New Dimensions for 3D Printing

While most people are familiar with 3D printing as something your engineer neighbor messes around with in their basement to produce small models, the applications of the technology can be much more significant than a hobbyist's weekend activity. The technology is being used in some mission critical and massive scale projects across government.

Construction

An early, small-scale application of 3D printing in the construction industry was recreating historical fixtures for renovations. Historical buildings, many of which house government agencies and government-run museums, have light fixtures, molding, door knobs, etc. that may need replacing. Finding actual replacements for centuries old materials is incredibly difficult and building them from traditional materials is time consuming and costly. 3D printing has proven to be a valuable solution to maintaining the historical look quickly and at a much reduced cost. Continue reading

Defining the Value of Digital Assets

Digital assets are more than just bitcoin and they are having an incredible impact on how legitimate and illegitimate transactions are conducted. Breaking it down to a simple level there are three basic forms of digital assets:

  • Digital currency is the electronic form of traditional currency. It is what is stored in a digital wallet, transmitted electronically and then turned into actual cash when withdrawn from a bank or ATM.
  • Cryptocurrency is the encrypted form of digital currency that uses blockchain technology to move it around. Cryptocurrency does not require a financial institution to verify the transaction.
  • Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a one-of-a-kind digital asset that represents a real-world item such as photos, music, videos and trading cards.

Unfortunately, as with any new technology, bad actors are finding ways to exploit these assets while the rest of the world is still trying to fully understand them. Continue reading

Charting the Future of Defense

The National Defense Strategy (NDS) sets the strategic direction for our military to meet the security threats of tomorrow. Overall, the Defense Strategy focuses on China and Russia as the primary adversaries, but it also emphasizes the importance of global cooperation among allies as well as adversaries to meet threats that are bigger than any one country including climate change, food insecurity, and pandemics. The defense strategy lays out three primary tactics for advancing U.S. and global security.

Integrated Deterrence

The practice of integrated deterrence involves working closely across all branches of the military, warfighting domains, and even across other federal entities to ensure national security. It expands responsibility for deterring adversaries beyond the Department of Defense (DoD), involving the intelligence community, health agencies, environmental agencies, and more. Continue reading

How GovCon Got Its Groove Back: Networking Best Practices

In-person events are back in force, but we're all a little rusty at networking. Anyone who has attended an in-person event recently has likely had the conversation with fellow attendees, "Wow, I'm not sure how to do this anymore." To help us all get back in our groove, we wanted to pull together a list of tried and true as well as some new tips to make your attendance at the next government networking event feel a bit more natural. Continue reading

Strengthening Cyber Resilience With Collaboration

Today's organizations know that stopping 100% of cyber-attacks is not a realistic goal. Rather, the focus has shifted to cyber resilience, "the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources."

A critical pillar in becoming resilient is communication and collaboration. The Cyber EO focused on improving the nation's cybersecurity and highlighted the need to improve collaboration with threat intelligence sharing between public and private organizations as well as the creation of cross-government cyber boards. In recent months, key strides have been made in facilitating information sharing around cyber best practices, resource availability, as well as process and policy. Continue reading