14 Apr 16. The U.S. Navy awards Raytheon $1bn Next Generation Jammer Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract. The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $1bn sole source contract for Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) for Increment 1 of the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), the advanced electronic attack technology that combines high-powered, agile, beam-jamming techniques with cutting-edge, solid-state electronics.
Raytheon will deliver 15 Engineering Development Model pods for mission systems testing and qualification, and 14 aeromechanical pods for airworthiness certification. The NGJ contract, awarded in the second quarter and announced on April 13th, also covers designing and delivering simulators and prime hardware to government labs and support for flight testing and government system integration.
“This is a significant milestone for electronic warfare,” said Rick Yuse, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “NGJ is a smart pod that provides today’s most advanced electronic attack technology, one that can easily be adapted to changing threat environments. That level of sophistication provides our warfighters with the technological advantage required to successfully prosecute their mission and return home safely.”
Raytheon designed the NGJ not only to meet today’s U.S. Navy electronic warfare mission requirements, but to provide a cost-effective, open systems architecture for future upgrades.
“This is a major step forward in electronic warfare,” said Travis Slocumb, vice president of Electronic Warfare Systems for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “The Next Generation Jammer provides the U.S. Navy with leading edge capabilities that put the future of advanced EW in their hands.”
The U.S. Navy successfully completed Milestone B for the program, allowing NGJ to move to the EMD phase. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall and other program officials made the decision to move forward at a meeting held at Raytheon’s El Segundo, California facility, in March.
“The U.S. Navy and our industry team worked closely together during the past two years to ensure we are executing the program to plan and on budget,” said Dan Theisen, director of Airborne Electronic Attack programs for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. “This commitment and disciplined approach will continue during EMD.”
12 Apr 16. Islamic State Recruits Indian Hackers. Islamic State is recruiting hackers in India to break into government systems, with the India Times reporting that the hackers are being paid over $10,000 for every job they do. India-based cyber crime expert Kislay Chaudhary told the India Times: “There are various underground communities online where hackers interact regularly. Our investigation reveals that for the past six months lucrative offers for stealing government data came pouring in and hackers were offered huge sums. Such amounts have never been offered to any Indian hacker before.”
Experts in India said that over 30,000 hackers could have already been in contact with Islamic State.
In November Islamic State issued guidelines on how to defend itself against hacking after hacktivist group Anonymous declared “war” in response to the deadly Paris attacks on 13 November.
Anonymous opened an #OpParis Twitter account to provide updates on its campaign against Islamic State and released the names of 9,200 accounts believed to be affiliated with Islamic State.
Islamic State’s own guidance on how to avoid being hacked was discovered by researchers at theInternational Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, a London think-tank.
The guidelines include a recommendation to use virtual private networking (VPN) tools to create encrypted connections and to change IP address frequently. It also recommend avoiding clicking on links if the source is not known, avoiding the use of direct messages on Twitter, avoiding the use of email accounts as Twitter user