Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Shane Barney USCIS

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) saved $26 million last year by automating their alert and response to threats against the agency’s data that is secured in the cloud, according to the USCIS chief information security officer (CISO). […]

Brian Conrad

Brian Conrad, acting director of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), pointed to the program’s service re-use progress over the past year at an Oct. 20 ATARC event, including a 60 percent jump in re-use by Federal agencies of approved cloud services over the past year. […]

Tech-sector trade group Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) sent a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services committees on Oct. 20 asking lawmakers to reconsider a provision in the forthcoming national defense policy bill that would require vendors to provide a software bill of materials (SBOM) on the technology they provide government agencies. […]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected 16 people to participate in the agency’s independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), with the team beginning its research work on Oct. 24. […]

Kemba Walden, Principal Deputy National Cyber Director, Office of the National Cyber Director

Kemba Walden, principal deputy national cyber director in the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), today laid out what to expect from her office over time as it puts into place a national cybersecurity plan, what ONCD expects of the private sector, and what both can expect from each other. […]

White House

The White House announced on Oct. 26 that it will expand the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity Initiative to the chemical sector, as part of a larger effort to set cybersecurity baselines for critical infrastructure and protect infrastructure from cyber threats. […]

Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., have introduced new legislation that aims to counter the influence of foreign adversaries on the United States telecommunications infrastructure – and beyond the current sanctions on China-based equipment makers including Huawei and ZTE. […]

Red Hat Government Symposium

Earlier this month, U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) conducted a wide-ranging defensive cyberspace operation focused on sweeping for known malware, and intended to “highlight and enhance CYBERCOM’s interoperability with partners.” […]

AI

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is using its Innovation Lab to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to identify and alleviate burnout in the Federal workforce ranks due to the coronavirus pandemic, a GAO official said during an Oct. 5 event organized by Federal News Network. […]

AI

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking technical proposals for a new program that aims to develop automated approaches to conducting cybersecurity assessments on computer networks, according to an announcement posted to SAM.gov on Oct. 24. […]

Ann Dunkin

As Federal agencies and the private sector improve their uses of mobile technology, they must also improve security along with it, according to Ann Dunkin, chief information officer (CIO) at the Department of Energy (DoE). […]

OMB
Air Force

The United States Air Force is moving to shore up its end-user technology support functions following emergence of a “fix our computers” campaign that went viral earlier this year on Twitter and asserted that the Defense Department (DoD) was losing hundreds of thousands of employee hours annually due to computers that don’t work right. […]

EHR

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program may soon have another Federal agency coming on board, an agency official said this week. […]

The Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee (STSAC) – which acts as an advisor to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – has opened registrations for the public to attend its annual public meeting on Nov. 17 where the agenda features a variety of cybersecurity-related issues. […]

A key priority of the Biden-Harris Administration has been marketing Federal jobs to younger workers as nearly one-third of current civil servants get ready to age out of government.  While younger generations of workers figure to be more tech-savvy, the coming influx begs another   question in the age of cybersecurity: do Gen Z’ers and Millennials have good cyber hygiene while on the job? […]

cyber workforce

New research from (ISC)² sheds light on what it would take to close the longstanding cyber workforce shortage, and the answer is a big number. According to new research from the nonprofit, the cybersecurity profession needs to grow by 3.4 million people to close the global workforce gap. […]

DISA

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced on Oct. 24 the appointment of Army Senior Officer Gen. Joseph A. Papenfus as the newest assistant to the agency’s director. […]

The Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) need to do better in coordinating efforts to aid K-12 schools in cybersecurity, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

Federal money spending government

It’s no secret the Federal government can’t compete with the private sector when it comes to pay for many job classifications. But Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja said this week that Federal agencies often compete with themselves when it comes to attracting talent, and OPM is looking into a Special Salary Rate to even the playing field between agencies. […]

Department of Commerce

The Commerce Department has appointed 16 experts from both the public and private sector to its newly created Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB), the agency said in an Oct. 24  press release. […]

CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) on Oct. 21 warning about ransomware attacks by the Daixin Team hacking group. The advisory says the Daixin Team has been targeting U.S. healthcare organizations […]

Arati Prabhaker, who took over as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) earlier this month, late last week outlined several mindset and policy shifts that she said are necessary to meet technology challenges facing the United States. […]

Ten months after President Biden released his executive order for government to improve customer experience, a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) argues that Federal agencies are “still doing a poor job of measuring satisfaction, and they are conspicuously lagging in offering digital services.” […]

Robin Carnahan

As telework and hybrid work have become part of the new normal for the Federal government, General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Robin Carnahan said her agency is rethinking the use of physical building space and will be rolling out coworking spaces for agencies to test in November. […]

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