The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is taking a multi-faceted approach to supply chain security, and chief among them is putting in place strong public-private partnerships to maintain supply chain resilience and maintaining high awareness about the sources of supply chain threats. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is “encouraged” by quick Federal agency responses to its May 18 emergency directive to patch or unplug several vulnerable VMware products from agency networks, but did not provide any hard figures on whether agencies met CISA’s May 24 deadline to take action. […]

Can technology innovation – coupled with the boldest kind of leadership – work together to start fixing the most intractable problems facing America? On July 21 – we’re going to find out. The countdown to MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum is on. […]

While concern in some quarters of the tech world continues to grow about how to keep pace with  growing data storage demand, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded in a new report that exotic alternatives – think options like synthetic DNA – to fill the gap are probably still years away. […]

Experts from the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology sectors said today they are watching with deep interest for the outcomes of a Biden administration executive order issued in March on the risks and benefits of digital assets in order to gauge the whether the Federal government and Congress will undertake meaningful regulatory changes that would benefit the sectors. […]

As both Federal chief information security officer and the deputy National Cyber Director, Chris DeRusha has a lot of visibility into Federal efforts to boost cybersecurity. At the AWS Summit in Washington, D.C., today, DeRusha expressed both pride in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Zero Trust strategy, while also acknowledging that the policy represents only the beginning of zero trust implementation across Federal civilian agencies. […]

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., along with the committee’s Democratic staffers, released a report today taking the Federal government to task for gathering insufficient data on ransomware attacks, and the use of cryptocurrencies as payments in those attacks where a ransom has been paid. […]

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated its Medicare.gov website, creating an optimized customer experience (CX) and making it easier for millions of Americans to find providers and health and drug coverage plans. […]

A dozen civil rights advocacy organizations led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Fight for The Future told the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors that consumer privacy and anonymity must be a paramount concern in any move by the government to create a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). […]

President Biden has nominated Milancy Harris to become Deputy Undersecretary for Security and Intelligence at the Department of Defense (DoD). […]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has partnered with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to offer public free access to human geography population data, NGA announced. […]

Join MeriTalk and Merlin Cyber on June 1 at 10 a.m. for our complimentary Zeroing in on Application and Data webinar, where government and industry IT experts will put the spotlight on the data and application pillars of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Zero Trust Maturity Model. […]

According to the results of The Office of Personnel Management’s 2021 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, federal workers’ engagement and satisfaction with their jobs has decreased from 2020. In an accompanied report, OPM predicted that some of the declines in engagement and satisfaction might be due to the fact that agencies were preparing – or had already begun – efforts to move Federal workers back to traditional work sites. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has taken steps to fully implement cybersecurity requirements for controlled unclassified information (CUI), however, none of the DoD components were fully compliant on that front as of January 2022, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) today announced $13.5 million of new project funding to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to improve citizen service through better records delivery, and to the Agriculture Department (USDA) to speed cybersecurity improvement efforts. […]

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said he views the current cybersecurity threat landscape as an evolution that is increasingly impacting confidence in systems, rather than just focusing on critical functions or data. […]

Loren Rodgers has been named Data Modernization Coordinator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of the Chief Information Officer. […]

A new bill introduced in the House by Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., would create a regulatory agency to govern some aspects of the “Big Tech” sector, and ensure algorithms on digital platforms are fair and safe. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has revised its policies on enforcement of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) which will help make sure that good-faith hackers are not breaking the law when they work to uncover vulnerabilities on government networks. […]

The in-person forum – at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – will host bipartisan leaders from Congress, the Biden administration, and America’s tech industry to examine the most pressing problems facing citizens in our democracy, and map out creative solutions from the nexus of policy and technology. Request your invitation today by emailing meritocracy@meritalk.com. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued guidance implementing a Trump-era executive order (EO) that instructs agencies to expand skill-based hiring and decrease reliance on educational accomplishments and self-assessments to evaluate prospective employees. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified four additional priority recommendations for the Department of the Treasury as of May 2022, including recommendations on improving cybersecurity and modernizing the U.S. financial regulatory system. […]

MeriTalk research – executed in partnership with RSA Conference, underwritten by Cofense, Keeper Security, Recorded Future, Secureworks, and SentinelOne, and capturing the viewpoints of 100 Federal and 100 private-sector security experts – shows that a whopping 93 percent of respondents believe that public-private partnerships are “vital” to national cyber defense. […]

Pam Coleman, Associate Director Performance & Personnel Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will keynote a May 24 event organized by the Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. […]

Cloud security provider Zscaler said this week that it has two additional Federal Risk and Authorization Program (FedRAMP) authorizations in process, and expects to receive certifications in the coming weeks. […]

A bipartisan group of senators consisting of Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Steve Daines, R-Mt., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are asking the Senate Appropriations Committee to add at least $300 million to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) for fiscal year (FY) 2023. […]

Federal agencies are balancing evolving security requirements while defending against persistent threats, and the increased use of cyber threat intelligence and information sharing is helping government organizations make faster, more informed decisions to combat malicious activity, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) technology official. […]

The Central Intelligence Agency has named Joseph “Rich” Baich as the agency’s new chief information security officer (CISO). […]

Security information sharing between the Federal government and private sector has been on the rise recently – whether it’s through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, or various Information Sharing and Analysis Centers across the government, to name just a few – and a National Security Agency (NSA) official said this week that increased collaboration is being driven by mission demand and a higher degree of trust between organizations. […]

The United States Air Force’s (USAF) Kessel Run software factory has begun a new software acquisition strategy that consolidates 21 different programs under a single acquisition strategy, Kessel Run announced May 16. […]