Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Navy

The Department of the Navy is working on a brand new program, which does not have a name yet, that will put data into the hands of its workforce, according to the Navy’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) Tom Sasala. […]

A new agreement led by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will allow eight neighboring states and Washington, D.C., to offer Internet access, devices, and other technology to constituents through local agencies at a discounted rate via Verizon’s Digital Inclusion Program. […]

telework

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, along with other natural disasters, forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shift to remote work. In a new report, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said that the EPA was able to effectively plan a long-term solution to address remote access concerns while also transitioning to the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. […]

Electronic Records

As the deadline to meet the requirements set in Memorandum-19-21 (M-19-21), some Federal agencies are struggling to meet the remaining requirements. However, during an FCW virtual summit on Sept. 21. the National Archives and Record Administration’s (NARA) chief record officer, Laurence Brewer, said the agency is aware of these challenges and is prepared to have those conversations, but there is currently no plan for a deadline extension. […]

DoD

At the highest levels of the Federal government and the private sector, officials have recognized that cybersecurity is a national security issue. A series of policy and technical documents and high-level meetings this year have reinforced this notion. Chief among them is President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO), which outlines a wide-ranging and ambitious series of actions Federal agencies must take to better secure government operations. MeriTalk recently talked with Jim Richberg, field chief information security officer at cybersecurity firm Fortinet, who is uniquely qualified to assess the potential impact of the cybersecurity EO and the actions that agencies must take to realize its promise. Prior to joining Fortinet, Richberg was the senior federal executive focused on cyber intelligence within the U.S. intelligence community. He helped build the discipline of cyber threat intelligence analysis and is an innovator in measuring cyber performance, risk, and return on investment.  […]

workforce

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Inspector General (IG) reported that the Postal Inspection Service sufficiently manages seized cryptocurrency. However, opportunities exist to improve its management of cryptocurrency used for investigative purposes. […]

Kids at computers hackers students education

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) wrote the leaders of the House Rules Committee Sept. 15 to express their opposition to amendments to the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would create a civilian cyber reserve program. […]

Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce’s (DoC) Bureau of Industry and Security published a request for comments to gain feedback on what should be included in a report on supply chains for critical sectors and subsectors of the information and communications technology (ICT) industrial base. […]

funding
Cyber

With attacks on critical infrastructure increasing, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, is calling for improved security of critical systems and increased cybersecurity collaboration among the private and public sector. […]

NIST

A request for information (RFI) by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developing a framework to improve the management of risks to individuals, organizations, and society associated with AI received feedback to assist in its development. […]

Army DoD military Defense AI
CISA

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) says that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) needs to update plans for protecting critical infrastructure. CISA Director Jen Easterly said that an updated plan will be in by Sept. 30, 2022. […]

NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested “proactively and preemptively” in technology, so that when the coronavirus pandemic hit NIH it was able to seamlessly transition to a telework environment, according to the NIH CIO and Director of the Center for Information Technology, Andrea Norris. […]

CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) named Dawn McGuinness, an international relation professional with years of experience in national security, as the new International Capacity Building Advisor.  […]

Cyber

Richard Bird is an Army veteran and an internationally recognized identity-centric security expert who has been a CIO and CISO and the global head of identity for JP Morgan Chase. Now, he is chief customer information officer for Ping Identity. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD
USPS Postal Service
Cloud

The General Services Administration (GSA) is working on setting up a Cloud Marketplace for Federal agencies, with the first phase of the project coming in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and a request for information also being worked on, a GSA official said today. […]

vaccine

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has seen a nine percent increase in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees that have received the COVID-19 vaccine since the VA mandated the shot, but is still facing a 12 percent unvaccinated share of VHA employees with only a few weeks left before the Oct. 8 deadline. […]

US tech

The White House’s announcement this week of a new trilateral security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom named AUKUS – which will focus on the Indo-Pacific region – features pledges for cooperation between the three countries on a range of advanced technologies. […]

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel – long an advocate for government action to make broadband services more affordable in order to lessen the digital divide in the U.S. – said this week that she welcomes current congressional action to boost funding for broadband benefits but also expressed some skepticism about the effectiveness of service rate discount cuts being contemplated by Congress. […]

Labor

Now that the Federal government, via the Department of Labor (DoL), has signed up to put $2 billion of stimulus-related funding into shoring up beleaguered state unemployment insurance (UI) systems overpowered by the jobless claim surge due to coronavirus pandemic, Federal and state officials discussed how those efforts will roll out during a panel discussion at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual program on September 15. […]

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