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Veterans Affairs GAO Chides VA Over Progress on Acquisition Framework
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent ten years working on a new acquisition framework but still has yet to tackle central facets of how to implement the new framework – including identifying major programs that the framework will cover, integrating the new framework with the agency’s IT program, and addressing related acquisition workforce needs.
Recent News
  1. Health and Human Services HHS Daunting PII Data Volume Growth Continues to Challenge
    Managing the ever-increasing growth of personal identifiable information (PII) at large organizations and government agencies continues to post difficult challenges, private sector and government officials said this week.
  2. Cybersecurity cyber Tech Firms Rallying Around Open Specs for Security Telemetry
    Leading technology and security companies are banding together to share tools and products to better guard against cyberattacks, saying their security teams are spending more time correlating a blitz of unintegrated data than detecting and responding to threats.
  3. EPA Names Updike Deputy CIO, Director of IT Office
    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named David Updike deputy chief information officer (CIO) and director of the agency’s Office of Information Technology Operations (OITO), according to his LinkedIn.
  1. broadband Senate Bill Aims to Fund Broadband Builds on Electric Grid Networks
    Legislation recently introduced in the Senate aims to create a Federal grant system to help fund the construction of new broadband networks in parts of the country that either don’t have much broadband service currently available or that have service speeds of less than 100 megabits per second (Mbps) upload and 20 Mbps download.
  2. FCC FCC Sets $68M in New Funding to Close ‘Homework Gap’
    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made further funding moves to help close the “homework gap” by committing nearly $68 million in two new funding rounds through the Emergency Connectivity Program (ECP).
  3. Cloud Computing Brainstorm 2019 - Sean Connelly CISA’s Connelly Charts Agency Activity on Zero Trust Work
    A senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) official provided an update this week on agency-level activity in their migration toward zero trust security architectures mandated by President Biden’s 2021 cybersecurity executive order and subsequent guidance documents issued by CISA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
  4. DHS Issues Solicitation to Support ‘Hack DHS’ Bounty Program
    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a solicitation for Hack DHS – a multi-year bug bounty program – to procure services in support of the program going into the future and carrying a contract value of up to $43 million.
  1. Army Seeking More Connected Technology for Soldiers
    The United States Army said in a recent solicitation that it’s interested in engineering services for a project to provide soldiers with integrated, latest-generation technologies for training and combat purposes.
  2. CISA Releases New Cyber Toolkit for Election Systems Security
    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Aug. 10 released a new cyber toolkit to help state and local election officials improve the cybersecurity and resilience of their infrastructure ahead of the midterm elections in November.
  3. House E&C Leaders Seek Briefings on Agencies’ Log4j Progress
    House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and subcommittee leaders sent letters on August 10 to five agencies inquiring about their progress in addressing the Apache Log4j vulnerability.
  4. Report: Ransomware Victims Want Government to Help Cover Damages
    A new report from BlackBerry and Corvus Insurance finds that many businesses will struggle to bear the financial costs of ransomware attacks that are not already covered by their insurance companies, and that most of the businesses surveyed believe government should help victims recover from attacks that are linked to nation-states.
  5. Cultural Change Proves Stubborn Foe in Zero Trust, Fed Experts Say
    The cultural and mindset shifts required to advance the migration by Federal agencies to zero trust security architectures are proving to be among the more stubborn areas of change in that sweeping effort, according to Angel Phaneuf, Chief Information Security Officer, at the U.S. Army Software Factory.
  6. Former CISA Chief Krebs Envisions Wider ‘U.S. Digital Agency’
    Chris Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) from 2018 to 2020, said today that his vision for the Federal government’s next leap forward on the technology front involves creating a new “U.S. Digital Agency” that would combine elements of CISA and several other existing agencies to create an organization “focused on empowering better digital risk management services.”
  7. Cori Zarek to Join USDS as Deputy Administrator
    Cori Zarek will join the United States Digital Service (USDS) as deputy administrator later this month, she announced in a blog post today.
  8. GAO: Education Dept. Must Strengthen OPM/College Review Processes
    The rise in the number of students who opt for online higher education programs has led colleges contracting with third-party companies – called online program managers (OPM) – to help develop and deliver their online programs. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that the Department of Education (DoE) needs to strengthen how it monitors the arrangements between OPMs and higher education institutions.
  9. VA Needs to Improve ICAM Program or Risk Cyber Intrusions
    A new report from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the agency is not effectively managing or coordinating its identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) program, and because of that is leaving information vulnerable to cyber intrusions.
  10. Zero Trust Guidance Marks Only a Starting Point, Federal Experts Say
    The Federal government’s march toward zero trust security architectures is well underway with guidance documents from several agencies. And while that guidance is crucial, Federal agencies cannot confine themselves only to the practices described in them, Federal experts said during an ATARC event on August 9.