Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

Two senior Federal officials doing vital work on climate issues are preaching to the younger generation a message to join the government workforce so they can help stave off the worst outcomes of climate change – despite what one called the “crap money.” […]

Two Defense Department (DoD) organizations are partnering to improve global weather sensing applications by contracting for industry development of ground, air, and space-based technologies, according to a press release from Oct. 26. […]

White House

The White House on Nov. 1 wrapped up its two-day International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) Summit that produced a lengthy list of goals for participant countries to shoot for in curbing ransomware attacks. […]

Matt House, who was named program manager of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program last week, sketched out some principles in the program’s path forward today at FCW’s CDM summit event. […]

As agencies work to implement the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program capabilities, agency officials today said that operational technology (OT) has proved to be “one of the biggest challenges” for the program – and represents an unknown territory for both CISA and partner agencies. […]

DoD Pentagon Military

The Department of Defense (DoD) plans to release in the coming days a detailed strategy for its ambitious department-wide zero trust security strategy, said Randy Resnick, director of Zero Trust Portfolio Management at DoD, during FCW’s CDM Summit event on Nov. 2. […]

The Commerce Department’s U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) component is gearing up to facilitate a big push to build local technology hubs across the country, according to Alejandra Y. Castillo, assistant Commerce secretary and head of the EDA, who spoke at a Nov. 1 event organized by Route Fifty. […]

health

Experts in data science and health shared expectations on Nov. 1 for the newly established Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (or ARPA-H), including that it should incorporate social determinants of health into its research and think about a reusable data structure. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) announced $39 million in funding for projects to develop market-ready technologies that will increase domestic supplies of critical elements required to power America’s clean energy future, according to a press release published Oct. 27. […]

In its agency-wide effort to modernize technology and build critical infrastructure needed to improve efficiency the nation’s tax system, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants to replace its current Enterprise File Storage (EFS) system with a managed service solution, according to a request for information (RFI) released on Oct. 31. […]

AI

It is a truism in government that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are the wave of the future, offering many opportunities for increased efficiency and accuracy that help to better serve the public. Early adopters in the Federal government have realized some quick wins with the technologies – but it is often a challenge to understand when those technologies are mature enough to be applied to a particular problem. […]

voting booth, election security
Army

The U.S. Army has issued a request for information (RFI) for industry feedback on approaches currently being developed to address software supply chain issues, with a focus on the “acquisition, validation, ingest, and use of Software Bills of Material (SBOMs) and closely associated matters.” […]

Reps. Katie Porter, D-Cali., and Gerry Connolly, D-VA., introduced new legislation last week that aims to strengthen how the Federal government serves the American public by giving six agencies specific marching orders on improving online and other services. […]

The Federal government’s push to improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture across the board has taken shape through numerous policies and actions, but none are more important than the ongoing goal of creating more responsive operational collaboration with the private sector, Federal cybersecurity leaders said on Oct. 28. […]

DISA

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has awarded Lumen Technologies a $1.5 billion contract to provide network transport and communications services in the Asia Pacific region. […]

Navy

Government and private sector experts discussed the extent to which zero trust cybersecurity principles ought to be applied to the larger problem of achieving better supply chain security at an Oct. 26 event organized by the Atlantic Council. […]

TMF

Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced three pieces of new legislation last week that would direct Federal agencies with expertise over discrete industry sectors to take on larger roles in expanding cyber protections for those sectors. […]

IRS
FCC

The Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 27 voted to approve a notice of proposed rulemaking that aims to shore up the cybersecurity and operational readiness of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts. […]

The Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) is moving closer to releasing a new report with further cybersecurity recommendations, according to Rob Silvers, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) under secretary for policy. […]

USDA Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $53 million in modernization grants to tackle technology modernization goals for the agency’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children – otherwise known as WIC. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) technology education pilot program for veterans needs to create better outcome measures to evaluate how well the program is working, along with a plan for improvement, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

military private sector government contract spending procurement-min 1
three-keys-to-cybersecurity

Private sector firms who supply the government with security technologies and the professionals that make them work are seeing this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month and its theme – See Yourself in Cyber – as a call to jumpstart the skills training needed to fill the expanding deficit in the U.S. cybersecurity workforce. […]

Phil Fuster, vice president of sales at Proofpoint

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