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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: July 3, 2026
Federal zero trust faces challenges with AI agents
(NextGov/FCW) Since the establishment of executive order 14028, Federal agencies have spent four years rebuilding their security posture around zero trust to meet the deadlines set in OMB Memorandum M-22-09. By any reasonable measure, this has been one of the most consequential federal cybersecurity efforts in a decade. It will not survive contact with AI agents. The problem is not that zero trust principles are wrong. “Never trust, always verify” and least-privilege access remain exactly right. The problem is that zero trust architectures currently deployed across federal agencies was built around a specific assumption: that the entity behind a request is a human user — someone who logs in at human speed, clicks through interfaces in human ways, and holds permissions that change on human timescales. Read More
Department of War Launches New Website to Help Industry Partners Navigate Section 805 Supply Chain Requirements
(U.S. Department of War) The Department of War (DoW) today announced the launch of a new website to provide guidance and resources for industry partners on the implementation of Section 805 of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This provision restricts future DoW procurement from entities identified on the Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies. The new website https://www.businessdefense.gov/805-waiver-request.html managed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy serves as a central hub for information regarding the upcoming prohibitions. It details the timeline for both the Entity Provision or “direct” ban, effective June 30, 2026, and the Goods and Services Prohibition or “indirect ban,” effective June 30, 2027, which applies to supply chains. Read More
Digital twins, software maturity and other automation trends
(Manufacturing Dive) Engineers are starting to experiment with ways to leverage artificial intelligence in simulation tools to model and rig machine parts and components, “bringing the time and cost to do so down significantly,” said Brendan Sterne, chief product officer at Vention. Nvidia and other simulation developers have been partnering with companies such as Rockwell, Fanuc and ABB, on ways to integrate their technology with robotics-focused simulation tools to leverage each others’ strengths. Sterne said engineers are starting to bridge the two tools so they can get realistic robotic motion inside their simulations. Read More
A 1959 programming language still quietly runs modern finance: COBOL handles ATMs, card networks, bank ledgers and government payments, with an estimated $3 trillion in commerce passing through it daily. Now, as the specialists who understand that old code retire, banks are paying premium rates just to keep it from breaking.
(Space Daily) The strange thing about COBOL is not that it is old. Many things in finance are old. The strange thing is that a programming language first proposed in 1959 still sits underneath activities that feel entirely modern: tapping a card, drawing cash from an ATM, checking a balance in a banking app, receiving a benefit payment, or moving money between accounts. That does not mean every payment in the world runs through COBOL. It does mean that a large part of the financial system still depends on code written for mainframes, batch processing and the careful movement of records. A 2026 essay in Wired described COBOL as a 1959 language that remains widely used in government and finance, handling, by one rough estimate, about $3 trillion in financial transactions on a given day. Read More
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