The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said on Feb. 21 that it will allow taxpayers to opt out of using facial recognition technology to verify their identity and access online accounts, and at the same time will work to roll out login.gov as its long-term authentication solution. […]

Former White House Director for Cybersecurity Robert Knake is joining the Office of National Cyber Director (ONCD) as deputy national cyber director for strategy and budget, an ONCD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]

While the Defense Department (DoD) has been working hard on developing AI capabilities – and has run into challenges that DoD usually faces when acquiring new technologies – a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says it’s too soon to assess effectiveness of the overall effort. […]

In January 2022, government and industry technology leaders discussed edge computing challenges and opportunities. This article highlights progress and what is needed from government and industry as more and more data is collected and analyzed at the network’s edge. […]

With tensions mounting between Russia and Ukraine, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is warning critical infrastructure (CI) owners and operators – as well as any other United States-based organizations – to keep their guard up. To help organizations do that, the cybersecurity agency released insights for the CI sector, as well as a new webpage Feb. 18 to help organizations better steel themselves against a potential Russian cyber threat. […]

The return to in-person work debate on Capitol Hill has been a largely partisan fight, with Republican lawmakers trying to coerce agencies to bring employees back to the office. But a new bill, introduced on Feb. 17 by a bipartisan group of Senators, brings a different perspective to this debate. […]

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, along with the U.S. Air Force, is looking for feedback on its plans to conduct live, virtual, and on-orbit space cyber test and training events to boost training efforts for cyber professionals. […]

While businesses and IT professionals are increasingly using artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML), measuring and proving the business value of the technologies remains a challenge for organizations. […]

The bipartisan Senate Women in STEM Caucus – created late last year to advance women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and math education and careers – met on Feb. 16 to discuss the ongoing disparity in women’s participation in the STEM workforce and further challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. […]

University professors and Tribal leaders are using a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop narrative technology tools to address the lack of representation of Indigenous culture, history, and stories in K-12 classrooms. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has launched a new webpage featuring a catalog of free cybersecurity tools and resources that the agency hopes will serve as a “one-stop resource where organizations of all sizes can find free public and private sector resources to reduce their cybersecurity risk.” […]

Jonathan Alboum, who joined ServiceNow in 2019 as Federal CTO and principal digital strategist after serving as CIO at the U.S. Agriculture Department from 2015-2017, carries the advantage of understanding both sides of the equation in the ongoing push for government to improve digital service customer experience. […]

The newly established House Digital Service team is hiring for three technology positions, including a product manager, user experience designer, and software engineer. […]

The White House’s top cybersecurity advisor today blamed Russia for cyberattacks earlier this week against the Ukrainian government and banking sectors and said that the U.S. is actively helping Ukraine to fend off cyber assaults in the run-up to a possible Russian military invasion of that country. […]

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has snagged an Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Phase III production agreement from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has faced a troubled rollout of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program, including underreported costs, deficiencies in training, and diminished employee morale. But VA’s recently installed CIO says the agency is coming to grips with those problems and looking for better performance in coming expansions of the program. […]

Congressional attention is turning over the next three weeks to negotiating and approving full-year Fiscal Year 2022 (ending Sept. 30) appropriations legislation after the Senate on Feb. 17 voted to approve a continuing resolution (CR) funding bill to keep government operations funded until March 11. […]

The United States Navy is soliciting bids from the private sector for the next iteration of a potential $4.1 billion contract vehicle for products and services that support networks onboard surface ships. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) is pursuing tech policy and workforce training initiative aimed at illuminating ethical concerns with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and making sure that DoE’s AI projects work to maintain human dignity and do not cause harm, an agency official said. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO) is seeking information about existing or planned commercial sensors and tracking services for objects orbiting Earth, with an eye for action from 2022 through 2030. […]

Proving that there is no substitute for good timing, TaxBit – a provider of automated tax and accounting services for virtual currencies – opened up its new Washington office earlier this month amid growing policy and legislative action that may end up wrapping cryptocurrencies more tightly into “traditional” economic models. […]

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly made a strong pitch on Feb. 17 for the agency’s push to create an underlying culture of organizational success that she said is critical to creating optimal performance at the nation’s cyber defense agency. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded AT&T four Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracts to modernize the agency’s telecommunications and transition FEMA off the Networx contracts, AT&T announced. […]

Just over a week after announcing the agency’s largest-ever financial seizure – $3.6 billion in Bitcoin – Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said today that Eun Young Choi will serve as the first director of the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). […]

The U.S. Senate on Feb. 16 confirmed the nomination of David Honey to serve as the Department of Defense’s (DoD) deputy undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E), by a vote of 94 to 1. […]

President Biden has announced new leadership for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), following the resignation of OSTP Director Eric Lander last week. […]

Federal CIO Clare Martorana currently has a data call out to several Federal agencies asking them how they are currently using artificial intelligence (AI), their current AI use cases, and what AI work they have in production, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program manager. […]

The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is in the process of beefing up its infrastructure, technology, policy, and procedures with a broader aim toward modernizing business processes and promoting evidence-based decisions, asset management, and knowledge sharing. […]

According to a new report from the RAND Corporation, the United States is the world leader in some aspects of quantum information science (QIS), but still lags behind China in certain QIS areas. […]

The United States faces a data-privacy crisis and this crisis has created a groundswell of support for new data-protection laws, witnesses told members of the Committee on House Administration on Feb. 16. […]