Senators Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced bipartisan legislation that would mandate the Department of Treasury and other Federal entities to review the use and mining of cryptocurrencies globally, and submit a detailed report on the issue to multiple congressional committees. […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted on October 6 to advance three Biden administration nominations to the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB). The committee’s action sends the nominations to the full Senate for consideration. […]

As part of a broader effort to enhance national security efforts at the agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced the creation of a new chief technology officer (CTO) position, and a new Transnational and Technology Mission Center. […]

Senators and healthcare IT experts raised concerns this week that many in the United States cannot benefit from the recent boom in telehealth services because of a lack of affordable high-speed internet access across the country. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released version 1.0 of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 Remote User Use Case to provide guidance on securely implementing and configuring specific platforms, services, and environments. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program has been under fire in recent months after two VA Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) reports revealed program missteps and underreported, unreported, or unknown program costs. In response, the VA pledged to provide a full lifecycle cost estimate of the program – which Congress wanted to see within 90 days – but a VA official said today that the cost estimate will take at least 12 months to complete. […]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., introduced a bicameral bill this week that would require ransomware victims to report to the government when they have paid a ransom, with an aim of bolstering the flow of critical cybersecurity data. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is looking at government-wide telecommunications and IT acquisitions worth $100 million to ensure that climate risk is addressed in the supply chains for those services.   […]

The White House will host an international ransomware gathering next week aimed at improving international cooperation among governments in the fight against ransomware-driven cyberattacks, said Jeff Greene, chief of cyber response and policy for the White House’s National Security Council. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has completed the market research phase for its proposed multi-vendor Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) cloud contract, which the Pentagon announced in July following its decision to cancel the single-vendor $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud services contract. […]

Paul Cunningham, chief information security officer (CISO) at the Department of Veterans (VA), explained this week how the agency is addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities to protect its users and their health care and financial data as the agency has turned increasingly to providing telehealth services for veterans. […]

In light of this year’s cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline and other critical infrastructure targets in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) component is prepping a new cybersecurity directive covering “high-risk” railroad operations, according to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.  […]

With an increased focus on cybersecurity after a spate of high-profile cyberattacks on U.S. government and business organizations since late last year, members of Congress are continuing to call for a clearly defined national cyber deterrent policy. Three prime movers on cybersecurity legislation Congress – Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Reps. John Katko, R-N.Y., and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. – explained the need to codify a cyber deterrence policy at the Aspen Cyber Summit Oct. 6. […]

Reps. John Katko, R-N.Y., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., introduced a bipartisan bill in the House this week that aims to protect systemically important critical infrastructure (SICI) from cyberattacks. […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted today to approve the Cyber Incident Reporting Act, which would require critical infrastructure operators to report cyberattacks to the Federal government, and require most government and business entities to report to the government if they make a ransomware payment. […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted unanimously today to advance for full Senate consideration of a bill that would extensively overhaul the 2014 version of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) that sets cybersecurity requirements for Federal civilian agencies. […]

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has successfully enrolled all Department of Defense (DoD) service members, civilians, and contractors with a security clearance, meaning that 3.6 million people are now in DCSA’s continuous vetting program. […]

In September, the Department of the Treasury took a series of actions to combat ransomware, including sanctioning a virtual currency exchange for facilitating financial transactions for ransomware actors. Treasury’s actions follow a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security directive requiring owners and operators of TSA-designated critical pipelines to protect against ransomware attacks, and discussions between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin about ransomware attacks from Russian soil. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven home the importance of international collaboration in science to solve global problems, and witnesses at a House Space, Science, and Technology Committee hearing on October 5 emphasized the importance of balancing the benefits of open collaboration in science with the pressing need for information security in the research enterprise. […]

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said today the Department of Justice (DoJ) is launching two new initiatives to combat cyber threats, including the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and a civil cyber fraud initiative that will fine Federal contractors who don’t follow required cybersecurity standards. […]

The House on September 29 passed the K-12 Cybersecurity Act – a piece of bipartisan legislation from Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., with a companion bill in the House led by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. The bill has already been approved by the Senate, and has been sent to the White House for President Biden’s signature. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has created a new Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC), and has named Sharon Woods, the executive director of DISA’s Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO), as the HaCC acting director, a DISA spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Responsible AI Lead at the Joint AI Center (JAIC), Alka Patel, left her post Oct. 1, she announced in a LinkedIn post. […]

The $1 billion of new funding that the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) received earlier this year under the American Rescue Plan Act was welcomed by chief information officers (CIOs) from numerous agencies, but many CIOs are saying the new infusion of money is not enough for IT modernization needs. […]

Federal IT leaders are balancing IT spend and project prioritization while trying to drive digital transformation to modernize government operations and meet the needs of the American people. It’s a monumental task, made even more challenging in disparate and siloed working environments. Taking a holistic approach to digital transformation in government requires a shift in mindsets. […]

Federal CIO Clare Martorana emphasized today that the road to Federal agency IT improvements runs not only through agency CIO offices, but also needs to benefit from support from the entire organization’s executive suite.   […]

All civilian employees of the Department of Defense (DoD) have until November 22 to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded Peraton a nearly $2.7 billion dollar contract to aid the agency’s move to the cloud, according to an Oct. 4 award announcement posted to SAM.gov. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is streamlining its sprawling case management system into a single, digital system. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGA) report, the program has struggled to meet user expectations and accessibility requirements mandated by law. […]

The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have unveiled their long-awaited legislation to update the 2014 Federal Information Security Modernization Act that provides cybersecurity marching orders to Federal civilian agencies. […]