Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
CISA

Jaime Noble, CISO and Director of IT Security at the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), explained this week how the organization is moving away from legacy systems as well as integrating ICAM systems for government grant funding at the (DoJ). […]

Several Defense Department (DoD) officials have called the transition from prototype to full-scale production within DoD’s acquisition process one of DoD’s biggest problems, including Stefanie Tompkins, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), calling it a “full-contact sport.”  […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released cloud use case guidance for its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 program, the agency announced on June 16. […]

As many U.S. technologies rely on critical minerals, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is recommending Federal agencies update the national strategy for ensuring secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals to align with recent advancements. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is winning rave reviews from cybersecurity practitioners who are working to improve Federal civilian agency security. CDM has the potential to become even more crucial to the cyber fight once its latest generation of technologies are fully leveraged. […]

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (NCD) has made a few new recent hires to staff up the office and support the office’s mission. […]

NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has selected an 18th cybersecurity firm – PC Matic – to participate in its Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) project. […]

A Federal judge in D.C. on June 7 gave preliminarily approval to a $63 million settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by victims of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breaches in 2014 and 2015 that rocked the government cybersecurity community and exposed data on millions of Federal employees to Chinese state-sponsored hackers. […]

DoD

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded BWX Technologies a $300 million contract to build the prototype for the first mobile nuclear microreactor built in the United States, titled Project Pele, the company announced June 9. […]

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) zero trust memo issued earlier this year, M-22-09, directed Federal agencies to migrate to zero trust security architectures, but a White House official this week said agencies’ success in that effort will look different for the policy’s various directives. […]

As the market for non-fungible tokens (NFT) grows – with NFT revenue now expected to exceed $130 billion by 2030 – the Federal will need additional expertise to address the policy and regulatory needs of the market required to best protect consumers, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. […]

General Services Administration GSA

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is continuing to press the General Services Administration (GSA) for progress on a recommendation that the agency needs to work on ensuring “that street address information in the public database is complete and correctly formatted” for its Federal Property Management area. […]

IRS

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added five new priority recommendations for action to the to-do list of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including new items related to improving taxpayer services and reducing tax fraud. […]

What Happened This Week - Ep. 70
cybersecurity

The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee today approved a homeland security budget print for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that includes $2.93 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), representing a $334 million increase from FY2022 and a $417 million increase over the requested amount. […]

As the digital assets market continues to grow, the White House has placed “urgency” on researching a potential U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and the cybersecurity risks and benefits that come with it, according to a White House official. […]

AI

The National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force – established by the Biden administration in June 2021 to determine the viability of establishing a NAIRR and develop a roadmap to establishing the resource – is working toward delivering its final report in December. […]

DoD

President Biden is nominating Radha Iyengar Plumb to serve as the next Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, the White House announced June 15. Plumb currently serves as the chief of staff for the Deputy Secretary of Defense and has a history in industry, as well. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on June 15 approved legislation that would modernize Federal telework programs and promote additional data collection about the benefits of telework.  The bill now heads to the full House for consideration. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) said today it is targeting $100 million of nearer-term funding awards to Federal agencies that want to undertake projects to improve customer experiences with the government. […]

Preparing for a potential cyberattack enables agencies to regain the use of critical systems and infrastructures as soon as possible after a crisis. However, according to Federal leaders, the human element of any cyber preparedness plan remains a top challenge. […]

cybersecurity

The United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) is responsible for the nation’s joint cyber warfighting architecture, and its executive director said this week that additional budget authorities extended to the command under the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will allow for more aligned joint training and advanced training of cyber operators, according to the CYBERCOM Executive Director. […]

funding

Draft fiscal year 2023 spending legislation released by the House Appropriations Committee today contains $100 million of new money for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) – far below the $300 million asked for by President Biden earlier this year in his FY2023 budget request. […]

Some of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) major IT acquisition business programs lack approved cybersecurity strategies and have failed to develop plans to address ICT supply chain risks, as well as report operational performance data to the Federal IT Dashboard, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

Department of Education logo
FCC, Chinese suppliers

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce today voted to approve the Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022 (H.R. 7624) which will provide clarity on the auctioning of low gigahertz spectrum mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, while also directing up to $3.4 billion of proceeds from the auction to help pay for communications service providers to “rip and replace” untrusted IT equipment from their networks. […]

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense voted to approve today by voice vote a full-committee draft released earlier this week for proposed fiscal year 2023 defense funding, including includes $11.2 billion for cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and cyber research and development. […]

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