Sandia Finalizes a Pair of Management Changes
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
Sandia National Laboratories recently finalized a pair of management changes, naming Marianne Walck the head of its California campus and appointing James Peery as its new vice president for defense research. In addition to heading up Sandia’s Livermore, Calif. Laboratory, Walck will also lead the lab’s Energy and Climate program. She takes over for Stephen Rottler, who was promoted deputy lab director and executive vice president for National Security Programs March 6.
A geophysicist, Walck recently headed up the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center and helped support the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. She also previously led Sandia’s Geophysics Department, working on seismic studies involving subsurface energy sources as well as treaty verification measures, and was a senior manager for the Nuclear Energy Safety Technologies Group, where she oversaw work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine nuclear power plant vulnerabilities to terrorist attacks and the impact of spent fuel drainage on boiling-water reactors. Sandia Director Paul Hommert said Walck “brings a deep and accomplished background in energy, as well as demonstrated success in leading large organizations. These skills and knowledge make her well-suited to leading both our California organization and our energy programs.”
Peery to Head up Lab Work for DoD, Other Gov’t Agencies
Peery replaces Jeff Isaacson, who left Sandia in October, and will oversee efforts to develop and integrate advanced science and technology into work for the Department of Defense and other national security agencies. He also will head up the Defense Systems and Assessments Division, which is in charge of much of the lab’s work for DoD and other government agencies.
Peery began his career at Sandia in 1990, spent 2002 to 2007 at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and returned to Sandia in 2007 as the head of its Computation, Computers, Information and Mathematics Center. He has spent the last three years coordinating efforts to recruit wounded combat veterans in the lab’s Wounded Warrior Program. “It is truly an honor to be asked to lead an organization that has developed and continues to develop state-of-the-art technology to protect our warfighter and increase U.S. security,” Peery said in a statement. “The talent and dedication of the staff and management within Defense Systems and Assessments Division is unparalleled.”
Online Report Alleges Sandia Link in CIA Apple Hacking Efforts
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
Computer experts at Sandia National Laboratories helped the Central Intelligence Agency crack the security on Apple iPhones and iPads, online news outlet The Intercept reported this week. The news outlet, which is run by Glenn Greenwald, the journalist that published government documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, based its report on another batch of “top secret” documents provided by Snowden, this time about the CIA’s efforts to break the encryption on Apple products. According to the report, Sandia experts boasted at a 2012 Lockheed Martin-sponsored computer conference that they were able to conduct a successful “whacking” of Apple’ Xcode, which is used to create apps on Apple products, in CIA-sponsored research.
Manipulating the code would establish a backchannel for hackers to access private data on Apple products and create other security vulnerabilities. Sandia National Laboratories spokesman Jim Danneskiold declined to comment, referring questions to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA did not respond to a request for comment.