U.S. Air Force (USAF) Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Officer Brig. Gen. John Olson is sounding the call for the defense and intelligence sectors to begin using data and AI as strategic assets in shaping the future battlespace, with a goal for the Air Force to be “AI-competitive” by 2027. […]

The Defense Department (DoD) needs to pick up the pace on its development and delivery of weapon systems software or face the possibility of Pentagon programs missing out on the benefits of modernization, according to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual assessment of DoD’s weapons acquisitions. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI, this week issued a joint advisory warning telecommunications companies and network service providers of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actors that continue to pose a threat to their networks. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced on June 7 that its use of Verified Products Portals (VPP) is helping to strengthen Federal supply chains. […]

The senate has confirmed Kenneth L. Wainstein to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), with a 63-35 vote in favor of his nomination. […]

Navy Vice Adm. Frank D. Whitworth III assumed command as the eighth director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) during a ceremony held at NGA Campus East on June 3. […]

The Department of the Treasury said it approved about $631 million of funding to four states from the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF), which will provide money for affordable broadband infrastructure and other digital connectivity technology projects. […]

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) cost and schedule estimates for fully deploying its latest-generation electronic health record system (EHRM) are unreliable and could have the impact of depriving agency leadership of the right information upon which to base deployment decisions, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

The fiscal year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) continued to take shape today as the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems voted to approve its markup of language related to cybersecurity and other tech matters that likely will be featured in the NDAA. […]

New bipartisan legislation from Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., aims to create a complete regulatory framework for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, but the senators emphasized today how the bill also addresses the cyber aspect of digital assets. […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and John Sarbanes, D-Md. – both of whom represent districts with large Federal employee populations – have reintroduced legislation that the members of Congress said will “strengthen and expand the federal government’s telework programs by capitalizing on lessons learned” during the coronavirus pandemic when many Federal agencies had most employees working from remote locations. […]

The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized new guidance to provide engineers across government and private enterprises with essential design principles for engineering trustworthy secure systems. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has announced it is now accepting nominations for its first cohort of Cyber Innovation Fellows, with an applications due date of July 8. […]

The White House on June 7 withdrew its nomination of Biniam Gebre to serve as administrator for Federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on June 6 unveiled its latest cybersecurity public service campaign – aimed at trying to boost adoption of multifactor authentication (MFA) – coinciding with the opening of the RSA Conference in San Francisco, where agency leadership including Director Jen Easterly will be speaking this week. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded Forcepoint Federal an $89 million firm fixed contract aimed at building a “user activity monitoring enterprise solution” for the Pentagon’s combatant commands and Fourth Estate components. […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – a federally-owned electric utility serving seven states with power generated from dams on the Tennessee River – is employing vulnerable versions of operating systems in its non-dam control system, according to an audit from TVA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) which examines cybersecurity controls that system. […]

New Senate legislation unveiled today would retain at least for now the status quo on current Federal oversight of some cryptocurrency trading, but also would set the stage for a much broader examination of how and whether the Federal government should create regulatory structures for a wider range of digital assets that includes cryptocurrency. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is calling on the agency to address its slow progress in improving its cybersecurity posture, but the VA said a lack of funding causes the agency to lose high-quality IT personnel. […]

As the Federal government works through the rulemaking process for the recently signed Incident Reporting legislation that originated in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, witnesses for that same committee today stressed the need for unity among both reporting avenues and standardization of data to help operationalize the data. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added unemployment insurance (UI) fraud to its list of “high risk” areas for the Federal government, and has tasked the Department of Labor (DOL) – which provides funding and assistance to states to run their UI programs – with finding a fix to the problem. […]

In today’s edition of Countdown to MerITocracy, we’re taking a look at what may change for the better in the near-term U.S. outlook – how about having the government help recreate the U.S. semiconductor sector that mostly drifted overseas a generation ago – plus billions in Federal R&D funding that stands ready to be put to work in pending legislation in Congress. That money would flow through the National Science Foundation – whose director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan is a featured speaker at MerITocracy. […]

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is in the process of updating its Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), it plans to hold a series of workshops and release at least one more draft for public comment before releasing CSF 2.0, according to a NIST blog. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) along with the FBI and other international enforcement agencies have announced the seizure of three different internet domains selling malicious software and information. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking proposals to address challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and architectures that deeply integrate symbolic reasoning with data-driven machine learning to create robust, assured, and, therefore, trustworthy AI-based systems. […]

A new legislative “discussion draft” that aims to create a stronger data privacy and security landscape for U.S. consumers would put the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in charge of the proposed new rules and would preempt most existing state laws on data privacy and security. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting new contract proposals to advance and enhance machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as part of the agency’s new Enabling Confidence (EC) program. […]

President Biden has announced his intent to nominate Richard DiZinno as a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). […]

President Biden has announced his intent to nominate Nate Fick as the ambassador at large to lead the State Department’s newly established Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP). […]

Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-N.V., and Todd Young, R-Ind., have introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the cybersecurity of medical devices, and requiring the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review and update its medical device cybersecurity guidelines. […]