The COVID-19 pandemic has driven Federal agencies to leap to maximum telework capacity on short notice. While many were able to kick telework into high gear in only a matter of days because of previous or ongoing IT modernization investments, the requirement to change fast and on the fly underscores the vital need for modernization – in the case of a pandemic or not. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $10 million grant to the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University (IU) to deploy a distributed cloud computing system that will help support on-demand research, AI, and enhanced large-scale data analyses for the United States. […]

Assessors for the new cybersecurity standard for contractors of the Department of Defense have not yet been selected, but a Department of Homeland Security official praised DoD’s efforts and said his department is looking toward their example. […]

Just over two months after the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, officials at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) credit the legislation with expediating the acquisition process to ease the telework transition. […]

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) entered phase one of its reopening plans on June 1 for its offices in the National Capital Region – D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia – a spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

Keith Bluestein is set to be appointed CIO at the Small Business Administration (SBA), knowledgeable sources confirmed today. […]

The Department of Defense(DoD) announced June 3 that it is expanding its 5G experimentation and testing to seven new military bases. […]

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission has added two new recommendations to its wide-ranging cybersecurity policy report to address the challenge of disinformation on social media. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working on a program inventory to catalog its project spending, starting with documentation of CARES Act funding, Acting Director Russell Vought confirmed at a June 3 Senate Budget Committee hearing on his nomination to become permanent director of OMB. […]

Underpinning the delivery of citizen services, funding, and an all-important sense of normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal IT enterprise has provided firm footing in uncertain times. As the nation takes its first steps on the road to recovery, MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories and lessons of the ongoing IT odyssey. In the latest chapter of CIO Crossroads, we explore the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s IT operations three months into the fray.  […]

Kevin Cox, program manager for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, confirms that Federal agencies are increasingly integrating CDM into their overall security operations for greater visibility and control. That’s in line with findings from MeriTalk’s latest research, which found 59 percent of agencies incorporating CDM into their broader cyber strategy, rather than viewing it as a standalone function. […]

With more people working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the need to secure Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as in-home wireless routers has become a topic of interest for the group tasked by Congress to shore up the nation’s cyber defenses. […]

The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is looking to connect the dots across government to keep the country protected from cyberattacks, and to relay those threats in “plain English” to decision makers, CTIIC’s director said this week. […]

The U.S. Air Force’s AFNet Sustainment and Operations branch (HNIB) has expanded the service branch’s network capacity to 200,000 teleworkers, and Air Force official said. […]

Russell Vought and Craig Leen shared their priorities as nominees for the permanent director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), respectively, at a June 2 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is looking to hire its next chief statistician – a position that has been vacant since January. […]

A confluence of trends – including ever-mounting cyber attacks, expanding network attack surfaces stemming from increased teleworking during the coronavirus pandemic, and an enduring shortage of skilled cybersecurity workforce talent – is creating demand for more autonomous cybersecurity technologies. […]

For the first time in 2020, the United States Census Bureau offers an internet response option for the decennial count, and data from the bureau shows that most Americans responding to the survey are taking it online. […]

Today is “Super Junesday,” with primaries in D.C., Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Dakota. In any other year, this would be a significant day for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the agency tasked with helping ensure election security across the nation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing protests across the country have added an additional stressor. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced that the department reached an agreement with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Board (CMMC-AB) yesterday, several months after the agreement, and added that the department is working to ensure the new standard is applied equally across the Defense Industrial Base. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is planning to start re-opening its offices and released a facilities preparedness guide on June 2 that provides an enterprise-wide, risk management assessment for its blueprint to send Feds back to the office. […]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that H.R. 5428, the Grid Modernization Research and Development Act of 2019, would cost the United States $1.2 billion over the next five years if enacted. […]

With several primary elections taking place today and the general election less than six months away, the group tasked by Congress to make recommendations to improve the nation’s cyber defenses made several additional recommendations to secure the 2020 elections. […]

Americans rely on government services 24/7, and even more so during times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the critical importance of Federal IT in sustaining the nation, but left its tech leaders mostly unsung. MeriTalk is surfacing the untold stories – and lessons – of those agency and leadership efforts. In the latest installment of CIO Crossroads, we turn to the National Science Foundation (NSF). […]

The story of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is far from finished, and its importance in ensuring the security of Federal networks has only increased during the last three months as maximum telework has become the norm. As the CDM program assumes an even higher priority for agencies, how can Federal officials and industry stakeholders stay connected and focus on the program’s coming chapters? […]

The Department of Defense is planning on moving its network addresses into a bigger house, so to speak, but the Government Accountability Office says that the department needs to take more preparatory steps to plan before the move. […]

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has fully planned for its pivot from waterfall to Agile development, about one-third (34 percent) of its planned Agile activities have been deferred to a later start date, according to a June 1 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) issued a request for information June 1 for a cloud-based, vender-hosted solution to manage student activity funds at 64 of its schools around the world. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new cyber essentials toolkit to help small businesses and Federal agencies understand and address cybersecurity risks. […]

As the first director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center prepares to retire, creating an Artificial Intelligence education program for the department is at the top of the list of priorities for his yet-to-be announced successor. […]