U.S. airlines seek billions in aid from federal government

Bangor Daily News | March 16, 2020

As of 11 a.m. Monday, March 16, eight Maine residents have been confirmed positive and nine others are presumed positive for the coronavirus, according to the state. Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support this mission by purchasing a digital subscription. U.S. airlines are asking the federal government for grants, loans and tax relief that could easily top $50 billion to help them recover from a sharp downturn in travel due to the new coronavirus. Airlines for America, the trade group representing the carriers, posted its request for financial help on Monday, just as more airlines around the world were announcing ever-deeper cuts in service and, in some cases, layoffs.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Mendix Earns FedRAMP 'In Process' Designation for its Low-Code Enterprise Application Development Platform for Government Customers

PR Newswire | June 02, 2023

Mendix, a Siemens business and global leader in low-code application development for the enterprise, today announced Mendix Cloud for Government has taken a critical step toward achieving full authorization through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®), receiving the "In Process'' designation. Under the sponsorship of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mendix Cloud for Government now moves closer to achieving full "Authorization to Operate" status, with a rigorously tested system security plan, available to any government agency seeking cost-saving, time-efficient, rapidly deployable and secure low-code applications. FedRAMP promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the federal government by providing a standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies. Mendix is being utilized today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Mendix is a cloud-agnostic platform that runs on AWS GovCloud (US) and is managed by Siemens Government Technologies (SGT). As such, Mendix empowers public sector customers to deploy their technology stack via public or private cloud, on premises, at the edge, or in hybrid configurations. These capabilities, along with an extensive catalog of certified workflows and customized components, are packaged in Mendix Cloud for Government as a vertical solution at the FedRAMP Moderate impact level. "Our successful participation in FedRAMP builds upon the importance that Mendix places on digital trust and security," said Tim Srock, CEO at Mendix. "In a regulated environment, FedRAMP validates the trustworthiness, safety, and reliability of our platform for building solutions that support internal government operations and e-government services for citizens. It sends a strong signal to our global partners, systems integrators, and enterprises supplying the federal government that Mendix continues to prioritize security, data privacy, and risk management for cloud-based operations at the highest level." John Ustica, president and CEO, Siemens Government Technologies, said: "As the cloud service provider supporting Mendix Cloud for Government, we are excited to broaden our cloud portfolio of solutions and services for government customers to help them address increasingly complex missions and service delivery environments in the most secure way possible." The pandemic-related demand for digital-first channels and expanded e-government services in the public sector proved to be a historic tipping point. Governments now face accelerated demands and legal directives to modernize legacy networks, expand interagency collaboration, and streamline delivery of critical services to constituents. Analysts predict that cloud-based spending by the U.S. government, already the world's largest buyer of IT solutions, will skyrocket, nearly doubling from 2019's $5.3 billion for cloud computing goods and services to $9.1 billion by 2024. Extensive controls to safeguard cloud-based innovation Public sector agencies are using cloud-based applications to integrate innovative technologies such as AI, hyper automation, and IoT connectivity into digital solutions to address tomorrow's needs for civic resource management, environmental sustainability, economic development, and community health. In an era when headlines regularly report the latest cyberattack or data breach, public sector CIOs and IT managers can only be confident unlocking these benefits when they know that highly sensitive data is protected system-wide at an acceptable level of risk. "As a cloud-native company, Mendix understands the paramount importance of security and end-user trust," said Frank Baalbergen, Mendix's chief information security officer. "Security and compliance is embedded across the entire platform architecture and infrastructure." Prior to receiving FedRAMP 'In Process" designation, Mendix had already obtained the highest level of independent security certifications of any low-code software development vendor. Mendix is a member of the global Charter of Trust, a nonprofit educational and advocacy forum initiated by Siemens at 2018's Munich Security Conference to advance the highest standards of cybersecurity and digitalization. Mendix also works closely with CrowdStrike, a third-party endpoint security software as a service, and Lacework, a data-driven security platform for the cloud, and HackerOne, an ethical "white hat" vulnerability coordination program that searches technology stacks for cyber risks before they are exposed for public use. About Mendix In a digital-first world, customers want their every need anticipated, employees want better tools to do their jobs, and enterprises know that sweeping digital transformation is the key to survival and success. Mendix, the low-code engine of the Siemens Xcelerator platform, is quickly becoming the application development platform of choice to drive the enterprise digital landscape. Mendix's industry-leading low-code platform, dedicated partner network, and extensive marketplace support advanced technology solutions that boost engagement, streamline operations, and relieve IT logjams. Built on the pillars of abstraction, automation, cloud, and collaboration, Mendix dramatically increases developer productivity and engages business technologists to create apps guided by their particular domain expertise. Mendix empowers enterprises to build apps faster than ever; catalyzes meaningful collaboration between IT and business experts; and maintains IT control of the entire application landscape. Consistently recognized as a leader and visionary by leading industry analysts, the platform is cloud-native, open, extensible, agile, and proven. From artificial intelligence and augmented reality to intelligent automation and native mobile, Mendix and Siemens Xcelerator are the backbone of digital-first enterprises. The Mendix low-code platform is used by more than 4,000 enterprises in 46 countries and has an active community of more than 300,000 developers who have created over 200,000 applications.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, CYBERSECURITY

Armis Achieves U.S. Department of Defense Impact Level 4 Authorization

Prnewswire | April 03, 2023

Armis, the leading asset visibility and security company, today announced that it has achieved U.S. DoD Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) authorization to operate (ATO) at Impact Level 4 (IL4). This authorization signifies that Armis has met the DoD's strict requirements for the government's sensitive Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). DoD customers can now take advantage of Armis's secure, agentless, Unified Asset Management for IT, OT and IoT devices. The IL4 ATO is part of continued public sector momentum for Armis, following the achievement of a FedRAMP Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO) in January of this year. These dual votes of confidence mean that any civilian and DoD agency can now take advantage of the most comprehensive AVM platform available. "There is no more important group of organizations that needs complete situational awareness of their network environment than those who defend our nation," said Brian Gumbel, President of Armis. "Our platform discovers, aggregates and correlates all asset information into a single source of truth and identifies vulnerabilities to mitigate risks. Armis will now be able to help DoD meet the challenges of a perimeter-less world and an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape." Many public sector organizations experience a "visibility gap" where IT and security leaders can't see all the vulnerable assets within their environment. You can't protect what you can't see, and the DoD can no longer depend on conventional perimeter-based or identity-based defenses alone to protect critical systems and government data. Accelerating migration to the cloud, the convergence of IT/OT/IoT and increases in near-peer adversary capabilities have changed how the DoD must approach cybersecurity. Armis automatically generates a complete inventory of devices in your enterprise environment - on or off the network. The breadth, depth, and accuracy of the Armis asset inventory and device discovery exceeds that of other products available today. Agencies say they see 50% to 70% more connected devices using Armis technology, giving them the situational awareness they need to protect their networks. Many security frameworks, such as the NIST SP 1800-35A on implementing a Zero Trust Framework, start with inventory. Being aware that assets exist is a prerequisite for cybersecurity but isn't enough. DoD IT leaders need to know whether devices are risky. After discovering and classifying each asset, Armis calculates its risk score. This risk score helps security teams take proactive steps to reduce their attack surface and meet compliance and regulatory frameworks that require agencies to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. The score is based on multiple risk factors including software vulnerabilities, known attack patterns, connection security, and the observed behavior of each device. "This new IL4 authorization is testament to Armis's commitment to supporting the U.S. Federal government. We are honored to be a trusted partner in helping agencies adjust to an increasingly dangerous cyber environment," continued Gumbel. Armis helps to see and secure some of the largest U.S states and government departments in the world protecting federal, state and local entities from cyber criminals, rogue nations and other bad actors. It also secures critical infrastructure at some of the largest airports, ports and healthcare delivery organizations around the world.Companies trust Armis' real-time and continuous protection to see with full context all managed, unmanaged assets across IT, cloud, IoT devices, medical devices (IoMT), operational technology (OT), industrial control systems (ICS) and 5G. About Armis Armis, the leading asset visibility and security company, provides the industry's first unified asset intelligence platform designed to address the new extended attack surface that connected assets create. Fortune 100 companies trust our real-time and continuous protection to see with full context all managed, unmanaged assets across IT, cloud, IoT devices, medical devices (IoMT), operational technology (OT), industrial control systems (ICS), and 5G. Armis provides passive cyber asset management, risk management, and automated enforcement. Armis is a privately held company and headquartered in California.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Unqork For Government Achieves FedRAMP® Authorization

Prnewswire | April 25, 2023

Unqork, the leading Codeless as a Service platform, today announced that it has achieved Authorization to Operate (ATO) on the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP®) Marketplace. Unqork enables customers, now including the Federal Government, to democratize technology and free themselves from the pitfalls of legacy code, unlocking innovation and speed to market with enterprise grade performance, scale, and security. The Department of Health and Human Services is the first federal agency to use Unqork for Government from the FedRAMP Marketplace to digitize payroll processing within the agency's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). Unqork is a new way for governments and enterprises to build and run applications ten times faster and 65% cheaper by replacing language – legacy code – with data. Through a universal data definition, Unqork's codeless engine powers beautiful front ends, scalable APIs, secure and performant back-ends, and everything in-between for the most stringent requirements of the Federal government. Unqork's customers include the largest regulated industries including banks, asset managers, insurance companies, state and local agencies, and healthcare providers. "We're thrilled to have achieved FedRAMP authorization so quickly in the five short years since Unqork was founded – a major testament to the security standards of the Unqork platform," said Gary Hoberman, Founder and CEO, Unqork. "Now that Unqork's codeless platform has received authorization on the FedRAMP marketplace, federal agencies have access to digital solutions that fuel their modernization efforts. We are excited to bring our codeless technology to the Federal agencies and team with them to unlock innovation and migrate legacy systems to the cloud." About Unqork Unqork is the leading Codeless as a Service platform that helps leading organizations build, deploy and manage complex software without having to think about code. Unqork created the codeless architecture standard – the future of software development that frees the world's largest enterprises from the pitfalls of legacy code and allows them to focus on innovation to drive business and maintain a competitive edge. More than one third of Unqork's corporate customers are in the Fortune 500, with a customer roster that includes Goldman Sachs, Marsh, Maimonides Medical Center and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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