As President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) stretches past its first year, Federal agencies are at varied points in their progress on the EO’s orders. Federal leaders say it is important for agencies to approach the EO’s zero trust components strategically and understand their networks as they make the move to a zero trust architecture. […]

Implementing an effective zero trust architecture within an agency’s security framework has become pivotal to achieving cyber resiliency within the Federal government. But to be successful in the implementation of a zero trust architecture there are several elements agencies must keep in mind, according to several cyber experts. […]

As the health care and education sectors have become prime targets for cyberattacks, experts from those sectors expressed their needs on May 18 for more funding and Federal collaboration to better protect the cyber posture of schools and hospitals. […]

The House Committee on Financial Services on May 17 voted to approve an amended version of H.R.7022 – the Strengthening Cybersecurity for the Financial Sector Act of 2022 – and send the bill to the full House of Representatives for consideration. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on May 17 issued a new advisory highlighting how cyber threat-actors are exploiting poor security configurations. […]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $622.5 million contract to provide Cybersecurity and Privacy Enterprise Solutions and Services (CyPrESS), NASA announced May 17.
The contract will have Booz Allen Hamilton supporting NASA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, providing CyPrESS and related services for the office. According to the release, the CyPrESS contract is the agency’s first enterprise cybersecurity and privacy services contract.
The award is a hybrid indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. The CyPrESS award will also consolidate the cybersecurity and privacy work done under previous enterprise IT contracts and various centers.
The contract has a base period that will run from May 31, 2022, until Sept. 30, 2023, with four option periods that can extend the contract through Sept. 30, 2030. […]

The Department of the Air Force is leveraging predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure timely and relevant data is delivered to warfighters that  allows them to operate effectively in challenging and stressing operational environments, the service branch’s data and AI lead said. […]

The Federal Communications Commission on May 17 committed another $50 million to the Emergency Connectivity Funding (ECF) program to help schools expand broadband access and purchase of devices for students – moves that the agency hopes will help close the “homework gap” for students that don’t have access to reliable broadband service and devices. […]

Recently MeriTalk sat down with Monzy Merza, vice president of cybersecurity go-to-market at Databricks, a data and artificial intelligence (AI) company that offers the first and only lakehouse platform in the cloud. Merza chatted about the implications and opportunities with M-21-31 and offered insights for successfully meeting its mandates. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today issued an emergency directive to Federal government civilian branch agencies running several VMware products to apply updates to those, or remove them from agency networks until updates can be made. […]

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., introduced legislation on May 16 that aims to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity protections for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) amid increased Russian cyber threats to ICS targets. […]

The Department of Education has named Margaret Glick as the new Chief Information Officer of the agency’s Federal Student Aid Office. […]

The House of Representatives passed the State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act on May 17, which would promote increased cybersecurity collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments (SLTT). […]

Department of Defense (DoD) information technology leaders and the warfighters they serve are incorporating edge computing, modern data tools, and emerging technologies to enable their missions today and prepare for tomorrow’s challenges, according to a senior U.S. Army IT official.  […]

White House science and technology officials are working to size up a host of challenges that will be posed in the coming years as quantum computing technologies become more mature, including migrating security technologies and attracting a stronger quantum science workforce to the United States. […]

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) works to update its influential Cybersecurity Framework – first issued in 2014 and later updated in 2018 – a NIST official said on May 17 that the agency is leaning on industry feedback as it embarks on the new update. […]

The Senate voted last week to confirm Susan Grundmann to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) with a 50-49 vote, giving Democrats control of the agency in charge of administering the labor-management relations program for more than two million non-postal Federal employees. […]

Federal government cybersecurity leaders told House members today that the government has made very significant progress in executing the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) issued a year ago, but also reminded lawmakers that funding is key to continued success in implementing crucial tenets of the order. […]

The House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology voted today to favorably report the Energy Cybersecurity Leadership Act of 2022 (H.R. 7569) to the full House for consideration. […]

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has named Kristin Seaver – who served as CIO at the United States Postal Service (USPS) from 2016 to 2020 – vice president of strategic client engagement. […]

With $1.3 trillion of investments to infrastructure projects on tap in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, National Cyber Director Chris Inglis today emphasized the importance of making sure each of those projects are made secure from a cyber perspective. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) has begun to gather feedback on a $2.5 billion investment to build out new power transmission infrastructure across the country using funds approved by Congress in bipartisan infrastructure legislation. […]

Rapidity of incident response and personnel training are high on the priority list at the Defense Department’s U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) as it grapples with implementing cybersecurity strategies, a TRANSCOM official said on May 12. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report laying out how the Federal government could save billions in spending and improve the efficiency of its programs and activities – with up to $21 billion of projected benefits for 2022 and beyond. […]

President Biden has nominated Laura Taylor-Kale to be the next assistant secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, the White House announced May 13. […]

In the lead-up to the in-person forum in Washington, D.C., we are table-setting a host of big issues that will get serious attention at MerITocracy 2022.  And lining up some big guns in Congress – Reps. Bill Foster, D-Ill, and Tom Emmer, R-Minn. – along with Chamber of Digital Commerce CEO Perianne Boring to point the way forward. […]

Several major technology organizations have pledged more than $30 million to bolster the security of open-source software. […]

A memorandum of understanding unveiled today between the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will help speed the transition to GSA contract vehicles for Federal civilian agencies a range of technologies that have already been successfully prototyped by DIU. […]

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform on May 11 voted to approve a bevy of bills that aim to help advance IT modernization and address government Federal workforce needs.  […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has updated its request for proposals (RFPs) for its Polaris small business-focused governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) vehicle, and is looking for industry feedback on the changes before reopening the RFPs. […]