Officials from the Defense Department (DoD) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today that creating more effective defenses against sophisticated cyberattacks of the type used in the SolarWinds Orion hack may require further adoption of zero trust security concepts. […]

It has been nearly a year since the Federal workforce had to shift to telework practically overnight. While the Federal government was already working to increase telework capabilities, COVID-19 forced agencies to modernize at warp speed. After making sure employees had the devices they need, agencies had to ensure that cybersecurity capabilities remained strong even though employees were now working on their home networks. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is collaborating with Amazon on a program to support research focused on fairness in artificial intelligence and announced the program’s first cohort of 2021 awardees. […]

Federal leaders agreed during a Feb. 18 Alteryx virtual event that the COVID-19 pandemic provided more opportunities for collaboration between agencies, especially when it came to sharing data across agency lines. […]

With the COVID pandemic painfully revealing the soft underbelly of legacy state IT programs, much speculation has arisen about just how an enterprise IT modernization program for states could take place. […]

Keith Nakasone, a senior acquisition official at the General Services Administration (GSA), said this week that his agency has held what he called “very early” talks with other Federal agencies aimed at spreading the use of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) security standard through more of the Federal government. […]

The Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) needs to reevaluate its reporting compliance standards and fix the current deficiencies in the system, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced the establishment of an international strategy, CISA Global. […]

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Feb. 17 to seek public comment on possible changes to how it implements a $1.9 billion program 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. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) updated its Technology Assessment (TA) Design Handbook to include more recently published literature, recent GAO team experiences, and submitted comments from external experts and the public. Per GAO, the Technology Assessment Design Handbook is meant to give GAO staff and other users tools and guidance when designing technology assessments. It […]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plans to update and reintroduce his Algorithmic Accountability Act, a bill that is designed to fight AI bias, and that would require tech companies to audit their AI systems for discrimination. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 23 at 11 a.m. EST on ways to “rebuild” the Federal workforce after four years of bruising under the Trump administration, including a late 2020 bid to establish a new classification for policy-related Federal positions. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it has indicted three North Korean military hackers as part of a series of cyberattacks intended to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies. […]

The leader of the Federal government’s investigation of the Russia-backed hack of government and private sector networks via SolarWinds Orion products said Feb. 17 that the attack “compromised” nine Federal government networks – matching with earlier estimates from Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that “follow-on” activity by the hackers after initial breaches via software downloads were seen in “fewer than 10” Federal agencies. […]

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is asking the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide more information on the recent attempt by cyber criminals to poison the water supply at an Oldsmar, Fla. water treatment facility. […]

In a draft report to Congress by the National Security Commission on AI (NSCAI), the commission detailed that Federal AI R&D funding should be scaled up by establishing a National Technology Foundation (NTF) and increasing the funding by doubling it annually to reach $32 billion per year by FY2026. […]

The chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) this week urged the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government for dependable Federal funding to ensure election security ahead of the 2022 election. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Federal, state, and local governments to adopt a hybrid cloud environment quickly, but their hybrid strategies have not been able to keep pace with the new accelerated reality of government. The bottom line: most agencies have a strategy in place, but are having trouble executing on it fully. […]

Taking advantage of cloud-based technology in an organization’s architecture requires a dual understanding from two different perspectives – those of the solutions architect, and the enterprise architect, a Defense Department technology official said on Feb. 17. […]

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology agreed at a Feb. 17 hearing that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the “equity gap” in broadband access, and called for both expanding service access in rural areas of the United States, and creating more affordable service access in urban areas of the country. […]

Nick Andersen, who held senior cybersecurity positions at the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) over the past few years, has joined communications services provider Lumen as the chief information security officer for the public sector. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), FBI, and the Treasury Department have issued a joint cybersecurity advisory about North Korean malicious activity known as “AppleJeus.” […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD) Office of the Director, Operational and Evaluation (DOT&E) emphasized in a new report that DoD needs to conduct cybersecurity testing on commercial cloud platforms that are used by the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) cloud environment. […]

Kevin Smith has taken over as CIO of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Jan. 2021, according to his LinkedIn page. Smith has a wide range of Federal experience, having served for five years as the CIO of the U.S. Census Bureau and six years with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as Deputy CIO […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced today that a new version of Regulations.gov will launch on Feb. 18. The new website, which has been in beta testing since July 2019, will help improve the integrity of the public commenting process, GSA explained in a press release. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., on Feb. 11 reintroduced the Chai Suthammanont Remembrance Act, a bill which is designed to protect Federal employees who must return to the workplace from COVID-19 by requiring government agencies to publish safety plans to guide their return. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced today that it has revamped the FedRAMP website to “further empower agencies to use innovative cloud technologies and to continue driving security and protection of Federal information.” […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) announced several key leadership positions today, including Laila ElGohary as White House Liaison, who brings substantial technology experience to the position. […]

What’s the biggest lesson to be learned from the recent thwarting of an attempt by cyber criminals to poison the water supply in Oldsmar, Fla.?

According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the hackers likely took advantage of an outdated operating system to gain access, and the agency said “continuing to use any operating system within an enterprise beyond the end of life status may provide cyber criminals access into computer systems.” […]

Persistent Defense of Department (DoD) delays in getting large enterprise-wide cloud projects up and running are getting in the way of long-term Pentagon objectives on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI), and forcing some DoD operations to seek cloud work-arounds in the meantime. […]