Kent, Harris, Agency CIOs Top FITARA Hearing Witness List
Federal CIO Suzette Kent tops the witness list for the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s June 26 hearing to assess implementation of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), and to release the eighth version of the full House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard that grades Federal agencies on their progress under the law, MeriTalk has learned.
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OMB Finalizes Cloud Smart Policy
The Office of Management and Budget finalized its Cloud Smart policy today, making no major changes from the draft policy released in September 2018.
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Phalen Named Acting DCSA Director
As the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is set to become the primary background investigation provider today, Charles Phalen will be appointed acting director, effective July 1.
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VA on Track to Improve Veteran Customer Experience
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is on track to achieve its agency goal under the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) of improving veteran customer experience (CX), according to a June update released by the VA.
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DoJ Exceeding Quarter Goals to Combat Cyber Threats, Prosecute Cyberattacking Actors
The Justice Department (DoJ) is meeting, even exceeding, its Agency Priority Goal (APG) Action Plan targets to combat cyber-enabled threats and attacks, according to a June update reporting the first and second quarter progress DoJ has made for FY2019.
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CISA Issues Statement on Iranian Cybersecurity Threats
In a statement on the recent reports of Iranian cyberattacks directed at the U.S. government, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs warned of “wiper” attacks that could compromise entire systems.
Inspiring Innovation: Data Thrivers in the Cloud Revolution
By 2025, the world’s data will have grown to 163 zettabytes. In the digital age, data is no longer locked away – it’s distributed, dynamic, and diverse.
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USDA Succeeding on Data Analytics Effort
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeing strong results from its effort to expand data analytics across the agency, and is meeting targets and exceeding goals on stakeholder buy-in, according to a June 20 update to the agency’s goals under the President’s Management Agenda.
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State Department Lagging Behind Some IT Modernization Goals
The State Department is making progress on its IT modernization effort, but is still lagging behind some of the goals it set as part of the President’s Management Agenda, as a June 20 update to the agency’s priority goals showed.
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Census Action Plan Indicates Overall Positive Progress Toward 2020
Preparation for the 2020 Census is overall on-track, according to the second quarter Census Goal Action Plan, but the Census Bureau still faces the challenges of upscaling Area Census Offices (ACOs) to expand operations and recruiting and hiring the staff it needs to conduct the 2020 decennial.
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CDM PMO Forges Ahead While Agencies Learn Lessons From Implementation
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program aimed at helping Federal agencies fundamentally improve network security is moving ahead in a number of significant, future-leaning areas at the program level to advance its broad cybersecurity mission.
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DHS Unlikely to Meet Multiple Goals on Federal Cyber Protection
In its June update to its agency goals under the President’s Management Agenda, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed it is unlikely to meet goal on cyber hygiene scanning, intrusion detection, and high value asset vulnerability mitigation.
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National AI R&D Plan Update Introduces New Focus on Public-Private Collabs
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) released an update of the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan today, which largely maintains the original 2016 Strategic Plan but brings a new focus on partnership with industry.
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PMA Update Shows Decrease in Background Check Backlog, but not Security Clearances
The President’s Management Agenda’s (PMA) CAP Goal Action Plan on Security Clearance, Sustainability/Fitness, and Credentialing Reform released June updates that included a reduction in a background investigation backlog.
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Shared Services CAP Goal Update Hints at Three More QSMOs
A new update to the Sharing Quality Services cross-agency priority (CAP) goal, released June 20, lays out the timeline for the currently designated quality services management offices (QSMOs), and hints at three more areas for the new, centralized approach to shared services.
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Federal Government Nears Completion of its CX CAP Goal
Based on the most recent Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals update released June 20, the Federal government is nearing completion of its Improving Customer Experience (CX) With Federal Services CAP Goal.
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PMA Updates Federal Data Strategy, Outlines Challenges, Future Goals
The Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Action Plan to Leverage Data as Strategic Asset released June updates under the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) on June 20, which indicated movement in the Federal Data Strategy’s development, as well as strategies the CAP Goal team is taking to overcome data use and strategy challenges.
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Administration, Agencies Push Forward on IT Spending CAP Goal
The Federal government is making progress towards its goal of improving IT spending data accountability and transparency, according to a Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal update released June 20.
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PMA’s IT Modernization Plan Meeting Goals With Few Delays
The June updates from the President’s Management Agenda’s (PMA) CAP Goal Action Plan to Modernize IT to Increase Productivity and Security, released June 20, see all key milestones either completed or on track to be completed by Q4 FY2019, but delays in implementing government-wide tools have impacted asset management security capabilities.
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How to Get Through the FedRAMP Approval Process
With vendors in various stages of approval for companies in the Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program (FedRAMP) program, getting a cloud offering approved and at the right level can be confusing, but new guidance from the FedRAMP program management office (PMO) aims to fix that.
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HR and CIOs Need to Collaborate More on Tech Projects, Says HR Official
With technology enabling advances in human resources, HR departments can’t just toss their requirements over to the CIO’s office; they need to work with IT to take charge of technology projects, said Roland Edwards, deputy chief human capital officer (CHCO) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).