Singapore - The amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) with the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) concluded a port visit to Singapore, December 28.

Washington, DC - Microsoft has announced plans to enforce TLS 1.2 on its Office 365 platform. Starting on March 1, 2018 all client-server and browser-server combinations must use TLS 1.2 or later protocol versions (1.3) to be able to connect to Office 365 services without issue.

Washington, DC - Since 2016, when Zika was declared by WHO as a public health emergency of international concern, the virus has become established in more than 80 countries, infected millions of people, and left many babies with birth defects (collectively called congenital Zika syndrome). Although scientists have made progress in their understanding of the virus and its mosquito carrier, and are working toward treatments and a preventive vaccine, it would be premature to think that the Zika pandemic is now under control and will not reemerge, perhaps more aggressively, say leaders from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Washington, DC - The Navy announced several updates to Navy uniform policy and several uniform initiatives in NAVADMIN 310/17, December 22.

Arabian Gulf - General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led a group of distinguished visitors, to include a Medal of Honor recipient, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, and celebrity guests sponsored by the United Service Organizations (USO), to spend time with Sailors and Marines while deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) today as part of a USO Holiday Tour.

Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission has issued its biennial report to Congress focusing on the use of the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry by both consumers and businesses and other organizations over the past two years.