Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Success and Failure

As NASA continues to do more work to establish the first long-term human presence on the Moon – also known as the Artemis missions – the unique challenges associated with life and work on the Earth’s only natural satellite will require the development of new technology. […]

Air Force

As foreign adversaries begin to close the gap in the cyberspace race with the United States, the chief information officer (CIO) at the Air Force explained that the nation needs to be prepared for information to be front and center on the battlefield during any future war. […]

CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added two new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) listings to its already extensive website catalog of CVEs, the agency said in a Twitter posting on Nov.28. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

Ensuring a strong cyber posture against current and anticipated threats across the Department of Defense (DoD) has become an increasingly important priority as evidenced by the Pentagon’s release of the DoD Zero Trust Framework Strategy and Roadmap last month, an agency official said. […]

vaccine

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has admitted – through a recent settlement agreement – to wrongfully disclosing for a brief period of time the COVID-19 vaccination data of over 500,000 VA employees in October 2021 without the employees’ permission. […]

USDA

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the Department of Transportation (DOT) needs to share more information on its connected vehicle (CV) technology strategy with stakeholders especially in light of actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2020 to reduce the availability of radio spectrum dedicated to CV applications. […]

A top data expert at the Defense Department (DoD) said during a Nov. 30 ATARC event that the agency is leveraging Advana – a big data platform – to inform decision making more rapidly, but the department still finds itself forced to jump hurdles when it comes to data-ops. […]

cyber workforce

Instead of requiring cybersecurity employees to have a four-year college degree, the Department of Defense (DoD) is encouraging the hiring of qualified applicants who have gained cyber qualifications through apprenticeship programs, or other similar training programs. […]

ransomware
New & Next: The Government Tech Renaissance

What makes up the cutting edges of Federal government technology right now and taking shape for the years to come? We’re going to find out on December 8 as some of the very best next-tech explorers gather at MeriTalk’s “New & Next: The Government Tech Renaissance” in-person conference at Convene in Washington D.C. […]

PMA

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) unveiled its latest President’s Management Agenda (PMA) quarterly updates today, outlining the Biden administration’s progress on its three PMA priorities focused on strengthening the Federal workforce, customer experience, and government business management. […]

FedRAMP

Cloud security provider Zscaler said today that its Zscaler Private Access service – a cloud-delivered, zero trust network access (ZTNA) service that provides secure access to all private applications, without the need for a remote access VPN – has achieved FedRAMP Moderate Authorization from the General Services Administration’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. […]

Health and Human Services HHS

The Health and Human Services Department’s (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is seeking recommendations and solutions to replace its legacy Program Information Management System (PIMS) with a new and modernized system to manage and track OCR activities and become the organization’s system of record. […]

Pipeline
DHS

Christine Finnelle, until recently the chief technology officer (CTO) at the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), has headed to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where she is now the new director of enterprise architecture. […]

Lloyd Austin

 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin implored Capitol Hill leadership in a Nov. 28 letter to approve a full-year, whole of government funding bill as the clock ticks closer to Dec. 16 when Federal government funding is set to run out, and warned of potentially dire consequences if funding remains uncertain. […]

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) by early next year plans to establish a mission group of intelligence analysts and experts to monitor China and its growing threat to the U.S., particularly in the cyber arena, according to an agency official. […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent the majority of its $36.7 billion in COVID-19 relief funding to address three key areas – with digital services and IT efforts being two of them. […]

A team of government-contracted “red team” hackers managed to gain unauthorized and undetected control of critical Census Bureau systems in a simulated attack test revealing major cybersecurity weaknesses within the Federal agency, according to a new report by the Commerce Department Office of Inspector General (IG). […]

IRS

While the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has taken grief over the years for aspects of its IT capabilities and is embarking on a new modernization campaign, a new agency inspector general report is coming in with some good news about one aspect of the IRS’ cybersecurity defenses: ransomware. […]

DISA

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is expanding on its DOD365 Integrated Phone System (DIPS) to strengthen the workforce capabilities at the Department of Defense (DoD) by the end of November, according to a new press release. […]

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.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has announced awards for 147 university researchers, totaling $59 million, to finance the purchase of research equipment and enable universities to perform state-of-the-art research that augments current capabilities and develops new ones. […]

FCC, Chinese suppliers

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has banned the sale in the United States of telecommunications network equipment and services from several China-based providers – among other firms – because their use poses an “unacceptable risk to national security.” […]

Budget Federal spending

The Social Security Administration (SSA) said in a blog post that the agency will be “forced” to cut funding for its information technology (IT) investments if Congress ends up allotting the agency a significantly smaller budget than the White House requested for fiscal year (FY) 2023. […]

improper payments

The White House said that the Federal government’s improper payment rate for fiscal year (FY) 2022 dropped by 2.1 percentage points – from 7.2 percent in FY2021 to 5.1 percent in FY2022 – marking a 26 percent reduction in the improper payment rate on a year-over-year basis. […]

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