The Department of Commerce (DOC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported that the Census Bureau was hacked in early 2020 via a publicly available exploit. But the attack was only partially successful in that the attackers’ attempts to maintain access to the system by creating a backdoor in the affected servers were unsuccessful. […]
The United States Air Force (USAF) on August 17 named Jay Bonci – a private sector cybersecurity veteran – as the service branch’s next chief technology officer (CTO), according to a post by Bonci. […]
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) authorization journey can sometimes be a confusing one to navigate, but experts agree that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) formats are helping to speed the FedRAMP approval process. […]
Federal agencies need to think about IT modernization as a continuous process rather than as an isolated strategy, said Federal IT experts during a virtual webinar hosted by Federal News Network on August 18. […]
Federal agency demand for cloud service products in the General Services Administration’s (GSA) FedRAMP marketplace showed a 60 percent year-over-year jump in the first half of Fiscal Year 2021, as agencies continued their move to cloud services in order to deal with pandemic-driven tech needs and IT modernization priorities. […]
The IRS is looking to utilize augmented reality (AR) or a comparable version of extended reality (XR) technology to improve taxpayers’ experience with additional information when they point their mobile device at any IRS form or image. […]
With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the work landscape, potentially forever, cybersecurity officials are advising that workplaces prepare to build resiliency into these hybrid work landscapes and make sure they are working strategically to secure the connections. […]
As the school year gets underway, the K-12 Cybersecurity Act passed in the Senate. […]
Further use of emerging technologies marks the path forward for the intelligence community to uncover more compelling evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFO), and to learn more about their meaning and intent, former Federal government officials said at NextGov’s technology summit on August 17. […]
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to provide a stubborn barrier to full-fledged office workplace returns for many Federal agencies, the Commerce Department’s chief information security officer (CISO) spoke on August 17 about paying attention to human-centric aspects of security in the development of next-generation workplaces. […]
While the pace of cloud service adoption and movement toward multi-cloud environments has accelerated during the pandemic era, Federal government and private sector experts said that progress was made possible by years of investment in the technology and that taking advantage of cloud environments now is all about being strategic. […]
Data management at the edge comes with various opportunities, but plenty of challenges for Federal agencies, including a shortage of data and analytics professionals in the workforce. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working on a remote telepresence technology that will transform the way veterans receive their healthcare and soon allow all veterans to receive the same level of care, no matter where they live, according to a top VA official and doctor. […]
Wireless service provider T-Mobile USA confirmed reports that hackers succeeded in gaining unauthorized access to some of its data, but said it was too early to tell whether that involved any “personal customer data.” […]
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching a new Civil Rights Management System (CRMS) to manage civil rights discrimination complaints against its programs and partners. The new system will replace the agency’s current Program Complaints Management System. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is finalizing a rule that would allow Federal agencies to hire college students more easily into the Federal workforce, according to a rule being finalized August 17. […]
Ransomware attacks are on the rise and as adversaries mount more sophisticated attacks, government and private institutions need to advance their cyber strategies as well in order to not become easy targets. […]
Congratulations go out to CIOs and tech staffs from the General Services Administration (GSA) for top score – and to the Department of the Interior (DoI) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) for most improved scores – on the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA 12.0 Scorecard issued on July 28. […]
According to a request for information (RFI) posted to SAM.gov, the General Services Administration (GSA) wants to improve data collection, analysis, and transparency around government IT purchases and is looking for a vendor to support this broad effort. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching a “pathfinder assessment” to look into a cybersecurity compliance program for its supply chain base – similar to the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program that has been in the works for more than two years. […]
Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the appointment of three new members to the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC), which provides expertise for local, state, and Tribal governments. […]
Security is essential for organizations that rely on data centers. However, a new white paper from Data Centre Dynamics says that many organizations don’t understand that the most pervasive threats may come from where they least expect them. […]
With the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and a $3.5 trillion budget resolution now passed in the Senate, the House is looking for ways to combine votes the two pieces of legislation in order to speed up the process of approving them, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an August 15 Dear Colleague Letter. […]
As the ink is still drying – or its equivalent for a liquid crystal display screen – on the 12th edition of the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard, I pondered the question about whether and how the same measurement could be applied to state-level IT operations and progress. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has appointed Paul Courtney Chief Procurement Officer for the agency, effective August 15, 2021. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is looking for commercial solutions to counter Global Positioning System (GPS) spoofing of DoD’s global navigation satellite system (GNSS) by nation-state adversaries, according to a request for solutions DIU posted. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a five-year $979 million contract to Peraton to counter misinformation specifically originating from adversaries of the United States. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – which has already made much use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to provide more efficient, effective, and responsive services for its users – is also working on an AI trustworthiness framework that aims to avoid biases that can result from use of the technology, explained a VA official during a virtual GovLoop training on August 12. […]
John Costello has a new position at the Office of the National Cyber Director, serving as chief of staff, according to his LinkedIn. […]
The Senate is on break until September 15, but while on recess major committees will be working on legislative language for the $3.5 trillion budget resolution passed August 11. While the bill largely looks to tackle “soft infrastructure” and climate change, there are a variety of tech objectives in the resolution as well. […]