The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is preparing to upgrade its biometrics collection system (BASS) to Bass 3.0, according to a June 23 request for information (RFI).  […]

Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., is calling on Inspectors General (IGs) from select agencies to assess the impact of telework agency missions, employee performance, and service during the pandemic. […]

Department of Defense (DoD) and public sector experts agree that in order to better leverage cloud for the warfighter, it is vital for organizations to be smart about their cloud migrations and focus on specific service offerings, as opposed to racing to move everything to the cloud. […]

An infrastructure deal reached today by the White House and a bipartisan group of senators features a potentially huge Federal funding bump for cybersecurity as part of a larger “resiliency” section of the agreement, although details of the scope of the cybersecurity portion remain murky until further information about the plan becomes public. […]

Federal Chief Data Officers (CDOs) are the stewards of the government’s most vital asset, data. These leaders strive to improve the management, use, protection, dissemination, and generation of data in government decision-making. On June 24, a panel of Federal CDOs, on an AFFIRM webinar, discussed the challenges they face when dealing with data and the importance of data governance and management. […]

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Financial Services and General Government funding bill, to be considered by a subcommittee on June 25.  […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to spend $12 billion on its 29 largest business IT systems from fiscal years (FY) 2019 through 2022, although, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that DoD may be underestimating the risks for some acquisitions and need to do more to improve the sharing and transparency of data it uses to monitor acquisitions. […]

What does it cost to open up a new top-level executive branch office to coordinate the government’s sprawling and ever-growing cybersecurity efforts? If you guessed $15 million, you’d be right in line with the thinking of the House Appropriations Committee, which released on June 23 the draft fiscal year 2022 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill that includes $15 million to launch the new Office of the National Cyber Director. […]

Cloud is evolving how the Department of Defense (DoD) defends assets, supports the warfighter, and gains tactical advantages. Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee, the assistant to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) director, spoke about the benefits and challenges that arise from moving from legacy infrastructure to cloud infrastructure. […]

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., continues to hold Jen Easterly’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until Vice President Kamala Harris visits the southern United States border, he reiterated yesterday. […]

The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to fund the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) with $50 million of new money for Fiscal Year 2022, down sharply from the $500 million proposed by the Biden administration in its budget request issued late last month. […]

The Senate confirmed by voice vote late Wednesday the nomination of Robin Carnahan to lead the General Services Administration (GSA). Carnahan, who was nominated by President Biden on April 6, brings a wealth of IT and agency-specific experience to the new post. […]

The mission must continue – and that means networks must be up and secure, no matter what. Now more than ever before, networks can provide visibility at every layer, so agencies can identify and respond to service interruptions immediately. Network-as-a-sensor capabilities enable this deep awareness. […]

The mission must continue – and that means networks must be up and secure, no matter what. Now more than ever before, networks can provide visibility at every layer, so agencies can identify and respond to service interruptions immediately. Network-as-a-sensor capabilities enable this deep awareness. […]

Rep. Jim Langevin, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems said today that current debates surrounding the Defense Department’s ongoing migration to cloud-based systems need to proceed further toward security and optimization topics in preparation for reaching the eventual goal of a DoD enterprise cloud. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) decommissioned its Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) solution this month and has already transitioned almost 70,000 organizations to its new Microsoft Office 365 environment with enhanced cybersecurity features, known as DoD 365 Joint (DoD365-J), DoD officials said today. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rate at which the entire Department of Defense (DoD) had to learn how to collaborate and operate more effectively regardless of location. The solutions in place to respond to this crisis inadvertently set the bar for how the DoD wanted to operate on a day-to-day basis post-pandemic. […]

Federal chief technology officers (CTOs) are working hard on a number of big-picture policy fronts including improving cybersecurity, modernizing technology, adopting cloud computing, and improving the customer experience. […]

Theodore N. Nemeroff has been named director for International Cyber Policy on the White House’s National Security Council (NSC). He will be responsible for expanding the U.S. government’s information and communications technology policy abroad. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is pioneering a slew of next-generation satellites and sensors to deliver critical data to military command centers from space, and to track and target missile threats and other time-sensitive targets, officials from the Space Development Agency (SDA) and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said at the Defense One Tech Summit on June 22. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has set up a 10-year, $2.1 billion multiple-award schedule (MAS) blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) IT mission needs. […]

The United States Air Force (USAF) is looking for a contractor to provide long-haul communications and system network administration for its Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Squadron Operation Center (SOC) Enterprise, according to a request for proposal (RFP) posted to SAM.gov June 17. […]

The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), a technology trade group that aims to help shape government innovation, is asking the Biden Administration to consider seven recommendations on Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) that it says will better achieve IT and cybersecurity priorities outlined in the administration’s Build Back Better agenda. […]

Jason Miller, the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said he hopes the government’s expansion of telework for Federal employees will serve as a “leapfrog moment” and help the government to better compete in the battle for talent. […]

The Biden administration’s May Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity is the latest in a series of initiatives prioritizing national cybersecurity. Agencies are newly cognizant of the fragility of current security protocols, as demonstrated by recent breaches. […]

Current and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials agreed today that the road to implementing zero trust security concepts is long – and possibly without end – but at any rate stretches at least three years into the future in order to achieve a “good start” at getting to the goal. […]

The Senate voted along party lines today to confirm Kiran Ahuja to become the next director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for a four-year term. […]

The board of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) has been reviewing in recent days proposals from Federal agencies to help fund their efforts to move toward zero trust security architectures, according to Matt Hartman, who is Deputy Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and also a member of the TMF board.   […]

FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she plans to have commissioners vote at the agency’s July 13 meeting on a report and order to implement the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The program – worth nearly $1.9 billion – is intended to help network service providers replace equipment in their networks made by China-based Huawei, ZTE, and any other providers that the Federal government may deem as risky to national security. […]

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to move forward on solutions for the agency’s enterprise cloud needs perhaps within the next month, as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud services contract continues to be stalled in litigation. […]