FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she plans to have commissioners vote at the agency’s July 13 meeting on a report and order to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The program – worth nearly $1.9 billion – is intended to help network service providers replace equipment in their networks made by China-based Huawei, ZTE, and any other providers that the Federal government may deem as risky to national security. […]

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to move forward on solutions for the agency’s enterprise cloud needs perhaps within the next month, as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud services contract continues to be stalled in litigation. […]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a solicitation for collaboration efforts on the design, implementation, and operation of a nationwide geographic information system (GIS) data store as a means to create and adopt technical and operational requirements for a national interconnected 911 landscape. […]

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) data-sharing strategy is currently undergoing a “posture review” to review current gaps and vulnerabilities as part of its implementation phase, a DoD official said June 21. […]

A bevy of bills recently introduced in both the Senate and the House aim to help increase access to telehealth services, and establish a $50 million virtual health pilot program within the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that while the Department of Defense (DoD) has taken some risk management actions to better defend its inventory management systems against cyber threats, it should take additional steps to make them more secure. […]

On today’s episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s John Curran speaks with Al Ford, Federal AI Alliances Manager at Dell Technologies, about Federal AI readiness and challenges. Ford shares ideas on the most helpful steps from a technology, infrastructure, and workforce perspective. […]

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said today that the Pentagon will be rolling out a new AI and Data Accelerator Initiative (AIDA Initiative) within the next 90 days as part of the Defense Department’s (DoD) Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy. […]

New legislation introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, would create a 25 percent tax credit for investments in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductors and further the aims of a major push in Congress to stimulate domestic growth in that sector. […]

With the focus turning to securing critical infrastructure and a backdrop of an increased number of cyberattacks, a survey of the cybersecurity in the water and waste management sector shows a number of facilities with incomplete cybersecurity programs, the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) found in an April 2021 study. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) has issued new cybersecurity guidance that covers best practices and mitigations to help secure Unified Communications (UC) and Voice and Video over IP (VVoIP) call-processing systems. […]

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to ensure that schools nationwide are aware that they can use Federal funding from COVID-19 relief bills to improve cybersecurity. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $495 million contract to Verizon to provide high-speed and secure network services to assist the agency’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) and Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN). […]

The journey for an agency to modernize its data management strategy with the cloud begins with having a plan and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have both plans and projects in motion to modernize their data. […]

As vaccination rates increase and the United States nears closer to a broader return to offices, Federal IT officials in the Department of Defense (DoD) are reporting that their organizations’ IT environment is more complex now than two years ago, according to a recent Axonius and MeriTalk survey. […]

Federal and private sector cybersecurity experts will be sharing their secrets to success on how Federal agencies can modernize their IT and cybersecurity posture at MeriTalk’s “Accelerating Success: How to Meet the Requirements of the Cybersecurity Executive Order” webinar on June 22 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. EDT. […]

A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced the International Cybercrime Prevention Act, which would give law enforcement tools to harden cyber defenses. […]

With numerous recent high-profile attacks, ransomware has been everpresent in the news and discourse around the nation’s cybersecurity. The threat landscape has evolved rapidly, with credit card hackers quickly turning the scheme into million-dollar ransoms in less than a decade. […]

The Senate confirmed Chris Inglis to become the nation’s first-ever National Cyber Director by voice vote June 17. The 28-year veteran of the National Security Agency (NSA) will now move to the executive branch to develop a national cyber strategy for the nation. […]

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) awarded the first phase of the 8(a) STARS III Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). This fourth-generation $50 billion contract primarily focuses on emerging technologies and performance outside of the continental United States. […]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the Final Rule for its Connecting Minority Communities (CMC) Pilot Program this week, to provide $268 million to historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs), and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to expand their broadband. […]

If 2020 was the year of the pandemic, then 2021 is shaping up as the year of the Big Hack. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is moving quickly on multiple tracks to harness cloud infrastructures to tackle a growing list of high-profile mission sets. Think global cloud strategies, DoD365 collaboration tools, multi-billion dollar AI development programs – and that’s just scratching the surface. […]

A nonprofit group is pushing for the creation of a National Advanced Industry and Technology Agency that would be responsible for creating policies to “ensure long-term U.S. advanced industry leadership,” according to a June 17 release. […]

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., reintroduced legislation today that would create the Data Protection Agency (DPA), which would serve as an independent Federal agency intended to safeguard Americans’ data and privacy and ensure fair and transparent data practices. […]

The cybersecurity executive order (EO) signed by President Joe Biden is requiring Federal agencies to make plans for implementing zero trust architectures to strengthen cybersecurity postures and the directive is being largely seen as a positive by agency experts. […]

The United States has some of the most significant cyber capabilities in the world, but Department of Defense (DoD) leaders today agreed that cybersecurity is an area where the United States is “vulnerable” and still has “a lot more work to do” when it comes to developing cyber capabilities. […]

As Federal agencies transition to all-Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) systems, having solid security policies and determining how security teams can monitor the IPv6 transition is essential to fully implementing steps to complete the transition, IT industry officials said on June 16. […]

While the Federal government certifies cloud vendors as secure through the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), an official at the Government Accountability Organization (GAO) shared striking statistics about agencies going outside of the program for cloud vendors, which can lead to vulnerabilities. […]

President Biden said today that he spent “a great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their three-hour summit meeting held June 16, and central to that discussion was President Biden’s assertion that critical infrastructure should be off limits to any attacks. […]