Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed Paul Trombino as Director of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Paul was serving as interim director of the Department of Administrative Services as well as the Governor’s Chief Operating Officer. His appointment is effective January 22, 2021. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) published the Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Conformance Framework today. PNT services, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), is a national critical function that enables many applications within the critical infrastructure sectors. This framework will inform the design and adoption of resilient PNT systems and help critical infrastructure become more resilient to PNT disruptions, such as GPS jamming and spoofing.

The University of West Florida has been re-designated by the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security as the Southeast Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (CAE-C) Regional Hub.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad F. Wolf introduced two new members to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC): Tom Jenkins and Catherine Lotrionte. Created by President George W. Bush in 2002, the HSAC is a Department of Homeland Security federal advisory committee that provides the secretary with independent, informed recommendations, and advice on a variety of homeland security issues.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has awarded $2 million to the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), a DHS Center of Excellence (COE) led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to develop a plan that CISA can execute to build a national network of cybersecurity technical institutes.

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded $10 million to 29 select projects to support the development of a nationwide Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention (TVTP) Framework. These awards were made through a competitive process under the Fiscal Year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced nearly $50 million in school safety funding through its School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP). SVPP provides up to 75% funding for school safety measures in and around primary and secondary schools and school grounds.

The Trump Administration announced the first cybersecurity policy for systems used in outer space and near space. Space Policy Directive- 5 (SPD-5) makes clear the lead role the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have in enhancing the nation’s cyber defenses in space, notably on key systems used for global communications, navigation, weather monitoring, and other critical services.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced the imminent publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes expanding department authorities and methods for collecting biometrics that will establish a defined regulatory purpose for biometrics.