Roger That: Homeland Security awards $1 billion cybersecurity contract to prevent hacks

The Department of Homeland Security awarded a massive cybersecurity contract to Raytheon, worth up to $1 billion, in the hopes that it will bolster government defenses against cyber attacks. The contract will help more than 100 federal civilian agencies defend against hackers and is one of the largest civilian cybersecurity contracts awarded in years, according to the blog Task and Purpose.

“Today’s cyber threats are increasingly pervasive and serious, and our government and private sector institutions require the best protection possible,” said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon’s intelligence, information and services business.

The contract comes in the wake of a massive security breach at the Office of Personnel Management, which came to light in April. The cyber attack affected more than 21 million former and current government employees, with hackers stealing the fingerprints of 5.6 million people, in addition to personal information including social security numbers and information on security clearances.

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U.S. military veterans in New Orleans are learning to train service dogs and to teach other military veterans suffering from PTSD, brain injury or other medical problems how to train their own pets to meet their medical or psychological needs. They will be among the first participants in a new “Companions for Life” program to teach veterans, including those who've never worked with canines, to train their own service dogs — animals coming from shelters, according to Military Times.

Program co-founder William Barse says there are more veterans who want service dogs than available dogs. Barse, who runs a training program that teaches Louisiana inmates to train shelter dogs, teamed up with Phil Ruddock of Brothers and Sisters in Arms Dog Training, a nonprofit organization that trains service dogs in five Louisiana cities and a Dallas suburb to help veterans with disabilities.

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Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked plans for a nearly $164 billion Veterans Affairs Department budget for fiscal 2016 over objections to Republicans’ overarching spending plans and a lack of progress on a compromise budget deal, the Military Times is reporting.

The procedural move follows similar decisions to stall the fiscal 2016 defense appropriations bill earlier this year and echoes President Obama’s pledge to veto any budget measure that does not repeal mandatory spending caps looming over all federal operations.

Republicans decried the move as playing politics at the expense of veterans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called it “one more example of Democrats preventing us from doing our business.”

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The families of two Navy pilots killed in a September 2013 incident at sea are suing the Navy, the Veterans Affairs Department, the ship captain and a list of companies, according to Military.com.

The case was filed in federal U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, two weeks ago.

It asks the court to require the Navy to prevent conditions like those that killed Lt. Cmdr. Landon Jones and Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Gibson, who were lost when a wall of ocean water hit the destroyer William P. Lawrence in the Red Sea.

Jones and Gibson had just landed their MH-60 helicopter on the San Diego destroyer when the water broke the chains attaching it to the flight deck. The aircraft and its pilots were washed overboard.

The two men's bodies were never recovered.

The lawsuit also names three ship companies for product liability.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Roger That: Homeland Security awards $1 billion cybersecurity contract to prevent hacks."