National Harbor, Maryland, Sept. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- David Vigna, founder of Frost Mountain, took first prize in AFCEA International’s Emerging Professionals in Intelligence Committee’s (EPIC) 2022 App Challenge, an annual competition offering corporate and individual contestants the opportunity to showcase their analysis, critical thinking and expertise in front of an audience of intelligence community technical leaders and executives.
Frost Mountain, based in Northern Virginia, met this year’s App Challenge objective to identify, describe, demonstrate and defend against new kinds of cyber threats made possible by increased accessibility to data sets collected by satellites, which in turn is due to the steady lowering of both technological and cost barriers to satellite production, launch, exploration and spaceflight operations. By illustrating the benefits of combining multiple open source satellite data sets—such as USGS Earth Explorer, NASA Earthdata Search, NOAA Data Access Viewer, DigitalGlobe Open Data Program, and more—Vigna succeeded by creating an application, data visualization, or presentation to demonstrate how an increase in available satellite data is crucial to solving today’s real-world problems.
"There is no question that every domain in which the Department of Defense operates presents an increasingly complex threat picture,” said Ray Cross, AFCEA’s vice president for Intelligence. “With the deluge of open source and other available space-based data sets, it’s crucial we uncover innovative ways to mitigate the threats posed by all this widely available data. This year’s AFCEA EPIC App Challenge serves as an ‘innovation igniter,’ particularly among small businesses competing in the defense and security tech sector.”
Vigna received the $13,000 first prize. Lernaean Hydra was the 2nd place winner and received a $3,000 prize. The winners were announced Thursday at the Intelligence & National Security Summit, a event co-hosted by AFCEA and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. The summit brings together government, military, and industry to collaborate on critical national security challenges.
EPIC’s annual competition previously focused exclusively on the development of software applications to address specific and relatively narrow national security technology challenges. With the increasing severity, complexity and frequency of state and nonstate cyber attacks to steal, malignly influence and damage public and private sector targets, the EPIC App Challenge has broadened the aperture of acceptable solutions to include not only custom software applications but also demonstrations of security techniques and digital forensics. This year’s App Challenge was generously sponsored by CGI, Leidos, Riverside Research, and TRSS.
EPIC focuses on developing leaders, networking and giving back to the intelligence community. The committee, comprising IC professionals ages 40 and younger from the public and private sectors, enhances AFCEA’s outreach and education to the community. It is an extension of the association’s longstanding Intelligence Committee.
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AFCEA International is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit international professional association that connects people, ideas and solutions globally. Established in 1946, the membership association serves the military, government, industry and academia by developing networking and educational opportunities and providing an ethical forum. This enables military, government, industry and academia to align technology and strategy to meet the needs of those who serve. AFCEA operates under the guidance of a board of directors, international staff and committees. A large network of chapters is managed by a group of regional vice presidents. Join online.
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