Parrot Announces Selection in Blue sUAS Program by U.S. Army and Defense Innovation Unit

Parrot, the leading European drone group, is pleased to announce its selection in the Blue sUAS program by the U.S. Army and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The DIU is a Department of Defense organization that accelerates commercial technology for national defense. The Blue sUAS program is a spin-off of the Short-Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program launched by the Army and DIU in April 2019. The Blue sUAS drone development effort was organized in response to increased government-wide demand for secure and ultraportable drones that could be used for a variety of military and federal applications.

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Emerging Technology

Aalyria and Second Front Partner to Expedite Availability of Spacetime for Government Use

Business Wire | October 17, 2023

Aalyria, a dynamic startup commercializing advanced networking and communications technologies acquired from Google, has formed a strategic alliance with Second Front Systems. This collaboration paves the way for accelerated deployment of Aalyria’s Spacetime network orchestration platform within government sectors. The integration with Second Front's trusted Game Warden platform makes Spacetime accessible at Department of Defense Impact Levels 4 and 5 (IL4 and IL5). Embracing this modern risk management approach means the ability to focus on maintaining security and risk management frameworks without significantly impacting development teams or timelines – a leap from traditional authorization processes. Aalyria is also on track to extend Spacetime's reach to IL6 and Top Secret environments in the near future. Spacetime is an advanced software platform designed for orchestrating and managing complex networks of satellites, ground stations, aircraft, ships, urban meshes, and more. The software is being adopted across the public and private sector, including in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit, Intelsat, Rivada Space Networks, Anduril, Leidos, the U.S. Navy, and others. “Working with Second Front enables us to quickly deploy to more secure environments and serve our growing customer base,” said Chris Taylor, CEO of Aalyria. “The demand for our Spacetime solution by an array of mission owners across the defense and intelligence spectrum made partnering with Second Front an easy choice – the team’s proficiency in this space and the speed at which they work is a great match for Aalyria.” “Aalyria is an absolute trailblazer in network orchestration and Second Front is thrilled to be collaborating,” said Tyler Sweatt, CEO at Second Front. “We share a passion for ensuring the most innovative solutions are made available to defense and national security end users, so this was a natural fit. Second Front is honored to play a role in enabling Aalyria to rapidly deploy their amazing solutions to the world’s most mission critical customer base.” The initial collaboration will bring Aalryia’s technologies to ILs 4 and 5 and is part of a broader plan to bring their solutions to a diverse combination of advanced networks in the near future. Aalyria and Second Front will focus on Aalryia’s TRL 9 Spacetime offering – a product validated with greater than 2 million hours of lights-out orchestration of aerospace nodes. It is designed to operate networks that include global scale dynamic physical link topologies and highly-directional steerable beams across land, sea, air, and space. About Second Front Systems Second Front Systems (2F) fast-tracks government access to disruptive, commercially-proven software as a service (SaaS) applications for national security missions. Leading software providers—ranging from publicly traded defense contractors to startups—and government agencies trust 2F’s Game Warden DevSecOps platform and secure cloud hosting environment to accelerate their delivery and harness the cloud revolution at scale. Founded by former U.S. Marines, this public benefit, venture-backed software company is driven by firsthand experience of the dangers outdated technology poses in combat. About Aalyria Aalyria is a global advanced networking and laser communications technologies company. It is revolutionizing connectivity on Earth and in Space. Its Tightbeam product – the world’s first atmospheric corrected coherent free space optics solution – and Spacetime – the only all-orbit, all-domain, software defined network orchestration platform – are helping commercial and government customers reimagine business and mission models to make their assets more effective, efficient, and profitable.

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Cybersecurity

Semperis and Carahsoft Partner to Provide Comprehensive Identity Security and Recovery Solutions to U.S. Government Organizations

Business Wire | September 12, 2023

Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience, and Carahsoft Technology Corp., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as Semperis’ Public Sector Distributor, making the company’s industry-leading identity resilience platform available to the Public Sector through Carahsoft’s reseller partners and National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint, National Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (NCPA), and OMNIA Partners contracts. Active Directory (AD) and Azure AD (now Entra ID), used by 90% of organizations worldwide to authenticate and access critical applications and services, are under sustained attack in the Public Sector by numerous threat actors. The Semperis and Carahsoft partnership will accelerate delivery of comprehensive identity threat detection and response (ITDR) solutions for protecting hybrid AD environments across U.S. Public Sector entities. “Our partnership with Carahsoft will further expand adoption of our identity-first security solutions designed to help Federal, State and Local Government agencies protect their critical identity systems from ransomware and other directory-related attacks,” said Jared Vichengrad, Vice President, Public Sector at Semperis. “We are excited to join Carahsoft’s trusted partner network of Government IT solution providers to prevent, detect and mitigate proliferating identity attacks that are disrupting operations in the Public Sector.” Identity-related attacks on Public Sector entities are intensifying in scale and severity amidst an expanding digital attack surface and increasingly sophisticated attack techniques. Verizon’s 2023 DBIR reveals that from November 1, 2021, through October 31, 2022, public administration entities faced 3,273 incidents—and of those, 584 with confirmed data disclosure. The Public Sector is a high-value target for cyber criminals who seek to disrupt State and Local Governments, schools and public utilities in record numbers. These attacks can steal or encrypt data, disturb services and jeopardize public safety. Public Sector organizations are particularly vulnerable to AD attacks because of legacy infrastructure, lack of identity security expertise and limited resources. With a multi-layered defense approach that spans the identity attack lifecycle, Semperis offers the industry’s most comprehensive security and recovery solutions for hybrid AD environments, combined with deep incident response expertise. “We are thrilled to partner with Semperis and our reseller network to offer its identity resilience platform, provide advanced ITDR solutions and protect Public Sector customers’ hybrid AD systems from attacks,” said Brian O’Donnell, Vice President of Cybersecurity solutions at Carahsoft. “We repeatedly see how vital it is to prevent bad actors from infiltrating Government systems and how having the right solutions on board can make a significant impact in remediation. We are committed helping Public Sector organizations get access to Semperis solutions to safeguard citizens’ data and facilitate uninterrupted Public Sector services.” Semperis’ technology and services are available through Carahsoft’s NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement #AR2472, NCPA Contract NCPA01-86, and OMNIA Partners Contract #R191902. For more information, contact the Semperis team at Carahsoft at (703) 889-9808 or Semperis@carahsoft.com. The dedicated Cybersecurity team at Carahsoft specializes in providing Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare organizations with security solutions to safeguard their cyber ecosystem. To learn more about Carahsoft’s Cybersecurity solutions, visit www.carahsoft.com/solve/cybersecurity. About Carahsoft Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider®, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator® for our vendor partners, we deliver solutions for Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Customer Experience and Engagement, and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. About Semperis For security teams charged with defending hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Semperis ensures the integrity and availability of critical enterprise directory services at every step in the cyber kill chain and cuts recovery time by 90%. Purpose-built for securing hybrid Active Directory environments, Semperis’ patented technology protects over 50 million identities from cyberattacks, data breaches, and operational errors. The world’s leading organizations trust Semperis to spot directory vulnerabilities, intercept cyberattacks in progress, and quickly recover from ransomware and other data integrity emergencies. Semperis is headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, and operates internationally, with its research and development team distributed throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel.

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Emerging Technology

Mark43 is First Public Safety Technology Company to Achieve StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization

Business Wire | October 12, 2023

Mark43, the leading cloud-native public safety software company, today announced that it has achieved State Risk and Authorization Management Program (StateRAMP) High Impact Level Authorization. Mark43 brings the most mature security controls to Computer-Aided Dispatch, Records Management System, and Analytics platforms delivered on Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud to more than 200 public safety agencies and their communities. Mark43 is the first public safety technology company to achieve StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization, certifying its commitment to protecting the privacy and security of its customers’ data, particularly for state, local and tribal governments. StateRAMP, the State Risk and Authorization Management Program, is a highly respected and recognized certification program for cloud cybersecurity excellence. It provides state and local governments assurance that the technology vendors they are working with meet rigorous cybersecurity standards through independent audits and ongoing continuous monitoring. It is inspired by and adapted from the FedRAMP standards and framework. By achieving StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization and having achieved FedRAMP High In Process, Mark43 demonstrates its commitment to providing state and local government customers with the highest level of cybersecurity protection possible. “With more than 1,000 known attacks against U.S. public safety agencies and local governments since 2021, the stakes have never been higher,” said Mark43 Chief Executive Officer Robert Hughes. “According to IBM’s ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023,’ the average cost of a cybersecurity breach is $4.45M million and in this current climate, state and local governments are under constant attack. Mark43 is the first public safety technology company to achieve StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization – verification that Mark43 delivers the resilient, reliable and secure CAD and RMS that cities and states need. Law enforcement agencies simply cannot afford to partner with a technology provider that does not achieve this level of cybersecurity maturity.” “Government agencies, public safety agencies, and institutions of higher education are very real targets for hackers and cyberattacks,” said Mark43 Chief Information Security Officer Larry Zorio. “The ability of these entities to verify that their partners maintain the highest levels of cybersecurity controls is critical. This StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization is proof that Mark43 offers best-in-class cybersecurity controls.” “Achieving StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization now makes it even easier for state and local agencies to partner with Mark43, and we’re thrilled to help government partners deliver for the communities they serve,” said Mark43 Chief Revenue Officer Tim Merrigan. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud, Mark43 will continue to provide industry-leading security controls available for public safety customers. This StateRAMP High Impact Level Authorization builds on Mark43’s existing security program which includes SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 attestations, as well as recently achieving the FedRAMP High In Process Authorization. Mark43 is one of the few public safety technology companies to have attained the FedRAMP High In Process designation, and is expected to achieve formal FedRAMP High Authorization in the coming months. About Mark43 Mark43 is the leading cloud-native public safety technology company. By delivering a modern, intuitive and mobile-first Records Management System, Computer-Aided Dispatch and Analytics platform, Mark43 empowers governments and their communities to improve the safety and quality of life for all. Working with more than 200 local, state and federal public safety agencies, Mark43 is transforming how first responders use technology to respond, engage and serve the community. Mark43 provides the tools, resources, expertise, and security foundation that public safety needs today, tomorrow, and beyond. For more information or to request a demo, visit www.mark43.com. About StateRAMP StateRAMP promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the U.S. state and local governments, public education institutions, and special districts. It provides a standardized approach to security and risk assessment and continuous monitoring for cloud technologies for use by government agencies. StateRAMP empowers agencies to use modern cloud products and services to fulfill their organizational objectives by providing independent verification and continuous monitoring against established cybersecurity standards.

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