The White House announced last week that Howard Schmidt, President Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator, met last month in Washington, D.C., with his Russian counterpart Nikolay Klimashin for in-depth discussions on strengthening bilateral relations in the area of cyberspace security. “[O]ur goal was to continue building mutual confidence in our two governments’ activities in cyberspace to reduce the risk of misperception and inadvertent crisis,” wrote Schmidt in a White House blog entry. Schmidt said this diplomatic outreach with the Russians is consistent with the White House’s cyberspace strategy released in May. He said, by year’s end, the two sides want to have three initiatives in place: regular information exchanges on technical threats like botnets; a better understanding each other’s military views on operating in cyberspace; and around-the-clock systems to communicate about cybersecurity issues that leverage existing bilateral crisis-prevention communications links. (Schmidt-Klimashin joint statement)
The new Air Force space acquisition chief said he will seek to increase the orbits used with smaller satellites produced more quickly to meet U.S. space resiliency needs. Frank Calvelli brings 30 years of National Reconnaissance Office experience, including eight years as its principal deputy director before confirmation in the…