To help close the broadband digital divide, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed an enhanced competition incentive program to encourage licensees to offer opportunities for small carriers and Tribal Nations to obtain spectrum via lease, partition, or disaggregation. […]
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted Nov. 17 to approve President Biden’s nomination of Laurie Locascio to become Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and director of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). […]
Adopting and integrating zero trust principles into any cybersecurity strategy is far from simple, but the use of automation technologies can help greatly in that process, Federal officials said at ATARC’s Zero Trust Summit on November 17. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) said today they published new guidance to mitigate cyber threats within 5G cloud infrastructure. […]
Worldwide, the number of web applications quintupled over the last decade, and the number of records compromised by data breaches grew even faster. Two in every five breaches originate in a web app, according to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report. No organization is immune, especially as businesses and agencies of all sizes continue developing their own custom web apps – and continue widening their attack surface in the process. […]
U.S., U.K., and Australian cybersecurity agencies are warning that hackers associated with Iran have exploited vulnerabilities in Fortinet and Microsoft products to carry out attacks. Officials urged in a recent advisory that critical infrastructure organizations patch these vulnerabilities to mitigate against possible attacks. […]
President Biden announced on Nov. 17 his intent to nominate Dimitri Kusnezov as under secretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]
Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress announced Nov. 17 that they will form a conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House-passed National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Future Act – thus creating a pathway to passage for the supply chain and research investment bills. […]
The Biden-Harris administration’s just-released “vision” statement for the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) sets broad goals to overhaul how the government recruits and retains its workforce, harnesses technology to provide citizens with better digital services and undertakes acquisitions in a way that provides advantages to the domestic economy. […]
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is eyeing 2022 for its next round of funding awards to Federal agencies, according to Raylene Yung, TMF Executive Director, who spoke today about the program as part of a panel discussion organized by the Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM). […]
The General Service Administration’s (GSA) Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) completed its 100th collaboration across the Federal government and is using the data gleaned from its collaborations to push Federal digital services forward, GSA announced Nov. 16. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are set to release their four-year strategic plan later this month, according to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja, who previewed what the Federal government can expect to see in that plan. […]
President’s Biden executive order (EO) on improving the nation’s cybersecurity gave Federal agencies 90 days to develop a Zero Trust strategy among a slew of other deadlines. But according to an official from the Small Businesses Administration (SBA), communication remains a significant challenge in meeting this deadline. […]
To become more efficient and effective in their operations, many Federal agencies have begun to adopt new robotic process automation (RPA) processes. However, concerns remain on the adoption of RPA, Federal officials said during a Brookings Institute webinar on November 16. […]
Significant tax benefits can occur when taxpayers invest in Qualified Opportunity Funds, which invest in Opportunity Zones that were created by Congress, and the IRS says that over 6,000 of these funds invested about $29 billion in Opportunity Zones through 2019, but plans to ensure funds comply with requirements depend on data that isn’t readily accessible. […]
Vaccines play a crucial role in keeping communities healthy, but vaccine development remains expensive and complex. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a review that identified innovative technologies and approaches that may help speed vaccine development for high-priority infectious diseases. […]
A top network security official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – which is developing its own plans to evaluate contractor cybersecurity – aired some concerns this week with recent changes that the Defense Department (DoD) announced with its own Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. […]
An FBI official did not deny prior reports that the agency held the decryption key from the Kaseya ransomware attacks for multiple weeks without giving it to parties victimized by the attacks but told the House Oversight and Reform Committee at a Nov. 16 hearing that it chose to do so in the interest of figuring out how to achieve the widest-ranging impact from the key. […]
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) published a comprehensive framework on responsible usage of artificial intelligence (AI) to help Federal officials and contractors align technology and AI programs with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Ethical Principles for AI. […]
NASA is launching a new cyber-related initiative, known as the Mission Support Future Architecture Program, to realign the agency’s cybersecurity staff and move it towards an enterprise security model. […]
The Federal government has transitioned from a “Cloud First” to a “Cloud Smart” strategy intended to guide agencies in leveraging cloud technology without compromising security. However, accomplishing this is a team effort, Federal officials said during a SCGov panel discussion on November 16.
The Department of Commerce (DoC) is taking bids from small businesses to pursue a potential 10-year $1.5 billion enterprise information technology (IT) contract service. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released new Cybersecurity Incident and Vulnerability Response Playbooks today, completing a vital assignment from President Biden’s Cybersecurity executive order (EO). […]
The Biden administration issued its cybersecurity executive order (EO) in May 2021, giving marching orders to Federal agencies to move to zero trust security architectures, among other directives. During a SCGov panel discussion today, Federal chief information security officers (CISOs) shared how they’re leveraging their agency’s previous programs around zero trust to fulfill the obligations of the EO. […]
Intrusion, a provider of AI-enabled cybersecurity services, has named former Federal CIO Tony Scott president and CEO. […]
President Biden has made two nominations to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) that will cover the remainder of the terms that expire in early 2023 and 2024. […]
While the Social Security Administration (SSA), like much of the rest of the Federal government has been largely operating in a work from home setting since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency is preparing to return to office through a phased re-entry plan, the agency confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The FBI’s email system was hacked, sending emails to thousands of recipients about a fake cyberattack, the agency confirmed over the weekend. The law enforcement agency said the cause of the hack has since been remediated. […]
The White House said today it has created a task force made up mostly of top Federal agency officials to “coordinate effective implementation” of the many new programs and mandates created by the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden on November 15. The task force is being created through a new executive order. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally launched the Cyber Talent Management System (CTMS) to enable more effective recruitment, development, and retention of cybersecurity talent. […]