Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Air Force

With the COVID-19 pandemic having subsided to an ominous simmer, the U.S. Air Force is finding that hybrid work policies are proving their value, and sometimes grade out as more effective than the pre-pandemic traditional work model. […]

With the migration to zero trust security architectures is in full swing in the Federal government, top agency technology executives shared their experience with effective strategies and technologies they have implemented thus far during an April 25 webinar organized by Federal News Network. […]

NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for Federal government agencies and U.S.-based industry partners to help create one or more public-private partnerships to help develop some new advances in advanced networking systems. […]

Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said this week that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is preparing to publicly release a common attestation form for software makers as part of the Federal government’s larger push to create a more secure software supply chain as mandated by President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order issued in May 2021. […]

RSA Conference

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.S. Cyber Command’s (USCYBERCOM) Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) revealed this week that collaboration between their agencies was able to prevent two potentially dangerous cyberattacks, including the disruption of an Iranian effort to target election infrastructure. […]

NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking comments on a preliminary draft of guidelines published Monday that aim to eventually detail how agencies can migrate to post-quantum cryptography. […]

The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced last week his plans to leave the agency this summer, with no clear successor in sight as the agency is due for reauthorization by Congress, and as it continues to work on necessary technology upgrades. […]

The Pentagon is a very large building that houses a lot of the authorities for the U.S. Military. It's big. This photo doesn't do it justice, but they're kinda rightly concerned about people flying drones around there.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Department of Defense (DoD) needs to work on how it evaluates data from commercial services when it involves tracking satellites in orbit. […]

AI Quantum Computing

House members are reaching across the aisle to help accelerate quantum technology development by creating a “quantum sandbox” for that purpose, according to a new bill from  Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Haley Stevens, D-Mich. […]

Data

The Office of Personnel Management is outlining its data goals for fiscal years (FY) 2023-2026 in its first-ever Data Strategy to bolster the Federal workforce’s data analytics skills. […]

Cybersecurity

One of the Federal government’s top cybersecurity officials said today that the Biden administration is requesting roughly $12 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2024 funding in connection with efforts to roll out zero trust security across the entire government, and voiced concern about the fate of the security push if Congress acts to roll back government funding levels to FY2022 levels. […]

A Foundation of Collaboration: Enhancing and Acting on Shared Cybersecurity Intelligence

Close public-private collaboration between the government and the private sector is helping to serve as a “force multiplier” in building cyber resilience, and has helped organizations to proactively respond to cyber threats, according to new research from RSA Conference and MeriTalk. […]

DoD

The key to combating adversaries in cyberspace and building out more cyber-resilient infrastructures is creating stronger partnerships for those efforts between government and industry, a top Defense Department (DoD) official said on April 24 during the Carahsoft Public Sector Day event at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. […]

workforce federal workers industry-min

The White House is targeting June to release its implementation plan for the National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) unveiled early last month, and private sector technology leaders are eager to see the Office of the National Cyber Director’s (ONCD) public strategy that aims to charge Federal agencies, the private sector, and civil society with specific cybersecurity action items. […]

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced late last week the formation of a task force that will examine negative repercussions of the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. […]

TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking to improve its customers’ experiences by adding machine learning tools to screening technologies at airport checkpoints nationwide. […]

State Department
VA

The Federal government is facing a workforce crisis, especially with skilled technology talent. Retention, recruitment, and retirement issues are hindering hiring managers, who are looking to fill critical open roles in order to meet mission objectives and new Federal mandates. MeriTalk recently sat down with Craig McCullough, senior vice president for public sector at Pluralsight, a technology workforce development company, to discuss how the government can overcome the skills gap by creating talent and building a culture of learning within Federal agencies. […]

Soldier modernization DoD Defense Department technology mobile
federal workforce worker hired-min

Security experts duked it out last week over the question of whether the United States should create a cyber force that would function on its own as a U.S. military service branch, distinct from the current structure of U.S. Cyber Command, which is one of 11 unified combatant commands of the Defense Department (DoD). […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD) U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is looking to advance its abilities in AI and cloud technology with the recent hiring of Andrew Moore, the former director of artificial intelligence at Google’s cloud business. […]

Federal agencies have increasingly made improvements in solving challenges the Government Accountability Office (GAO) features in its “High Risk” list, but more long-standing challenges still need to be addressed, U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said on April 20 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to clarify some of its cybersecurity policies when it comes to the department’s acquisition programs. […]

If you’re heading to the RSA Conference in San Francisco in person, or even if you’re staying home in hopes of getting the latest cybersecurity intel from keynotes that will become available from the conference, here’s our curated run-down on what the MeriTalk newsroom is watching for news breakers. […]

EHR

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that it is pausing all future deployments of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program – with the exception of one planned for 2024 – while it focuses on improvements at the five sites where the EHR system is currently deployed, as part of a “larger program reset.” […]

What Happened This Week – Ep. 53

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