President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nominees pledged their commitment to elevate the United States’ cybersecurity posture, in order to prevent future cyberattacks, during a May 27 Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs hearing. […]
Anne Neuberger, the White House deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies who is a driving force behind the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order issued earlier this month, today noted an initial “disappointment” with Federal network hygiene in a follow-up discussion about the broader aims of the order. […]
The recent Colonial Pipeline hack has made more people aware of the threats that lurk in cyberspace, and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, says it’s time for the government to develop a new relationship with the private sector on cybersecurity and take an all-of-society approach to protecting critical infrastructure. “The private sector has been very reluctant […]
In light of the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released a new directive requiring all critical pipeline owners and operators to report cyberattacks, DHS announced today. […]
The U.S. Army CIO has released a new policy for Internet of Things (IoT) device cybersecurity which mandates that all Army personnel who are approved to telework remove or turn off all IoT devices in their workspaces. […]
The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has released the long-awaited request for proposals (RFP) for the $50 billion Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) IT services contract. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) strategic review of the VA’s Electronic Health Records (EHR) program has found that the agency underestimated program costs by between $1 billion and $2.6 billion. […]
Legislation to establish a Blockchain Center of Excellence (CoE) within the Department of Commerce was reintroduced in the House on May 25. […]
Mark Munsell, deputy director of data and innovation at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the agency’s former CTO, is urging the Federal government to build cyber applications faster in order to out-compete adversaries, and to expand industry partnerships. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is working on a review about the Federal government’s security clearance operations that will both praise progress that the government has made over the past three years in reducing clearance application backlogs, and flag several continuing shortcomings that need fixing. […]
For government agencies and other organizations that face the daunting task of modernizing their IT systems to meet new and developing requirements, the greatest technical risk they face is maintaining the status quo. […]
If the COVID-19 pandemic brought any sort of silver lining, it might be that it pushed government to rapidly reimagine service delivery – putting efforts to digitize operations into overdrive. From expanding digital signatures to creating a virtual command center at the Small Business Administration to standing up and expanding telehealth resources at Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, examples of digital government response to the pandemic are prolific and varied. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Federal agencies to work remotely almost immediately, but Federal CIOs and CTOs agree that this shift to teleworking has enabled agencies to undergo a transformational cultural shift within the agency and provides more opportunities for innovation. […]
In a Senate Appropriations Committee review of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget request today, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized the importance of building resilience among the nation’s cybersecurity and the cyber workforce. […]
Connected cities are not just seeking ways to transform their technology infrastructure, but also looking to build a 21st-century workforce across critical sectors to meet the challenges of innovative transformation. During the ACT-IAC Emerging Technology and Innovation event today, IT officials from across the country spoke to how workforce scarcity is the real capital that’s […]
Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., led a bipartisan group of legislators in reintroducing the Ensuring National Constitutional Rights for Your Private Telecommunications (ENCRYPT) Act. […]
The Professional Services Council (PSC), which represents government contractors, urged Congress in a May 21 letter to include funding for cybersecurity and IT modernization in an upcoming infrastructure funding package that aligns with President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. […]
With the United States and the rest of the world emerging from the shadow of pandemic to reengage with whatever “normal” life brings next, demands for how government should provide vital services to citizens – and the IT resources needed to improve delivery of them – have changed the service equation for good. […]
President Biden announced today he plans to nominate Matt Olsen for Assistant Attorney General (AG) for the National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). […]
Keith Nakasone, the General Service Administration’s (GSA) IT Category Deputy Assistant Commissioner, will step down from his post on June 1, GSA confirmed to MeriTalk. In his place, Cheryl Thornton-Cameron will step into his role in an acting capacity. […]
A bill that would take action to block any future moves to assign Federal workers to newly created “excepted” service schedules was approved by the House Oversight and Reform Committee by voice vote on May 25 after some contentious debate. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee on May 25 approved by voice vote a bill introduced last month that would make sure that Federal agency CIOs – along with chief data, financial, and human capital officers – are involved in the process of how agency leaders form performance plans for their departments. […]
Dave Zvenyach, director of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization, said today he is aiming for TTS to help Federal agencies speed technology development in several areas. But he explained that in some cases, TTS assistance also takes the form of less tech-flashy work such as preparing agencies for new deployments by working through governance and policy issues. […]
Heidi Shyu, President Biden’s nominee for under secretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense (DoD), said today she wants the DoD to change its internal investment strategy and prioritize investments in emerging technologies over sustaining legacy systems. […]
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021 gave the Government Accountability Office (GAO) marching orders to complete a study of the United States cyber insurance market, and GAO’s findings reinforced a recommendation by the National Cyberspace Solarium Commission for Congress to create an agency specifically tasked with collecting better data. […]
A new report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) shows the agency is exposed to a “higher-than-necessary risk from cyber threats,” but a new contract shows promise for NASA to secure its systems more effectively. […]
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate on May 19 would require that the Department of Defense (DoD) pass a full independent audit beginning fiscal year (FY) 2022, and if each military branch and part of DoD fails to return clean audit results, it would return one percent of its budget to Treasury. […]
Federal CIO Clare Martorana hinted at possible changes coming to Federal telework policy and the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Federal Data Strategy during an address today at ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation virtual conference. […]
Having adopted the Defense Innovation Board’s (DIB) ethical AI principles last February, a senior official with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) provided an update today on how the department is approaching those principles a year later. […]
With more and more people putting their trust in cryptocurrencies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is beginning to research how to crack and decrypt crypto wallets that have been subject to seizure and forfeiture, according to a May 20 request for information (RFI) posted to SAM.gov. […]