As the one-year anniversary of the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) nears, join Federal government and industry experts on May 19 for MeriTalk’s in-person Cyber Central conference to explore how agencies are building a more resilient government cybersecurity posture. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is bringing on Bob Lord – who has served as the first chief security officer for the Democratic National Committee since 2018 – as a senior technical advisor to the agency, CISA announced April 25. […]

The White House has released recommendations from the Equitable Data Working Group that aim to increase data available for measuring equity and represent the diversity of all Americans. […]

State and local governments (SLGs) have primarily utilized funds made available by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to develop broadband infrastructure, but another significant broadband infrastructure funding opportunity available to SLGs seems to have been overshadowed. […]

A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should improve how it measures progress of its financial management system and ensure its workforce has the requisite skills and competencies to use its new system. […]

The Department of State is looking to hire up to about 50 data scientists to work in different agency offices and portfolios, as well as support data-driven diplomacy. […]

The United States Cyber Command’s (CYBERCOM) Cyber Procurement Office awarded a nearly $60 million contract to Sealing Technologies for the company to continue to produce a successful prototype of a hunt-forward solution for CYBERCOM’s hunt-forward operations, the company announced April 21. […]

New legislation filed by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., on April 20 would create additional legal protections for metadata generated by customers of online service providers and stored in cloud-based systems, in addition to the content of the electronic communications that they generate. […]

New legislation introduced in the House on April 21 aims to increase U.S. expertise in energy infrastructure cybersecurity by authorizing Department of Energy (DoE) grants to expand education and training opportunities that are “the convergence of cybersecurity and energy infrastructure.” […]

The Department of State’s newly established Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) has hired Ruth Berry as its acting deputy assistant secretary for international information and communications policy. […]

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis warned that the U.S. and its allies have to stay on high alert for possible Russian cyberattacks, although no major attacks appear to have been launched thus far since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD) research and engineering arm wants to up the ante on microelectronics, 5G telecommunications technology, and hypersonics in Fiscal Year 2023, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said April 20. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched a new acquisition advisory committee for addressing the climate crisis and increasing sustainability across the Federal government. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is flagging the Department of Education to address data-driven issues the agency has tracking student loan borrowers’ payments and to do more to ensure all eligible borrowers receive loan forgiveness when they are entitled to it. […]

States can officially start submitting funding requests for their broadband expansion needs starting May 16 when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plans to release a funding opportunity, said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. […]

The Department of Education is replacing its G5 grants management system over the next five years with an open and flexible cloud-based system following an increase in grant awards due to the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., introduced legislation earlier this month that would codify into law a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) advisory council that makes recommendations on communications network security. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently appointed Sanja Basaric as Artificial Intelligence Program Lead in the agency’s Office of the CIO. […]

As agencies strive to meet changing zero trust security requirements, an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that he’s seeing an increased sense of urgency to implement those requirements to collectively move “the Federal fleet forward.” […]

Wider use of software bills of materials (SBOM) requirements represents a key building block in software security and software supply chain risk management that Federal agencies need to increasingly rely on going forward, an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today. […]

As the IRS faces a backlog of about 23.5 million tax returns and pieces of correspondence stretching back to the 2020 tax season, members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee called on the agency Thursday to modernize its IT systems and invest in scanning technology to improve efficiency. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) has named Emery Csulak as its new chief data officer (CDO). […]

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) organization has not collected or recorded complete data for its Missing Migrant Program, and lacks a plan to evaluate the program’s ongoing development, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). CBP is a component agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint cybersecurity advisory April 20, along with Federal law enforcement partners and international allies, that the agency says lays out the “most comprehensive view” of the cyber threat Russia poses to critical infrastructure owners since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. […]

The volume of phishing-based cyberattacks rose by 29 percent in 2021 over prior-year levels and was driven in part by an increase in phishing-as-a-service schemes, according to new research from cloud security services provider Zscaler and its ThreatLabz research operation. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is working on a series of playbooks for Federal agencies to use as they proceed with implementing plans to migrate toward zero trust security architectures, and expects to begin releasing those within a couple of months, a senior GSA technology official said today. […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has launched a new beta version of its website, complete with a new design to improve customer experience, the agency announced in an April 18 blog post. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is forging ahead with executing President Biden’s Federal customer experience improvement executive order issued last December by framing the planned service improvements around five distinct major life events where citizens may rely more heavily on the government for help. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is seeking industry feedback on two reference documents, one for Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) and a framework for organization visibility data, according to an April 19 CISA blog post. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Treasury Department issued a joint cybersecurity advisory (CSA) on April 18 warning of North Korean state-sponsored actors targeting attacks on crypto and blockchain technology providers. […]