With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated at disguising themselves as legitimate network users, a top Defense Department (DoD) IT official said this week that the Pentagon’s move to zero trust security architectures gives the agency a “fighting chance” to detect and eject hackers before they can do much damage. […]
Following a November 10 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the U.S. will sign onto a three-year old framework offered by the French government as an international framework for cooperation on cyber and supply chain security. […]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has embarked on a new initiative to assess the status of geographic information systems (GIS) within the 911 community, with a goal of defining what is required to achieve interoperable GIS data sharing nationwide. […]
After its passage by the House of Representatives Nov. 5, President Biden plans to sign the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Monday, Nov. 15, authorizing billions of new funding for broadband and cybersecurity, in addition to traditional infrastructure, the administration announced Nov. 10. […]
Dr. Brian Hermann has been appointed the new director of the Cybersecurity and Analytics Directorate at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). […]
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) has awarded CACI International a five-year single-award task order worth up to $785 million for information warfare and electronic warfare solutions and services. […]
The National Guard has hired Martin Akerman as its first-ever chief data officer, according to Akerman’s LinkedIn. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to industry for help in bolstering the cybersecurity of U.S. allies and partner nations, said DoD’s Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, at C4ISRNET’s CyberCon 2021 event on November 10. […]
The keys to establishing a robust cybersecurity framework for defense agencies include having strong partnerships with industry, innovation based on best practices, and efforts to cultivate a strong workforce. […]
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly said November 10 that the agency’s Binding Operational Directive (BOD) issued earlier this month to Federal agencies to remediate against a list of 300 known exploited cyber vulnerabilities appears to be getting a good reception from government and industry as an effective roadmap on how to prioritize action against prevalent cyber threats. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is collecting feedback and opinions regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition between now and December 6. […]
While Congress has made some headway in recent years to modernize the way the national legislature takes advantage of technology, maintaining a bipartisan focus on modernization goals is the necessary ingredient to making further progress, current and former Capitol Hill officials said during a November 9 Partnership for Public Service online event. […]
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) – the largest union for Federal employees – is pushing for Federal workers to have the same extended deadline as Federal government contractors to receive their COVID-19 vaccine. […]
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Resilience and Food Security is looking for feedback for a planned climate adaption support activity that will provide a suite of services and products to USAID Missions, Washington, D.C. Operating Units, and partners to support adaption mainstreaming, programming, and scaling to effect change. […]
The Department of Transportation has been tasked with seeking private sector input to create standardized data exchange requirements for goods movement in the transportation supply chain, according to a White House announcement of administration plans to fund ports and waterways improvements aimed at improving supply chain resiliency. […]
Federal agency CIOs agreed during a November 9 panel discussion at ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation conference that the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is a vital source of funding for IT modernization and cybersecurity projects, and said they want more of it from Congress. […]
With an international focus on climate change after the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference, Department of Energy (DoE) CIO Ann Dunkin said today that data center consolidation is helping to reduce the agency’s carbon footprint, and pointed to the further use of scalable cloud-native apps as the next step in that campaign. […]
According to a recently released Tripwire survey, most security professionals in the private and public sector described their zero trust security adoption as either progressing, or even well-developed, but also in need of more work. […]
Palo Alto Networks recently issued a report detailing a targeted attack campaign that leveraged leased infrastructure in the U.S. to scan hundreds of vulnerable organizations, which compromised at least nine global entities in the technology, defense, healthcare, energy, and education sectors. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released a new cybersecurity strategy intended to protect against exposure of Veterans’ personal information or the corruption of critical data. […]
Federal CIO Clare Martorana urged government technology leaders this week to take a page from the “Undercover Boss” television program and discover first-hand the experiences and viewpoints of their customers in order to better understand where government needs to make improvements in how citizens best interact with government services. […]
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) recently released a request for proposals (RFP) for access to commercial satellite imagery from U.S based companies. […]
The Department of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have made progress in validating data received from Federal agencies, but both of the agencies need to improve how that data is reported online, according to the Government Accountability Office. […]
The zero trust journey can present several challenges for organizations, with funding being just one of them, but Steven Hernandez, chief information security officer at the Department of Education, said the biggest hurdle he sees with zero trust comes down to cultural challenges. […]
The Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order (Cyber EO) issued in May 2021 marks the Federal government’s most determined effort yet to not only propose – but also to enforce through sustained government-wide action – the kinds of fundamental changes needed to advance civilian agency cybersecurity, defeat sophisticated attacks on government networks, and in the process, take a giant leap forward in the cause of IT modernization. […]
The Justice Department said today it has arrested one alleged perpetrator and charged another for their participation in the REvil-enabled supply chain ransomware attack against American software firm Kaseya that impacted several hundred businesses this summer. […]
The Federal Communications Commission announced today that it will commit more than $421 million in the latest round of funding for the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), bringing total program commitments to over $3.05 billion and 10 million students connected. […]
Congressional backers of another big shot of funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) are not ready to take no for an answer. After a proposed $1 billion of additional funding for TMF was stripped late last month from House Democrats’ committee-level proposals for the Build Back Better Act, a new amendment to the legislation offered by Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., would add $250 million of TMF funding as part of a larger $500 million proposal to advance IT modernization programs. […]
Bipartisan legislation introduced last week directs the Department of Defense (DoD) to make its datasets publicly and easily accessible via a strategic pilot program in order to advance software and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities beyond the Pentagon. […]
After more than two months of angling and dealmaking, the House of Representatives voted to approve the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework – on November 5, sending the bill along with its $2 billion in cyber funding and $65 billion in broadband appropriations to President Biden’s desk for final approval. […]