A new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) puts veterans’ sensitive information and facility security at risk by not following requirements about documenting personal identity verification (PIV) cards returned by contract personnel. […]
Reps. Bill Foster, D-Ill., John Katko, R-N.Y., Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., have introduced legislation that aims to modernize the United States’ digital identity infrastructure and protect Americans from having their personal information stolen. […]
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., have introduced a bill that would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to study the risks and benefits of allowing private organizations to respond in kind to cyberattacks. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued new guidance for implementing the first part of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act), with an emphasis from the White House for agencies to build a culture of evidence. […]
Data is at the center of the new race for technological superiority, however, data without analytics, automation, and technical know-how are just numbers on a page. Agencies need new approaches and on June 30 at a ‘Getting Gov the Right Data Skills’ webinar, Federal data experts revealed one method is to upskill an agency’s data workforce. […]
Defense Department Acting CIO John Sherman emphasized the Pentagon’s firm intent to move further toward adopting cloud infrastructures and zero trust security concepts at a June 29 hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., along with 17 other Democrats, sent a letter to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee pressing them to include a 3.2 percent pay increase for Federal employees in their FY2022 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill, as opposed to supporting the current 2.7 percent pay raise. […]
For once, the biggest problem with engineering effective IT modernization may not boil down to a lack of money to tackle the job. That conclusion was a top-line takeaway from Republicans, Democrats, and private sector experts at a hearing of the House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing today on how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed state and local governments’ antiquated IT systems, and what governments should do about it now that pandemic conditions are easing in many areas. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is developing a catalog of bad practices in cybersecurity to help critical infrastructure providers prioritize their cybersecurity responsibilities. The agency plans to keep updating the narrow list based on feedback from cybersecurity professionals. […]
After a year of high-profile cyberattacks on government and private sector infrastructure that have raised the profile of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the House Appropriations Committee is proposing a substantial funding bump for CISA in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) budget. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is looking to develop practices that will ease the migration from public-key cryptographic algorithms to replacement algorithms that are resistant to quantum computer-based attacks. […]
With President Biden’s Cybersecurity Executive Order adding urgency to requirements for Federal agencies to improve cybersecurity by further implementing core tenets of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, a new survey from MeriTalk and Elastic finds that the continued rollout of the next generation of CDM dashboard technology will go a long way toward addressing agency security gaps. […]
Organizations need a cybersecurity strategy to protect both infrastructure and customer data from growing cybersecurity threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) developed the Cyber Essentials as a guide for small businesses and local government leaders to develop an actionable understanding of where to start implementing organizational cybersecurity practices. […]
Ransomware has rocketed to the top of the Biden administration’s agenda as cyberattacks launched from the soil of U.S. adversaries have started to bite into key critical infrastructure. […]
Katie Arrington is currently on leave as the Department of Defense’s (DoD) chief information security officer (CISO) for acquisition and sustainment, a DoD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
A Data Decrees memo signed by Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks set the five Department of Defense (DoD) priorities for how it should use data, and a pair of Chief Data Officers (CDO) said this memo has helped enable change by codifying the importance of data inside the Pentagon. […]
Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey has been appointed the new director of the U.S. Army’s Network Modernization Cross-Functional Team (CFT), succeeding former director Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, who retired from the Army in May. […]
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies have had to adjust to working in remote environments and understanding the impact of the health crisis to make data-driven decisions. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has worked to leverage data as a strategic asset to ensure the government continued to operate. […]
The Department of Interior needs to do more to share data across several systems that it uses to oversee oil and gas development on leased Federal lands, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee today approved by voice vote the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act, along with other important bills, which will now head to the full House for consideration. […]
The House of Representatives on Monday evening passed by wide margins two potential and complementary alternatives to the Senate-approved United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA), both of which would funnel tens of billions of new research funding to Federal government agencies. […]
A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has clearly defined roles and responsibilities for coordination with healthcare organizations to support cybersecurity efforts. However, GAO found areas where HHS could improve collaboration. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an updated definition for “critical software” in response to a directive to do so in the Biden administration’s executive order (EO) on cybersecurity. […]
Senators Maggie Hassan D-N.H. and John Cornyn R-Texas, have introduced the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act which aims to help strengthen U.S. cyber defenses and bolster the Federal government’s cyber workforce. […]
The SolarWinds breach, the Colonial Pipeline, the JBS meatpacking ransomware attacks, and most recently a ransomware attack on a House of Representative email vendor have Federal cybersecurity and IT leaders wondering what’s next. […]
As cyberattacks become more frequent and prevalent, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce says the biggest vulnerability for both the private and public sectors is technical debt. […]
President Biden on June 25 signed an executive order (EO) that aims to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) for the Federal workforce. […]
President Biden on June 26 pledged his support for a separate voting track in Congress for legislation containing a $1.2 trillion compromise infrastructure agreement that the White House reached last week with a bipartisan group of senators. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF), in coordination with a consortium of 35 wireless communication corporations, announced the fourth testbed in a diverse portfolio of large-scale wireless research platforms located throughout the United States. This wireless research platform is intended to drive innovation in rural broadband connectivity in Ames, Iowa. […]
While zero trust may be the latest buzzword in cybersecurity, the security principles behind a zero trust architecture aren’t new. Adoption across the Federal government has been slow as agencies deal with legacy systems, budget issues, competing priorities, and a shortage of security experts. […]