUVs, airport security and C4ISR components and subsystems,Defense Newsquoted Byron Callan, an analyst for Capital Alpha Partners, as writing in a note to investors ahead of the merger.

In the interview, Stackley used undersea warfare as an example of where L3 and Harris have been to provide the Navy options to support DMO.

On the seabed, the company leveraged each of the halves legacy systems to create an underwater acoustic system that won a prime contract with the Navy something neither L3 nor Harris could have done before the merger.

Within the first year, were offering integrated solutions to the customer that prior to the merger we would never have seen and would never have found together, Stackley said.

The combined portfolio also includes experience with unmanned underwater vessels. L3Harris is competing for the Medium UUV program that will replace separate medium UUV systems for the explosive ordnance disposal and the submarine communities. Stackley said the company had an already-existing, highly modular design that allowed it to work with Navy labs to integrate and operate advanced payloads at sea while the Navy was developing its specifications for the MUUV program.

L3Harris Technologies announced in July 2020 its new man-portable Iver4 580 unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV). The new Iver4 580 is the second vehicle in the Iver4 family of next-generation UUVs to address a wide variety of customer missions, including survey; multi-domain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; anti-submarine warfare; seabed warfare and mine warfare. L3Harris photo.

The companys UUV experience, Stackley said, coupled with underwater acoustic systems and above-water communications capabilities that reside within L3Harris, means it can offer a package that allows the Navy to receive real-time or near-real-time updates from this UUV.

The company also recently won a contract with the Navy to design and build at least one Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), with options for more vehicles. Stackley said L3Harris had extensive experience with USVs, including through the Overlord large USV demonstrator program run by the Pentagons Strategic Capabilities Office. For its MUSV offering, the company is partnering with Gibbs and Cox, which also participated in the Overlord program. Through its in-water testing, L3Harris has learned about autonomy software, vehicle reliability, and command and control.

Stackley said the company, outside of the MUSV program, wants to take its USV a step further and demonstrate to the Navy another option for combining several legacy L3 and Harris technologies.

The company builds the signals intelligence system on the Air Forces RC-135 surveillance aircraft. That system had been stovepiped in the companys aircraft systems division before, but Stackley said L3Harris plans to use that as the basis for the upcoming Spectral competition, which will be a ship-based SIGINT tool. L3Harris will adapt that system for integration on a medium USV, he said, thereby demonstrating a sensing capability, where you start with a reliable unmanned surface vessel that has endurance on station, more so than an aircraft; you give it a sensor package that [meets Navy and Joint Force needs]; and then you add to that the data links that L3Harris provides and the secure communications that we provide, so that now youve got a node on the network thats passing critical information to the operating force from an unmanned vessel.

He made clear that the SIGINT package on the USV is not part of the Navys current MUSV program but that L3Harris would pitch the capability to the service.

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Stackley: Combined L3Harris Technology Will Compete to Build New Navy Distributed Battle Networks - USNI News

For those looking to find strong Computer and Technology stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Fortinet (FTNT) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Computer and Technology sector should help us answer this question.

Fortinet is one of 605 companies in the Computer and Technology group. The Computer and Technology group currently sits at #6 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. FTNT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for FTNT's full-year earnings has moved 10.66% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, FTNT has returned 30.04% so far this year. In comparison, Computer and Technology companies have returned an average of 20.84%. This shows that Fortinet is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, FTNT belongs to the Security industry, a group that includes 10 individual companies and currently sits at #60 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 14.47% this year, meaning that FTNT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors with an interest in Computer and Technology stocks should continue to track FTNT. The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportFortinet, Inc. (FTNT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research

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Is Fortinet (FTNT) Stock Outpacing Its Computer and Technology Peers This Year? - Yahoo Finance

What are the largest technology ETFs? Technology companies are dominating the stock market, and of course, the world. With the rise of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other futuristic technologies, tech companies are expected to play an even bigger role in our lives. If you are bullish on the tech sector, technology ETFs are one of the simplest and easiest ways to gain exposure to a broad range of tech companies. Here we take a look at the top 10 largest technology ETFs listed in the US.

Technology ETFs invest in the stocks of companies providing technology hardware, software, and services. They include Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Nvidia, and more. Some tech ETFs also have medical devices stocks in their portfolio.

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There are more than 80 technology ETFs in the US. When investing in ETFs, you should look at their assets under management (AUM), trading volumes, and expense ratios besides the index they track. ETFs with lower AUMs and trading volumes tend to have a wider spread, meaning there are huge swings in prices. A higher AUM also minimizes the tracking error. For these reasons, it makes sense to invest in one of the largest technology ETFs.

An ETF tracks a benchmark index. Instead of outperforming the index, the ETF aims to match its performance. ETFs are listed on a stock exchange and trade like a regular stock. You can trade shares of an ETF throughout the trading day. But this ability to buy and sell shares throughout the day could shift your focus from long-term investing to short-term gains.

These are the top 10 largest ETFs based on their assets under management as of February 2020. The ranking is based on data from ETFdb.com.

With $2.6 billion in assets, KWEB invests in China-based technology companies listed in both the US and Hong Kong. It gives you exposure to companies that benefit from China's massive market and a growing middle-class. Some of its largest holdings are Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan Dianping, and Baidu. It has an expense ratio of 0.76%, higher than any other ETF on this list.

The First Trust NASDAQ-100-Tech Sector ETF mimics the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index. It's an equal-weighted index comprising of Nasdaq-listed technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and others. Launched in 2006, QTEC has an expense ratio of 0.57%.

Launched in 2001, IXN has nearly two decades of track record. Its expense ratio is 0.46%. It tracks the S&P Global 1200 Information Technology Sector Index, giving you exposure to global IT, hardware, software, and electronics companies. It has delivered an impressive annualized return of 15.34% over the last decade.

IGV is designed to track the S&P North American Expanded Technology Software Index. Its total expense ratio is 0.46% and AUM is $3.3 billion. IGV invests primarily in the stocks of software, interactive media, and related companies. Its largest holdings are Adobe, Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, and Intuit.

At just 0.08%, FTEC has the lowest expense ratio of any ETF on this list. It tracks the performance of the MSCI USA IMI Information Technology index. It invests in the US-based information technology companies. Its largest holdings are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Visa (V), and Mastercard (MA). FTEC has a total of 320 stocks in its portfolio, but the top ten stocks have more than 58% weighting.

Launched in 2000, IYW tracks the performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Technology Capped Index. The ETF has $4.8 billion in assets. Its expense ratio is 0.42%. IYW invests primarily in the US technology stocks. Its largest holdings are Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook (FB), and Intel (INTC). The ETF has delivered an impressive 18.54% annualized return over the last five years.

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FDN is the fourth largest technology ETF with $7.8 billion in assets. Its expense ratio is 0.52%. It tracks the performance of Dow Jones Internet Composite Index, which consists of 40 most-traded and largest US internet stocks. Its largest holdings are Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Salesforce, and Paypal.

Just like most other Vanguard funds, VGT has a pretty low expense ratio of just 0.10%. It tracks the performance of the MSCI US IMI Information Technology 25/50 Index. It has invested in more than 300 US technology stocks. VGT's largest holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Visa, Mastercard, and Intel. The top ten holdings have a staggering 57.8% weightage in its portfolio.

XLK is one of the most popular technology ETFs among the American investors. Launched in 1998, the ETF has an expense ratio of just 0.13%. It tracks the performance of the Technology Select Sector Index, which represents the technology and telecom sectors within the S&P 500 index. The ETF gives you exposure to technology hardware, software, communications, semiconductors, and IT services companies.

Founded in 1999, Invesco QQQ ETF has more than $90 billion in assets. It tracks the performance of NASDAQ 100 Index, which includes 100 of the largest non-financial stocks listed on NASDAQ. Its largest holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco (CSCO), and Adobe (ADBE). It has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 index in 2020.

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Top 10 Largest Technology ETFs: Riding the Tech Wave - Yahoo Finance