Achieving effective cybersecurity relies on experts from all corners of an enterprise – network systems administrators, cloud experts, data stewards, cybersecurity officers, and more. Making all of those parts work right together makes cybersecurity the ultimate team sport, and it requires all levels of an organization to understand and avoid risks to a network, said Steven Hernandez the chief information security officer (CISO) for the Department of Education (DoE). […]
The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program – for several years a bedrock asset in the government’s bid to improve Federal agency cybersecurity – is having a decisive impact in furthering agency work on requirements of the Biden administration’s year-old Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO), new research findings from MeriTalk shows. Long before the 2021 Cyber […]
The 107 conferees assigned to hash out the differences between the House and Senate-passed semiconductor manufacturing, innovation, and competition bills met for the first time May 12 to officially kick off the conferencing process and begin to stake out their priorities for the final bill. […]
Keith Jones, the State Department’s chief information officer (CIO), will be stepping down from his post after 16 months to return to the private sector, a department spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has released a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for its $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program that will provide broadband access grants to underserved or unserved communities. […]
Joyce E. Corell has been appointed as the new acting Deputy National Cyber Director for Technology and Ecosystem. […]
The United States on May 12 signed onto an expanded version of the Budapest Convention that governs international cooperation against cyber crime, and that in its expanded form will allow for easier collection of cross-border electronic evidence. […]
Federal authorities are cautioning employers about using tools like artificial intelligence (AI) in employment decisions because it could impede access to opportunities for people with disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). […]
Larry Grossman, Director of Information Security and Privacy Services at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), explained this week that his organization’s priorities for improving cybersecurity run the gamut from the latest in zero trust work, to the more traditional but necessary steps to improve cyber hygiene across the board. […]
As the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) program looks to transition to Revision 5 (Rev. 5) baselines – in accordance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Rev. 5 security and privacy controls – Acting Director of FedRAMP Brian Conrad said the agency has been able to decrease the number of controls for improved usability. […]
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency should look to improve how it has been categorizing drug seizure data and evaluating training, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a new report. […]
A significant share of Federal cybersecurity leaders are turning to dynamic application security testing (DAST) to speed the secure development of web applications, shown in new research from MeriTalk and Invicti, a developer of web application security technologies. […]
The House of Representatives approved a pair of bills May 10 to bolster Federal cybersecurity by creating a Federal cybersecurity rotational workforce program and developing a training program for Federal officials with supply chain risk management responsibilities. […]
House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today he is looking for final congressional approval in the near term for legislation he has championed for the past several years that would codify into Federal law the General Services Administration’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The program certifies the security of cloud technologies for Federal government use. […]
The House of Representatives voted on May 11 to approve H.R. 847 – the Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act, by a margin of 401-19. […]
Open source software could be the key to modernizing and updating the Department of Defense’s (DoD) weapons and communications systems with software patches and updates, according to U.S. Air Force CIO Lauren Knausenberger. […]
A key House lawmaker is continuing to press the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for transparency amid reports of possible service changes and ongoing performance issues with the agency’s new electronic health records (EHR) system. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued the 2022 Federal Workforce Priorities Report, in which it asks agencies to choose two workforce priorities from a list of four to focus on until the next edition of the report scheduled for 2026. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will undergo a change in leadership later this year, as DIU Director Michael Brown plans to retire when his current term ends September 2, a DoD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
Can technology innovation – coupled with the boldest kind of leadership – work together to start fixing the most intractable problems facing America? On July 21 – we’re going to find out. The countdown to MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum is on. In the lead-up to the event, we are table-setting a host of big […]
The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is testing and getting ready to deploy a new artificial intelligence matching application aimed at finding talented military personnel who can take on short-term assignments supporting a variety of Defense Department (DoD) projects. […]
The Biden Administration is continuing to build out its still-nascent Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) with three new senior additions to the team including a prominent executive from Microsoft and a former official from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). […]
The White House today announced its plans for a cross-agency effort to speed the permitting process for items in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including broadband deployment. […]
Top U.S Army leaders told senators today they are confident in the service branch’s modernization funding priorities for the Fiscal Year 2023 Defense Authorization Request, while Republican committee members advocated for a further boost in Army funding. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint cybersecurity advisory on May 11 – along with Federal law enforcement partners and international allies – that warns of an increase in malicious cyber activity targeting managed service providers (MSPs). […]
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today voted to approve the National Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Supply Chain Database Act of 2021, and the Network Equipment Transparency Act. […]
While the COVID-19 pandemic caused millions of students to have their education disrupted during the 2020-2021 school year, teachers have since reported finding limited strategies that could be helpful in mitigating learning loss, the Federal government’s top watchdog agency said in a new report. […]
New legislation introduced by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., aims to tighten up oversight of Federal agency performance goals, and publish more public data to help track how agencies are performing against stated goals. […]
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has identified concerns with IRS payment programs including inaccurate assessment of risk for the U.S. Coronavirus Economic Impact Payment program, the Sick and Paid Family Leave, Credit and the Employee Retention Tax Credit, along with self-employment income reporting to the Social Security Administration (SSA). […]
Cybersecurity services provider CrowdStrike said today it has identified a sophisticated post-exploitation framework that was first detected in 2021 and that has been observed in multiple victim environments in geographically distinct locations – with intrusions spanning technology, academic, and government sectors. […]