New spectrum chief and a Coast Guard cyber plan

NTIA names new spectrum chief

Paige Atkins has been named associate administrator of the Office of Spectrum Management at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. She had been serving in an acting capacity since Karl Nebbia stepped down at the end of 2014.

Atkins is responsible for the agency's management of federal spectrum holdings. Among other duties, she leads radio frequency assignment and strategic planning for NTIA, a Commerce Department component.

The Office of Spectrum Management is on point for the Obama administration's effort to free up 500 MHz of federal and non-federal spectrum to share or cede to industry to accommodate the private sector’s growing demand for mobile broadband.

Atkins joined NTIA from the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation, where she was vice president of cyber and IT research. She has also served as director of strategic planning and information at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Coast Guard readies cyber strategy

In about a month, the Coast Guard will release a long-planned cybersecurity strategy covering all aspects under the service's charge, including maritime infrastructure, according to Deputy CIO Thomas Michelli.

Speaking Jan. 23 at an AFCEA NOVA luncheon, Michelli said the strategy had been in development for about a year and a half, and the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard component of U.S. Cyber Command helped shaped the document. He declined to go into detail on the strategy.

Unlike the Navy's cybersecurity strategy, the Coast Guard's was not prompted or shaped by a particular network intrusion, said Michelli, who is also the Coast Guard’s deputy assistant commandant for command, control, communications, computers and IT.