Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., along with 16 House colleagues in a Dec. 7 letter, called on Senate and House appropriators to prioritize funding for broadband infrastructure projects and reject proposed cuts included in the Senate version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 funding bill. […]

Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Office chief Sean Connelly said Dec. 8 that his office remains on track to issue several additional use cases over the coming months for the TIC 3.0 security initiative that Federal agencies can employ to advance their security postures. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) released its request for proposals for the Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract, an $11 billion, 10-year contract that will be key to IT modernization and consolidation among the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Fourth Estate agencies. […]

The House of Representatives will vote Dec. 9 on a one-week extension of the continuing budget resolution (CR) which is set to run out on Dec. 11 – avoiding an imminent Federal government shutdown for a lack of funding.  […]

The House of Representatives has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2021 today. The bill passed with a veto-proof majority, undercutting President Trump threats on Twitter to veto the ‘must-pass’ legislation. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced its new Hacking for Homeland Security (H4HS) Program today, which aims to leverage university students to take new approaches and create unique solutions for agency-identified issues. […]

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is soliciting public comment through Feb. 1, 2021, on a proposed rule for the permanent digitization of public records. The agency – which publicly posted the proposed rule on Dec. 1 – said the measure is integral to civilian agencies going fully paperless by December 2022. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) released a cybersecurity alert on Dec. 7 warning that state-sponsored hackers based in Russia have been attacking remote workspaces and exploiting a vulnerability in a suite of VMware products. […]

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Integrated Award Environment (IAE) program consolidates separate systems into the beta.SAM.gov website, but on April 26, 2021, the current SAM.gov will be integrated into the modernized beta.SAM.gov environment – with the term ‘beta’ being retired. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released draft guidance targeted at cloud service providers (CSPs) to help them protect application containers in multi-tenant environments, taking a hardware-based approach to security. […]

Following the 11th hour exclusion of his bill to codify the Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program (FedRAMP) into law from must-pass defense legislation, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said he’s interested in giving the measure another push after the 117th Congress begins in January 2021. […]

President Trump signed the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act into law Dec. 7. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has created a new webpage for the transition to the incoming Biden administration and the 117th Congress which begins in January. […]

Google today announced its Google Workspace for Government product, a cloud-based system that aims to meet the needs of public sector customers by providing Google Cloud collaboration and communication tools to Federal customers.  The service will become available early next year. […]

Google Cloud said today it has reached an agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to modernize initial flight training for Air Force pilots through the use of cloud technology. USAF will host its immersive training devices (ITDs) on Google Cloud, which will help scale the project to thousands […]

President-elect Joe Biden said today he will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The nomination will be subject to Senate confirmation. Becerra is a former member of Congress and would become the first Latino to head HHS. […]

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading a bipartisan group of 49 members of Congress urging Senate and House leadership to include in end-of-year legislation language to make permanent Medicare telehealth expansions that were enacted earlier this year. […]

There’s nothing more important in the Federal Trade Commission’s mission than consumer protection. A recent upgrade to the agency’s consumer fraud reporting site that focuses on eliciting more precise – and thus more valuable – data from fraud victims is benefiting not only ripped-off consumers, but also the larger law enforcement community that depends on the same data to combat criminal activity. […]

Microsoft announced a new cloud service today that will help serve U.S. government customers with Top Secret classified data. […]

As the coronavirus pandemic hits the nine-month mark in December – and infection rates soar across the United States – telework remains mostly in place for most of the Federal government workforce whose jobs can be done offsite. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is looking to implement an enterprise “grey network” to enable Department of Defense (DoD) components to securely support classified remote programs, a DISA official explained. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic moved the zero trust network security model from a theoretical discussion in many government agencies to a priority, government and industry executives said Dec. 3 during MeriTalk’s virtual CDM Central conference.  […]

Most Federal government agencies have made progress in improving key measures of operational resilience since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March, but many still have plenty of room for improvement in key categories. […]

House Republicans have named Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee for the 117th Congress that begins in January 2021. She succeeds retiring Rep. Greg Walden, D-Ore., and will become the first woman to hold a leadership role on the committee, which has a high profile on a variety of tech issues. […]

Cybersecurity leaders in Washington are rejoicing as the proposed 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes the creation of a Senate-confirmed National Cyber Director for the executive branch, among a host of other security provisions. However, while both Senate and House leadership have signed off on the bill, its future remains uncertain as President Trump has threatened via Twitter to veto the legislation. […]

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) completed a website redesign for ease of access on Dec. 3, according to a press release from FDIC OIG communications specialist Caitlin McDaniel. The site houses audits, investigations, and reports completed by the department, and now includes filters to sort through those reports easier. The site is also home to joint press releases with the Department of Justice about investigations into the banking sector. […]

Meritalk’s CDM Central Cyber Defenders conference kicked off Dec. 3 with a conversation between VMware’s Garrett Lee and Steven Hernandez, Chief Information Security Officer at the Department of Education (DoEd). […]

Even as we enter the winter months, advances in IT continue to heat up as we anticipate the potential benefits and challenges of emerging technologies. Top of mind is the future promise of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize government, but less discussed is the possibility of a freeze in AI productivity – a result of insufficient data sets or security concerns that prevent data sharing. […]

President Trump signed an executive order (EO) on Dec. 3 that sets forth guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for Federal civilian agencies, and a roadmap to implementing those guidelines that will out-last the current administration set to depart on January 20. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program won praise from tech-sector officials at MeriTalk’s CDM Central virtual conference on Dec. 3. for its mostly unheralded work in helping Federal agencies make quick fixes to security during this year’s coronavirus pandemic. CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox offered insights as part of MeriTalk’s CIO Crossroads program in June into how his office jumped in to help agencies in need. […]