The SolarWinds software supply chain hack represented a seismic shift in cybersecurity awareness for public and private sector organizations. The attack, which compromised thousands of organizations, including at least nine Federal agencies – laid bare the reality that organizations may be compromised even if they don’t know it yet, and even if they are diligent about cybersecurity. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it has launched what it is describing as the “country’s largest effort to close the homework gap,” and has opened the application window for $7.17 billion of funding through the agency’s Emergency Connectivity Fund. […]

The recent Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity directs agencies to move to zero trust security architectures, in which no person or device is automatically trusted. However, many agencies were already well on their way to zero trust, said Drew Epperson, senior director of Federal engineering and chief architect for Palo Alto Networks Federal. In a new MeriTV interview, Epperson addresses the current state of zero trust in the Federal government and offers practical steps agencies can take to accelerate zero trust adoption. […]

In light of recent cyberattacks against Federal agencies, the Department of Defense (DoD) is increasing its requirements for private sector contractors to ensure they are adequately securing and protecting contractor and DoD data. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced an interagency agreement to coordinate the distribution of Federal broadband deployment funds. […]

Jen Easterly will be confirmed as the next director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) when the Senate reconvenes on July 12, according to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a request for information (RFI) to identify potential vendors to support the secure and reliable operation of the dot-gov top-level domain (TLD). […]

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., introduced bipartisan legislation on July 1 that would create a cyber training program for Federal employees, aimed to help protect the Federal government against cyberattacks and supply chain security vulnerabilities. […]

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) said July 1 that cloud security provider Zscaler, Google Cloud, and McAfee Public Sector have successfully completed Secure Cloud Management (SCM) prototypes as part of a year-long process under which DIU has been evaluating service offerings that “deliver fast, secure, and controlled access by DIU users to software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps directly over the internet.” […]

The United States remains the global leader in cyber capabilities, retaining its “clear superiority” over other nations, but China may soon leave the “second-tier” of cyber power with its growing digital infrastructure, according to a new report. […]

As more Federal employees are going back to the office, there are efforts to understand the impact telework had. According to a recent survey, one effect was a substantial boost in productivity, as 79 percent of Federal employees found their productivity increased while teleworking during the pandemic, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) found. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in summarized testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee on July 1, said the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made much progress in recent years to address GAO recommendations on improving cybersecurity, but still has a significant to-do list to tackle on the security front. […]

With the expected release of the next FITARA Scorecard now just weeks away, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official with deep knowledge of the scorecard-making process talked about the success that the exercise has had in boosting the roles of chief information officers at Federal agencies, and adjusting along with changing Federal IT priorities. […]

While cybersecurity has been a hot topic stateside for years, a survey from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) finds that many national governments around the world also are increasingly engaged, with about half of them having adopted national cyber incident response plans – a figure that has risen 11 percent since 2018.  […]

The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) has released an updated version of the R311 policy document, which outlines the requirements for all FedRAMP recognized third-party assessment organizations (3PAOs) and organizations seeking A2LA accreditation to be recognized by FedRAMP. […]

NASA awarded a $2.5 billion IT and telecommunications services contract for Advanced Enterprise Global Information Technology Solutions (AEGIS) to Leidos, according to an agency announcement. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and NASA received high marks from employees on the Partnership for Public Service’s (PPS) 2020 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) believes it has enough IT funding this year to slowly start reducing its technical debt for the first time, agency leaders said today during a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing on the fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) VA IT budget. […]

The House Appropriations Committee agreed with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) $4.8 billion IT systems budget request for Fiscal Year 2022, but cut $26 million from the VA’s request for funding for its electronic health records (EHR) project. […]

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) puts veterans’ sensitive information and facility security at risk by not following requirements about documenting personal identity verification (PIV) cards returned by contract personnel. […]

Reps. Bill Foster, D-Ill., John Katko, R-N.Y., Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., have introduced legislation that aims to modernize the United States’ digital identity infrastructure and protect Americans from having their personal information stolen. […]

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., have introduced a bill that would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to study the risks and benefits of allowing private organizations to respond in kind to cyberattacks. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued new guidance for implementing the first part of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act), with an emphasis from the White House for agencies to build a culture of evidence. […]

Data is at the center of the new race for technological superiority, however, data without analytics, automation, and technical know-how are just numbers on a page. Agencies need new approaches and on June 30 at a ‘Getting Gov the Right Data Skills’ webinar, Federal data experts revealed one method is to upskill an agency’s data workforce. […]

Defense Department Acting CIO John Sherman emphasized the Pentagon’s firm intent to move further toward adopting cloud infrastructures and zero trust security concepts at a June 29 hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., along with 17 other Democrats, sent a letter to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee pressing them to include a 3.2 percent pay increase for Federal employees in their FY2022 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill, as opposed to supporting the current 2.7 percent pay raise. […]

For once, the biggest problem with engineering effective IT modernization may not boil down to a lack of money to tackle the job. That conclusion was a top-line takeaway from Republicans, Democrats, and private sector experts at a hearing of the House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing today on how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed state and local governments’ antiquated IT systems, and what governments should do about it now that pandemic conditions are easing in many areas. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is developing a catalog of bad practices in cybersecurity to help critical infrastructure providers prioritize their cybersecurity responsibilities. The agency plans to keep updating the narrow list based on feedback from cybersecurity professionals. […]

After a year of high-profile cyberattacks on government and private sector infrastructure that have raised the profile of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the House Appropriations Committee is proposing a substantial funding bump for CISA in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) budget. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is looking to develop practices that will ease the migration from public-key cryptographic algorithms to replacement algorithms that are resistant to quantum computer-based attacks. […]