The continued flurry of high-profile ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure targets in the United States is climbing the ladder of presidential priorities – with President Biden saying it’s on the agenda for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month, and White House officials confirming that cryptocurrency will be part of a new examination of global corruption. […]

Over the years, many government agencies have undergone significant digital growth. But while they were “doing digital” and leveraging digital technologies to enhance their capabilities, they still primarily relied on traditional operating models. […]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking at unclassified data sources to broaden its understanding of climate change – an issue that one NGA official said this week will become a primary agency focus going forward. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded a five-year, $674 million contract to Booz Allen Hamilton to support the growth of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Advana data analytics platform to improve decision making across the organization. […]

The Department of Labor (DOL) – and numerous state governments that the agency assists – struggled during the coronavirus pandemic to ramp up unemployment insurance (UI) programs to meet sharp increases in demand.  Some of the principal culprits, according to DOL’s inspector general (IG), were legacy systems, insufficient staffing resources to manage increased unemployment claims, and unclear and untimely Employment and Training Administration (ETA) guidance. […]

The IRS is successfully using a new authority from Congress to streamline and expedite the hiring process for bonus-eligible IT hires, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General to Tax Administration (TIGTA). […]

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and several chairs of the panel’s key subcommittees today asked inspectors general (IGs) from ten Federal agencies for assessments of any cybersecurity vulnerabilities that were created or worsened by the use of telework systems during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether any such vulnerabilities have been mitigated. […]

A senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today the Federal government’s process of modernizing its IT systems to achieve better cybersecurity may be a decades-long process. […]

Dave Zvenyach, director of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization, shared insights today on how to become a better digital leader while working remotely, along with tools and methods he uses to do so. […]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking feedback on what to include in its Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), as directed by President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order. […]

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Ca., introduced a bill on June 1 that looks to improve the cybersecurity infrastructure of government contractors, his office announced. The Improving Contractor Cybersecurity Act would require any vendor looking to do business with the Federal government to have vulnerability disclosure policies (VDP) in place. […]

Now that there are real dollars beginning to finally accompany the many voices calling for government IT modernization, it’s perfect timing for Marianne Bellotti’s new book, “Kill It with Fire,” which cautions against the headlong approach the title connotes. She conveys this quite succinctly in the book’s pithy epigraph – with a quote from Ellen Ullman, a fellow author and computer programmer: “We build our computer systems the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.” […]

The Biden administration is publicly demonstrating its willingness to lend Federal help to respond to a variety of ransomware assaults against critical infrastructure sectors – the latest involving a cyberattack against JBS USA, the world’s largest meatpacker, that forced the company reportedly to shut down nine of its plants. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking innovative research concepts into how repressive regimes suppress the free flow of information. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft are arguing for a shorter duration of any further legal proceedings before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the Defense Department’s (DoD) Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud services contract it re-awarded to Microsoft last year. […]

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris submitted the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget request to congress which includes $715 billion of which is allocated for the Department of Defense (DoD) to bolster the Pentagon’s technological capabilities, among other objectives. […]

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced legislation on May 28 that would create a cybersecurity personnel rotation program in an effort to strengthen the United States’ Federal cyber workforce and infrastructure. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Jim Baird, R-Ind., have introduced the Statistical Modeling Education Act,  which would help K-12 schools to modernize their math curriculum and improve K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI are looking into last week’s spear-phishing campaign targeting the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and have not found any “significant impact” to Federal agencies, according to a May 28 joint statement. […]

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., reintroduced the K-12 Cybersecurity Act May 27 in an effort to strengthen the cybersecurity of school systems. This is the second time the two introduced the Act, having previously introduced similar legislation in 2019 in the last Congress. […]

Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced legislation on May 27 that would attempt to prevent the use of discriminatory online algorithms, and create a Federal inter-agency task force to investigate the use of algorithm-driven processes. […]

President Biden’s FY2022 budget document released today proposes a 14 percent increase from the estimated cybersecurity funding level for last year, to a total of $9.8 billion in Federal civilian cybersecurity funding. […]

President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget includes an estimated $58.439 billion in IT spending for Federal civilian agencies, and $500 million for the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), according to a budget breakdown the White House released today. […]

President Biden’s FY2022 budget proposal published today envisions an eye-popping $6.01 trillion of Federal spending – up 36 percent from last year’s approved FY2021 budget – with a budget deficit of about $1.8 trillion. […]

President Biden is pushing for a 2.7 percent pay increase for the Federal civilian workforce in his FY2022  budget request released today. The budget also included funding to ensure more Federal workers are eligible for a $15 per hour wage. […]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was the victim of a May 25 spear-phishing campaign that carried all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored attack, Microsoft said yesterday. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a new report that the agency has made improvements to its data management practices in recent years, and said continued improvement is necessary to address internal control issues. […]

Action on the Biden administration’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure spending proposal that debuted in late March as the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan is sliding well into June as the White House and Republican senators have traded offers and counteroffers on the legislation, but still remain deeply divided on the scope of the bill and its price tag. […]

President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nominees pledged their commitment to elevate the United States’ cybersecurity posture, in order to prevent future cyberattacks, during a May 27 Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs hearing. […]

Anne Neuberger, the White House deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies who is a driving force behind the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order issued earlier this month, today noted an initial “disappointment” with Federal network hygiene in a follow-up discussion about the broader aims of the order. […]