At this point, the maddeningly unpredictable Delta variant has changed the expected course of the coronavirus pandemic so much that it can be hard to know exactly what you’re waiting for, or if you should continue waiting at all. Is something like before-times normalcy still coming, or will Americans have to negotiate a permanently changed reality? Will we recognize that new normal when it gets here, or will it be clear only in hindsight? And how long will it be before you can buy a new couch and have it delivered in a timely manner?
How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected, and will affect, operations and supply chain management research and practice
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant impacts at all levels – societal, organizational and personal. At the time of writing, there has been a significant death toll worldwide with many nations still gripped by restrictions put in place to mitigate the impact of the virus. Some countries are beginning to recover, although the impacts will be felt for many years. Rather than writing a reflection piece on the EurOMA conference that was held virtually in 2020, we thought it best to consider how the pandemic has impacted research and practice in operations and supply chain management (OSCM).
USG Warns Of ‘Critical’ Vulnerability That Poses ‘Serious Risk’ To Defense Contractors, Others
WASHINGTON: The US government issued a joint advisory Thursday warning of the ongoing “active exploitation” of a “critical” vulnerability in a popular password management solution, which “poses a serious risk to critical infrastructure companies, US-cleared defense contractors, academic institutions, and other entities that use the software.”
A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) official told Breaking Defense after this report’s original publication, “As exploitation of this product can lead to full identity compromise, CISA is taking this vulnerability very seriously and requests information from any organizations that may have been impacted.”
Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management C-SCRM Software and Supply Chain Assurance Forum
Forums are held several times a year and are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; registration is required.
Our next SSCA Forum Virtual Event will be held on Wednesday, September 22nd at 10:30 am to 1:00 pm Eastern Time. We have a great line-up of speakers and you will not want to miss this Forum. Our first two sessions feature talks from officials from the Israeli and United Kingdom Governments, respectively. This will be followed by two sessions focused on the telecommunications sector. The agenda, below, provides additional details about the speakers and their topics. We hope you can join us!
Sen. Peters Calls for Resilient Supply Chains Amid Chip Shortage
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said on Sept. 15 that the United States’ supply chains are not resilient, and strengthening those supply chains is going to be critical for U.S. competitiveness going forward.
During a Politico event on Sept. 15, Sen. Peters described how the shortage of semiconductor chips and the overreliance on foreign manufacturers for critical supplies poses a huge concern for the United States.
“Although we have highly efficient supply chains, they are not resilient, and they’re not resilient to disruptions,” Sen. Peters said during the event. “We’ve got to create more resilience in our supply chains and particularly critical equipment, whether it’s medical supplies or as was mentioned, chips, which are basically in all of our products.”
House E&C Directs $10B for Supply Chain Security in Reconciliation Print
The House Energy and Commerce Committee was still in the process late Monday of marking up its portion of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill working its way through the House, but at our deadline was making a big splash with $10 billion of proposed funding for supply chain security.
The E&C committee’s portion of the legislation features billions of proposed spending for supply chains, distance learning, and more.
Applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning within supply chains
The purpose of this study is to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI), as well as machine learning (ML) techniques, are being applied and implemented within supply chains (SC) and to develop future research directions from thereof.
DoD Forms New Task Force To Shore Up Supply Chain
WASHINGTON: The Defense Department has created a new task force dedicated to addressing ongoing challenges with its supply chain visibility and resiliency, including ways to mitigate risk.
Gregory Kausner, who is currently handling the duties of under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, stood up the Supply Chain Resiliency Working Group on Aug. 30, the Pentagon said last week.
“A comprehensive strategic approach will take time, dedicated attention, and resources,” Kausner said in a Department release announcing the task force. “Effective implementation begins with understanding our vulnerabilities and the necessary responses, so we can focus our efforts to build greater resiliency across critical supply chains.”
On-the-Record Press Call by Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. Eric Lander and NSC Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense Dr. Beth Cameron on American Pandemic Preparedness
MS. RAYMOND: Good morning, everyone. And thank you so much, Brad. To all our participants, thank you for joining us for this embargoed briefing today.
We will be providing an overview of the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan, also entitled “Transforming our Capabilities,” which will advance the President’s commitment to building back better for the next biological threat.
We’ll start with some comments from our speakers. Today, we have the President’s Science Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as a member of the President’s Cabinet, Dr. Eric Lander; as well as the Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense, Dr. Beth Cameron.
After they both give initial remarks, we’ll open it up for question-and-answer.
As a reminder, this briefing is on the record, but the call contents and the materials that we shared prior to the call are embargoed until 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.
And with that, I’ll turn it over to our speakers, starting with Dr. Lander.
DR. LANDER: Well, thank you very much, and good morning to everybody and thank you for joining the call. So, my name is Eric Lander. I’m the President’s Science Advisor and I’m the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
And today, we’re releasing a plan for transforming U.S. capabilities to prepare for and respond rapidly and effectively to future pandemics and other high-consequence biological threats.
Defending digital supply chains: Evidence from a decade-long research program
Digital Supply Chains (DSCs) are highly integrated global internet communities of customers, distributors, producers, and suppliers. DSCs have increasingly incorporated Internet of Things (IoT) innovations such as field sensors and real time condition monitoring; and have served as effective platforms for IoT technology diffusion. However, as IoT has become more pervasive, pushing the edges of networks further out, new cyber threat windows have opened everywhere. More recently, Cyber-Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) has emerged as a critical discipline combining expertise from cybersecurity, supply chain management and enterprise risk management; and designed to stem the proliferation of digital supply chain attacks seeking illicit access to corporate networks for competitive espionage, financial and intellectual property theft, and disruption of operations. Yet to date, there has been little evidence that C-SCRM practices are actually effective in containing all or even some types of breaches.