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. […]

The Technology Transformation Services (TTS) office housed at the General Services Administration (GSA) is getting new leadership as current GSA CIO David Shive adds acting TTS Director to his curriculum vitae. […]

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox today discussed the possibility of a higher funding baseline for the CDM program in Fiscal Year 2022 that would allow the program through its DEFEND contract to tackle more security work for Federal agencies at a faster pace. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the Census Bureau to make a series of late-stage adjustments to the census design and these changes have opened risks to the “quality of data that the Bureau provides for apportioning congressional representation among the states.” […]

For the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to further narrow the pay gap for Federal workers, better quality data on promotions is needed as it is often incomplete. […]

As Federal agencies increasingly look to capitalize on the rich data they are collecting, they need to ensure their workforce is up to the challenge. However, many agencies are finding that their current workforce lacks the needed skills.  The Office of Management and Budget estimates that approximately 400,000 Federal employees will need to be reskilled by Fiscal Year 2021 – accounting for nearly 20 percent of the government’s current workforce. To help get the workforce they need in place, agencies are looking for ways to effectively retrain and reskill their workforce to enable an agency-wide digital transformation. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is making progress but has run into issues with the data that commercial capabilities report to its dashboards, making it difficult for the program to quickly pull insights from that data, said Judy Baltensperger, project manager for CDM program dashboard operations, today at MeriTalk’s CDM Central event. […]

How did the Defense Department (DoD) succeed in rolling out its commercial virtual remote (CVR) capability – in non-military speak, Office 365 – to the entire department in 30 days at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to meet the demand for widescale telework capabilities? […]

A Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN) official explained Nov.2 that some of the organization’s priorities in defending cloud-based services used by the Defense Department, and a range of the technologies involved in that effort. […]

The Trump Administration has expressed its support for a pay freeze for civilian Federal employees – a step back from the one percent pay raise that the White House proposed in its initial budget, and a move that has ramifications for budget negotiations between the House and the Senate. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching an inspector general (IG) investigation into Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) warrantless tracking of phones after an inquiry from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. […]

Peter Ranks has left his post as the deputy CIO for information enterprise at the Defense Department (DoD) to return to the CIA. […]

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said today they have reached agreement on provisions of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]

In a press release from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a bicameral agreement has been reached on the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), working in collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit, is seeing promising early results for pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19 among personnel. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should put a greater emphasis on data to best further advance category management and help leverage the Federal government’s buying power, save taxpayer dollars, and eliminate duplicative contracts. […]

The first steps of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) stronger approach to securing the defense industrial base take effect today, setting the stage for full implementation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, said Katie Arrington, the Defense Department’s (DoD) CISO for Acquisition and Sustainment. […]

The FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO) recapped its efforts to gather feedback from Third Party Assessment Organizations (3PAOs) in a new blog post. […]

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Director Vice Adm. Nancy Norton said today she expects to release reference architecture documents “very shortly” for DISA’s planned implementation of zero trust security concepts. […]

A senior Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official said today that the coronavirus pandemic may turn out to have one silver lining – it has helped the agency and the Defense Department (DoD) to be more innovative and flexible with their use of technology to accommodate dislocations including telework requirements. […]