The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimburses states for most Medicaid costs and is supposed to oversee how states use funds, but its IT systems have had problems with ensuring proper oversight, and CMS no longer supports efforts to reduce duplication by state systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]
While the House and Senate approved their versions of the annual defense funding bill in July, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said this week that a conference report from House and Senate negotiators that settles differences between the bills won’t likely be produced until after the November elections. […]
The Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is scheduled to facilitate an international conference on the responsible use of AI for militaries next week, according to DoD CIO Dana Deasy, within whose office the JAIC is housed. […]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai announced multiple staffing changes to the FCC’s data team. […]
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), a non-profit association representing U.S. state and territorial educational technology leaders, announced that Christine Fox will serve as the organization’s interim executive director. Fox assumes the role following the passing of Candice Dodson. Fox has been with SETDA since 2004 and most recently served as deputy executive director. The organization’s board of directors is currently searching for a permanent executive director. […]
Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox said Sept. 9 that his office’s high-level aims for Fiscal Year 2021 feature an extensive menu of goals – fuller “operationalization” of CDM data, progress on installing the latest version of the CDM dashboard at the agency and Federal levels, and helping agencies to better understand and handle security for data in the cloud and from mobile services. […]
Ron Ross has seen a lot during his 30-year career in cybersecurity, so asking him to pinpoint new cyber threats is a little like asking Tom Brady to talk about a blitz he has not faced during his NFL tenure. […]
The vice chair of the board of directors of the CMMC-AB said that 25 assessors have been provisionally trained, and estimated that certified assessors for the open market will be released in the first quarter of calendar year 2021. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reviewed 16 major Federal IT acquisitions that are critical to government missions – including national security, public health, and the economy – and found that 11 of those acquisitions were re-baselined during development to reflect changes in project costs, schedules and performance goals. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) effort to consolidate its network and security operations centers into a Network Operations Security Center (NOSC) model will improve the agency’s continuity of operations efforts, CIO Karen Evans said today. […]
A majority of the largest Federal agencies will have their inspector general (IG) offices involved in monitoring how agencies plan for and proceed with office reopening plans amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today. […]
Looking ahead to future IT modernization projects at the Defense Department (DoD), CIO Dana Deasy is predicting a bigger emphasis on data and sustaining telework capabilities in the long term. […]
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the United States has “made improvements since 2016” in election security, but pointed the finger at Congress for not doing even more to secure elections. […]
A proposed rule from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) component agency coming out in the Federal Register this Friday would expand the collection of biometrics data by about 2.17 million submissions annually. […]
MeriTalk recently sat down with Chip Carr, Senior Manager of Virtual GPU Technology at NVIDIA to discuss how Federal agencies have transitioned to telework environments while introducing new technologies, applications and collaboration tools – and what Carr sees going forward. […]
Federal agency and private-sector healthcare officials agreed this week that the sharp increase in delivery of telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic has advanced state of the art in service delivery, along with the need to ramp up cybersecurity protections. […]
Government network operators can’t manage what they are unable to see. But the latest technology developed by Ciena and deployed by CenturyLink is solving that problem by providing network operators with the ability to view their entire IP MPLS networks so they can more easily diagnose and solve network congestion issues. […]
In the last six months, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced government agencies at all levels to radically change how they operate. Federal, state, and local agencies were called to update infrastructure practically overnight to support expected requirements – maximum telework, rapid roll-out of new services, and more. […]
Investments in “basic” IT modernization initiatives, such as improving bandwidth and updating laptops, were the backbone behind telework success at the Department of Energy (DOE) as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, CIO Rocky Campione said at the September 3 Lessons from DOE: Foresight and Focus Keep the Grid Humming webinar. […]
While the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint AI Center (JAIC) moves forward on its Joint Common Foundation (JCF) and other initiatives, Acting Director Nand Mulchandani underscored the continuing need for data sets and security measures as the basis of AI efforts. […]
With the 2020 General Election a mere eight weeks away, election officials at both the state and Federal level are preparing for the final sprint to Nov. 3. […]
A recent report from Uptime Institute forecasts that most data center owners and operators will move to make their operations more resilient in the future – a decision spurred not only by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but also a desire to be ready to meet the impact of any future such event. […]
The new cybersecurity standard for contractors in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) supply chain ecosystem is soon to have regulatory backing, according to Katie Arrington, CISO for Acquisition and Sustainment at the DoD. […]
The overwhelming majority – 81 percent – of Federal agencies are increasing their adoption of multi-cloud to support telework and mission needs related to COVID-19, according to a recent GDIT and MeriTalk report. However, nearly half – 42 percent – of Federal cybersecurity managers surveyed said their cyber strategies can’t keep pace with evolving multi-cloud environments. […]
Assessing the current threat landscape six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Christopher Krebs listed nation-state spies, cybercriminals committing fraud, and the spread of disinformation as top cyberattack vectors. […]
While the COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-ranging effects on the Federal workforce, one positive impact has been to boost the efficiency of Federal agency employees in how they approach their day-to-day duties, said Bryan Ware, Assistant Director for Cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]
A new report from Uptime Institute drives home the importance of data center workforce diversity – finding companies that commit to diverse and inclusive workplaces have more effective employee-ambassador recruitment, higher employee retention rates, and better employee career satisfaction scores. […]
Deputy Federal CIO Maria Roat asserted at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit that the Federal government is using a DevSecOps approach to integrate security into every aspect of modernization, but she insisted that the workforce must be cyber ready to be entirely secure. […]
The Federal Communications Commission said on Sept. 4 that the total cost of removing and replacing telecommunications equipment made by China-based Huawei and ZTE from the networks of smaller U.S. carriers could be more than $1.6 billion. […]
Former National Security Agency (NSA) Deputy Director Chris Inglis knows something about cyber education. Inglis is a professor – currently serving as the Looker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Cyber Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy – and he says the nation needs more coordination and investment in cyber education to meet its needs going forward. […]