Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
NIH

Mario Ventura-Reyes has taken on a new role as the co-acting chief information security officer (CISO) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to his LinkedIn profile. […]

DISA

The Defense Information System Agency (DISA) is looking for software tools that would provide support in implementing an enterprise zero trust framework to serve the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Network (DoDIN). […]

Military AI

Top commanders responsible for cybersecurity operations in five of the U.S. military service branches listed out some of their top operational priorities during a panel discussion on May 2 at the AFCEA TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore, with topics ranging from data security to workforce recruiting and retention emerging as common threads. […]

cybersecurity

The Federal government is nearing the halfway point of a three-year plan to move agencies toward zero trust cybersecurity to better protect the nation from cyberattacks. With its recent National Cybersecurity Strategy, the Biden administration reinforced the commitment to zero trust made in last year’s memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which required agencies to meet specific zero trust goals by the end of fiscal year 2024. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is currently working through its acquisition strategy to go into full production of its Thunderdome zero trust security initiative within the next 30 to 60 days, DISA Director Lt. Gen Robert Skinner said today at the AFCEA TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore, Md. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

Since officially awarding the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract late last year, a top Defense Department (DoD) official said today they have been working towards enabling the JWCC to get the best possible value from the commercial cloud vehicle.  […]

Gen. Paul Nakasone, who heads both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA), emphasized the concept of mission, resource, and partnership alignment in the U.S. approach to cyber defense and conflict, and said the proper combination of those and other factors are working to give the United States “an intangible competitive advantage” against adversaries. […]

healthcare cyber-min

The COVID-19 pandemic allowed the Federal government to speed up its AI data integration tools in a way that would have never been possible if it were not for the “all hands on deck” approach, according to Greg Singleton, chief artificial intelligence officer at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). […]

White House

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., reintroduced a bill last week that requires the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) arm to have a more direct hand in the research and development (R&D) of activities concerning climate change.  […]

lookout-triple-play-800x450

The Federal government and numerous states are concerned that user data collected by some popular apps could be shared with foreign governments, including China. In this episode of MeriTalking, Joe Franco talks with Lookout’s Kristina Balaam about the data that popular apps collect, how it might be used by foreign governments, and how bans on Chinese apps can be enforced. […]

Army, headset

Lawmakers of the House Science Committee introduced two pieces of legislation last week that would codify the Department of Energy’s (DoE) existing research partnerships with NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to better address critical science and technology challenges. […]

The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) is calling for new quantum information science (QIS) solutions – including advanced algorithm designs and quantum networking – under a broad agency announcement (BAA) unveiled last week. […]

Department of Commerce

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has named Richard Carrizzo board chair of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), which operates as an independent authority within the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and provides wireless network services to first responders. […]

CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on April 27 released for public comment its proposed Secure Software Self-Attestation Common Form that will help to advance a key aspect of President Biden’s 2021 cybersecurity executive order on creating a more secure software supply chain. […]

employee workforce federal worker-min

One in four young people are passing on the opportunity to apply for Federal jobs that require security clearances because the government’s marijuana policies are too strict, according to a new study from ClearanceJobs and the Intelligence and National Security Foundation. The vast majority of respondents – 96 percent – were dazed and confused on […]

TSA

On the one-year anniversary of his appointment as head of tech ops at one of the Federal government’s most visible agencies, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Yemi Oshinnaiye sat down with MeriTalk for a debrief of the past year – and some pointers about where his agency’s technology is heading next. […]

nuclear weapon

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. – along with Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Don Beyer, D-Va., and Ken Buck, R-Colo. – introduced new legislation on April 26 that would keep humans in the loop in the U.S. nuclear command and control process to prevent artificial intelligence (AI) technologies from having a role in making nuclear launch decisions. […]

AI

The Federal government needs to develop action plans to respond to the potential benefits and risks of a rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) landscape – such as more clarity around internal leadership, more staff, and more funding – according to the National AI Advisory Committee’s (NAIAC) inaugural report released Tuesday. […]

GSA

The General Services Administration (GSA) is aiming to put people at the center of its ongoing effort to digitize government services, especially with recent updates to two major websites that function as “front doors” for citizens to access government information and services, an agency technology official said this week. […]

Danny Werfel, Daniel Werfel, IRS commissioner

House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., grilled Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel at a hearing this week about what he called the agency’s slow pace in adopting cloud-based technologies. […]

Health

A year after the Biden-Harris administration stood the agency up, the Advanced Research and Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is finally ready to start funding innovative projects aimed at advancing the health sector. […]

State Department
RSA Conference

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 11-10 on Wednesday to advance the nomination of Julie Su as to head the Labor Department, succeeding former Secretary Marty Walsh. […]

NIST

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