The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) – a group of private sector experts that advises the White House on telecom availability and reliability issues – has drafted several recommendations for the Biden administration including one to establish a task force for software assurance in information and communications technology and services supply chains. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft criteria for consumer software cybersecurity labeling, as mandated by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order. […]
Despite recent scrutiny over program missteps and complaints from frontline staff, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program plans to deploy the EHRM program at a second location in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2022, VA Deputy Secretary Donald Remy told lawmakers today. […]
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has a strong information security maturation, with an overall grade of 4 on a 5-point scale, but still has “significant security control weaknesses,” according to a recent audit of its information security practices released by the FDIC Office of the Inspector General (OIG). […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is lending some backing to protest by Microsoft of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) $10 billion cloud award to Amazon Web Services (AWS) earlier this year. […]
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the merger of the space agency’s Office of Strategic Engagements and Assessments and the Office of the Chief Technologist, resulting in the creation of the new Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS), in support of the Biden-Harris Administration priorities and focus on space strategy. […]
A trio of Republican senators is seeking information from the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) about its process for developing the two pipeline security directives it issued this summer, according to an Oct. 28 letter sent to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) Joseph Cuffari. […]
Cloud security provider Zscaler said that its Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) service has received a provisional authorization to operate at Impact Level 5 as published in the Defense Department’s Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide. […]
President Biden signed H.R. 5763 into law on Oct. 31, extending authorization for the Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Programs until Dec. 3 – and effectively providing more time for Congress to consider two big pending infrastructure bills that contain billions of dollars of tech and cyber-related items. […]
John Sherman, who has served as Acting CIO for the Department of Defense (DoD) and is the nominee to move into the position permanently, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at a confirmation hearing on October 28 that he wants to put in place a new strategy to develop DoD cyber talent, among other steps if his nomination is confirmed. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened the filing window for the $1.9 billion Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. In September, the FCC announced that the filing window would run from Oct. 29 to Jan. 14, 2022. […]
Nineteen states have sued the Biden administration over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Federal government contractors, according to separate lawsuits filed late last week. […]
The Secure Equipment Act has now cleared both the House and Senate, and is expected to land on President Biden’s desk for his signature shortly. […]
The future of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program’s dashboard architecture is continuing to evolve for both CISA and Federal civilian agencies to get clearer visibility and understanding of network endpoint health, explained Judy Baltensperger, CDM program project manager, at MeriTalk’s Cyber Central: Defenders Unite virtual conference on October 28. […]
The acting manager of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is hailing quick progress that the program and Federal agencies have made in signing new agreements mandated by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order to share object-level network data with the CDM program, rather than the summary-level data that was previously required. […]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a report detailing security compromises associated with Ranzy Locker ransomware, which has targeted victims in the U.S. since late 2020. […]
Every government agency is loaded with data that it could use to fulfill its mission more efficiently and effectively. But getting from here to there isn’t necessarily an easy proposition. Business intelligence (BI) and analytics solutions can help. […]
On today’s episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Nicole Burdette sits down with Jay Boisseau, AI & HPC Technology Strategist at Dell Technologies, and Marc Hamilton, Vice President of Solutions Architecture and Engineering at NVIDIA, to explore the steps agencies are taking toward “digital first government” and what this means from a workforce, cybersecurity, and emerging technology perspective. […]
Over the past 20 years, government agencies have worked to shift from paper-based to digital operations. Early efforts, too often, went halfway. Agencies digitized the front end, but back-end operations largely remained the same. And on the front end, a digital customer experience was not as robust as it was in person. For example, early-stage digital government offered citizens access to forms online, which was convenient. But if someone had a question, there was no mechanism for in-person follow-up or an immediate response. […]
As Democrats in the House and Senate reconcile differences on the slimmed-down $1.75 billion budget reconciliation bill that funds “soft” infrastructure priorities, some tech and cyber-related provisions have fallen out of the bill or had their funding levels slashed, while others made new appearances into the latest draft of the bill, which has been cut down from its original $3.5 trillion price tag. […]
Legislative and Federal policy efforts are coming together to focus on protecting the top-most tiers of critical infrastructure in the United States, top officials from the House and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) agreed today. […]
Intelligent automation is quickly changing the landscape of healthcare, medical research, and health services by enabling the automatic classification, extraction, and enrichment of information. This is helping agencies provide a better experience for patients, cutting back on costs, and reducing turnaround time, according to Federal health experts at a FedInsider virtual event Oct. 28. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published cybersecurity guidance to securely build and configure cloud infrastructures in support of 5G. […]
The future of developing the Federal cybersecurity workforce could rely on apprenticeships to fill the talent pipeline and improve retention in cyber roles. […]
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) President Amy Gilliland explained how the company is tackling the industry-wide talent crisis at GDIT’s Women + Technology virtual event on October 26. […]
In addition to facing cyber threats from nation-states, both government and private organizations have been the victims of an increased volume of ransomware attacks from criminal organizations over the last two years. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official emphasized this week that organizations need to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity on their systems in order to guard against the uptick in ransomware attacks. […]
The threat landscape has shifted drastically amid the COVID-19 pandemic as more and more organizations and governments deal with emerging cyberattacks and ransomware threats. Pure Storage, an IT leader delivering a portfolio of modern data solutions and services, has continued to provide organizations with innovative solutions to mitigate these threats with its portfolio of data protection tools. […]
Chris Inglis, the nation’s first-ever National Cyber Director, is building out his office with an inaugural strategic intent statement, as well as the addition of Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha who will have a dual designation as the deputy national cyber director for Federal cybersecurity. […]
The Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 program office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently released its TIC 3.0 remote user case document, and a TIC 3.0 Cloud Use Case document is also in the works, program lead and CISA Senior Cybersecurity Architect Sean Connelly said today. […]
As Federal agencies approach the six-month mark since President Biden issued his Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) in May, Federal officials are pointing to the zero trust, supply chain risk management, and data aspects of the EO as the greatest opportunities to make a difference in shoring up security. […]