The $1 billion of new funding that the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) received earlier this year under the American Rescue Plan Act was welcomed by chief information officers (CIOs) from numerous agencies, but many CIOs are saying the new infusion of money is not enough for IT modernization needs. […]
Federal IT leaders are balancing IT spend and project prioritization while trying to drive digital transformation to modernize government operations and meet the needs of the American people. It’s a monumental task, made even more challenging in disparate and siloed working environments. Taking a holistic approach to digital transformation in government requires a shift in mindsets. […]
Federal CIO Clare Martorana emphasized today that the road to Federal agency IT improvements runs not only through agency CIO offices, but also needs to benefit from support from the entire organization’s executive suite. […]
All civilian employees of the Department of Defense (DoD) have until November 22 to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded Peraton a nearly $2.7 billion dollar contract to aid the agency’s move to the cloud, according to an Oct. 4 award announcement posted to SAM.gov. […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is streamlining its sprawling case management system into a single, digital system. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGA) report, the program has struggled to meet user expectations and accessibility requirements mandated by law. […]
The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have unveiled their long-awaited legislation to update the 2014 Federal Information Security Modernization Act that provides cybersecurity marching orders to Federal civilian agencies. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has released new guidance on mitigating security risks to advance quantum computing technology. […]
Bryan Rosensteel has spent more than a decade working with identity in the Federal government. As a Federal solutions architect at identity services provider Ping Identity, he advises government agencies on best practices for deploying zero trust security architecture. When President Biden issued the Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (EO), Rosensteel was positively giddy about its potential to transform the way government secures data and operations. MeriTalk sat down with Rosensteel to explore the letter and the spirit of the EO, how centralized identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) can help agencies get to zero trust, and why agencies shouldn’t inherently trust anything – not even technology. […]
As the cyber threats we face become more diverse across the nation and globe, security, and IT operations teams must encompass diverse perspectives. For MeriTalking’s first installment of the “Human Side of Cyber” series, MeriTalk’s Nicole Burdette sits down with Teddra Burgess, Senior Vice President, Public Sector at Tanium to dive into the importance of having diverse perspectives and experiences on an organization’s cyber response team. […]
The newly created Made in America Office has set up an official website in an effort to promote transparency in Federal procurement by publishing proposed waivers and outcomes to Made in America laws. […]
The Federal government is failing to attract young talent and will need to quickly replace a huge wave of retiring employees within the next few years, according to Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Don Beyer, D-Va. […]
The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate made official over the weekend what had become obvious by late last week: the hoped-for late September votes on two big Federal infrastructure funding bills were sliding into October. […]
A sampling of Federal agencies’ efforts to provide remote access for telework during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that each of the agencies was able to put the right technologies in place to accomplish that goal, but that several had not fully addressed relevant guidance for securing remote access systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received a mostly favorable review from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on how the agency is proceeding with improving broadband service access maps, but GAO also flagged that the FCC will face technological challenges with integrating disparate sources of broadband service location data. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has appointed IT modernization expert Jason Weiss as the agency’s chief software officer (CSO). In this new role, Weiss will lead efforts to modernize legacy applications and implement modern software development practices across the DoD. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing $1 million in research and development (R&D) to create open-source first responder robots. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has been working to establish a software acquisition pathway that emphasizes rapid delivery and user engagement, but the Pentagon has not collected data or developed tools needed to oversee programs using the pathways, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]
Federal and private sector leaders discussed how the coronavirus pandemic has changed traditional workplace expectations, and how agencies can maintain team culture and continue upskilling their employees, during a September 30 MeriTalk webinar. […]
Several Federal government officials involved in migrating government agencies toward adoption of zero trust security principles agreed during a September 30 ATARC webinar that agencies need to first think through the goals of adopting zero trust architectures before undertaking technology deployments to get there. […]
A dizzying array of AI ethics, policies, and technical working groups already in play among Federal departments and agencies has led to an overall body of policies that may be incomplete, inconsistent, or incompatible with each other, a new report says. […]
The House of Representatives voted Sept. 30 to pass H.R. 3533, a bill that would require the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to create an occupational series for Federal government software and data positions. […]
The Department of Commerce (DOC) is working with the space industry to populate a prototype database system to increase companies’ situational awareness of satellites and debris orbiting earth. […]
Federal CIO Clare Martorana and General Services Administration (GSA) head Robin Carnahan both delivered strong pitches this week to prospective Federal IT employees by emphasizing the importance of the government’s citizen service mission. […]
The Department of Defense announced the members of its recently restarted Defense Business Board, one of 16 advisory boards recently restarted after a Feb. 3 pause. […]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is looking information on an app to electronically verify COVID-19 testing and vaccination status for CDC staff. […]
Both the House and Senate today approved a continuing resolution that will fund Federal government operations through December 3, with President Biden expected to sign off on the measure. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint Cybersecurity Information Sheet that helps detail factors for choosing a virtual private network (VPN) and secure deployment. […]
The House of Representatives passed the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act Sept. 29 by an overwhelming 410-15 margin. If approved by the Senate and enacted, the bill would create a cybersecurity personnel rotation program for Federal employees. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has partnered with Girls Who Code (GWC) to develop pathways for young women to pursue careers in cybersecurity and technology, the agency announced Sept. 30. […]