The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has issued a presolicitation on SAM.gov, detailing its plans to utilize emerging technologies to improve healthcare products and in turn, patient care. […]
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a second cloud computing region specifically intended to host top-secret classified information from U.S. defense, intelligence, and national security agencies. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is acknowledging strides that the Biden administration has taken this year to broadly improve cybersecurity, but is still encouraging the Federal government to take more steps to strengthen the cybersecurity of the nation’s critical infrastructure in light of several high-profile cyber incidents over the course of the past year. […]
The White House on Dec. 6 released the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, which among other steps aims to utilize the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) newly established National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to hold corrupt actors accountable. […]
The White House has released a supplement to President Biden’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget that looks to increase funding for research and development (R&D) projects conducted under the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is looking for small businesses to work on a bid for a potential 10-year, $8 billion professional services contract to support satellite programs. […]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expects to have a final conference agreement for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, with votes potentially taking place into the weekend, Schumer wrote in a Dec. 6 Dear Colleague letter. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released guidance on Dec. 3 encouraging Federal agencies to cooperate and support their agency inspectors general (IGs). […]
Legislation designed to strengthen the Office of Personnel Management Act has cleared the House Oversight and Reform Committee, despite multiple Republicans objecting to the bill. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has promoted Teresa Pitts to become the agency’s new chief of staff from her previous role of civilian deputy at the DISA’s Operations Center, DISA announced. Pitts, like all incumbents to the role, is expected to hold her new title for two to three years. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) released the third installment of the Security Guidance for 5G Cloud Infrastructures four-part series, which is intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data within a 5G core cloud infrastructure. […]
Federal mandates, including Cloud Smart and the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order, are pushing agencies to modernize and migrate to the cloud. But with modernization comes complexity. Agencies are increasingly living in a hybrid world, with some workloads remaining on-premises while others move to the cloud. Add multi-cloud vendors to the mix, and it becomes harder for agencies to have a holistic view across their environments. […]
The Federal government is cultivating artificial intelligence (AI) technology gardens across major agencies, but varying mission requirements and funding streams for those efforts are producing strikingly uneven results. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 6 issued new Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) guidance to Federal agencies for Fiscal Years 2021-2022 that promotes agency action on several items in the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order issued in May, and that also aligns with aspects of current Senate legislation on FISMA reform. […]
Since the release of the Cloud First mandate in 2011, the Federal government has been pushing agencies to modernize legacy technology and migrate to the cloud. While Cloud First evolved into Cloud Smart, agencies have historically taken a measured approach to cloud migration. On the most recent FITARA scorecard, only three agencies scored an A in the Modernizing Government Technology category. Eleven agencies scored a C or below. […]
The Federal government avoided a costly shutdown, after the House and Senate both passed a continuing resolution Dec. 2 to keep the government funded until Feb. 18, 2022. President Biden signed the CR today, the White House announced. […]
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that a Russian cybercriminal, charged with providing hosting services for fellow cybercriminals, will serve 60 months in prison for services he provided for malware distribution and attacks on American financial institutions between 2009 and 2015. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the final draft of its Internet of Things (IoT)-specific guidance for Federal organizations, intended to support extending their risk management process to the inclusion of IoT devices in Federal systems. […]
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an expanded plan for telework and remote work through a new FAQ page on its website, allowing eight days of telework per pay period. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) IT shop seeks to hire new deputy directors to improve electromagnetic spectrum management, a move that reflects Pentagon leaders’ dedication to the issue. […]
In a new memorandum from the Biden administration, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Jason Miller detailed how the White House would like to direct $100 billion in Federal contracting opportunities to small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs). […]
The U.S. Army has awarded Cole Engineering Services a $957.7 million contract to develop, integrate and maintain the service’s enterprise Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE). […]
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, access to care, specifically telehealth care, was increasingly important. However, the lack of broadband internet access or internet-connected devices, especially in rural areas of the country, created a significant barrier for Veterans looking to access these services, an official from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said during an FCW virtual event on Dec. 1. […]
To protect high value assets (HVAs), Jennifer Franks, the director of information technology and cybersecurity team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), recommends agencies build a more structured organization around HVAs, or even a designated team, as opposed to only having one or two people with access to HVAs. […]
The House of Representatives on Dec. 1 approved a pair of cybersecurity bills, along with a bill that would create a task force to study the future of 6G wireless technologies. […]
Leaders in the House and Senate said on Thursday they have reached an agreement for a new continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the Federal government funded through mid-February 2022. Under the existing CR, the government is set to run out of funding before midnight Dec. 3. […]
During a House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing today, the committee took up two IT-related bills, H.R. 4688 and H.R. 5792, one of which was reported favorably to the House and the other postponed with some resistance from the GOP side of the committee. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released a detailed schedule for its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program deployment plans, with revised plans to deploy the EHRM program at a second location in Columbus, Ohio, on March 5, 2022. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will be providing agencies with new resources meant to support a “talent surge” in the Federal government and fill key positions for the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. […]
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved by voice vote on December 1 the nomination of Jessica Rosenworcel to another term on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where she is now chairwoman after being named to head the agency by President Biden in late October. […]