For more than two years, Department of Defense (DoD) fourth estate agencies have undertaken the challenging task of migrating more than 100 data centers to milCloud 2.0. With the Fiscal Year 2020 deadline for that migration having passed on September 30, DoD agencies are focused on making sure their migration to milCloud 2.0 is driving toward outcomes that matter. […]
At the start of COVID-19, Federal IT leaders not only had to enable Federal telework overnight, but also accelerate their modernization efforts to minimize disruptions, deliver access to needed applications and data, and at the same time increase network and data security. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is suggesting that the U.S. Army improve its use of alternative agreements and approaches for contracts – such as technology competitions and granting access to Army labs – by analyzing how those approaches are working and sharing lessons learned enterprise-wide. […]
The Treasury Department is asking organizations not to pay off malicious actors to terminate ransomware attacks without carefully considering possible national security threats – and said it may implement penalties for organizations that choose to pay ransom to their attackers. […]
New bipartisan legislation is aimed at addressing transparency issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers (VAMC). […]
The increased shift to telework seems like it is here to stay as employers work to slow the spread of COVID-19 several months into the pandemic, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released new telework tips for leaders, IT professionals, and teleworkers to keep the remote environment secure. […]
It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and a good time to talk about how Federal agencies need to make network security a top priority. MeriTalk recently sat down with Jim Carnes of Ciena, and Zain Ahmed of Lumen Technologies, to discuss the importance of Federal government cybersecurity efforts – and take a deeper dive into the importance of a connected network, how partnerships garner the best results, and what to keep in mind while improving security efforts. […]
On Sept. 30, the House of Representatives approved by voice vote, the Chai Suthammanont Remembrance Act, which is legislation that aims to protect Federal employees from COVID-19. […]
Weeks after the Department of Defense (DoD) asked industry for information regarding how the department could “own and operate 5G networks for domestic operations,” several top Republican senators sent a letter to the White House this week urging the President to “remain on the free-market path” in the 5G wireless race. […]
The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is crowdsourcing for answers on how to apply differential privacy solutions to complex data sets regarding public safety, and is dangling $276,000 in cash prizes to jumpstart the effort. […]
Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier became the 22nd director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) this week after the retirement of Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr., and a change of command and retirement ceremony on Oct. 1 with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley presiding. […]
The Federal CIO Council’s Federal Investment Management Community of Practice and ACT-IAC’s IT Management and Modernization Community of Interest have released an IT spending transparency maturity model in line with the Federal Data Strategy action plan and Technology Business Management (TBM) implementation. […]
The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today issued a new draft paper to help organizations address ransomware and other data integrity events. […]
The House on Sept. 30 approved the Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act, a bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that would require the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services group to establish a Modernization Centers of Excellence (CoE) “to facilitate the adoption of modern technology by executive agencies.” […]
The bias and ethics of artificial intelligence application are still being worked out on a case-by-case basis, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) IT Lab Chief of Staff Elham Tabassi said yesterday that an assessment process to minimize harm is not necessarily in the near future. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week approved new rules and procedures to streamline and improve the timeliness and transparency of how FCC coordinates with other Federal agencies in assessing national security, law enforcement, foreign policy, or trade policy issues that may impact foreign ownership applications filed with the commission. […]
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the American Competitiveness on More Productive Emerging Tech Economy (COMPETE Act) and the Consumer Safety Technology Act (H.R. 8128), both now move to the Senate for consideration. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is partnering with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a public-private partnership dedicated to the cause, to lead the 17th annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month starting today. […]
The Library of Congress, which includes millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections, is seeking a cloud-based approach for interacting with digital collections as data. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is aiming for big progress in Fiscal Year 2021 on upgrading agency and Federal-level dashboard infrastructure and improving the quality of data coming from agency network sensors, along with continuing to get a better handle on how agencies employ cloud infrastructure and cloud security. […]
Three tech-sector veterans, in conjunction with MeriTalk, will cut through the confusion about an important aspect of the new tech environment – the virtual desktop experience – during a virtual tech briefing set for Wednesday, Oct. 14, from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm Eastern time. The complementary briefing will explain how to make the virtual desktop experience productive, efficient, and safe. […]
The House of Representative this week voted to approve a collection of bills that aim to improve cybersecurity in the energy sector, inform the use of emerging technologies, and establish R&D plans. […]
After multiple delays of the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization program, a critical part of the project is set to “go live” later this month, VA officials told members of Congress on Sept. 30. […]
President Trump today signed a continuing budget resolution that will fund Federal government operations at Fiscal Year 2020 spending levels through Dec. 11. The President’s approval of funding legislation passed by the House Sept. 22 and the Senate Sept. 30 narrowly averted a government shutdown following the end of FY2020 yesterday. […]
Federal legislation to help strengthen the cybersecurity of state and local governments through a Department of Homeland Security grant program passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 30 – with impetus for the legislation coming from across the U.S. in the form of numerous ransomware and other attacks in recent years. […]
In a discussion about creating more diversity in the field of cybersecurity, Department of Agriculture CISO Venice Goodwine encouraged cyber professionals not to let anyone put them in a box, to invest in themselves, and to be deliberate in their career decisions. […]
A two-part ransomware guide released yesterday by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) directs cyber professionals on how to protect against and respond to attack. […]
MeriTalk spoke with Felipe Fernandez, Director of Systems Engineering, Fortinet, to hear his thoughts on dynamic cloud security and the impact it’s having on our Federal government during telework. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today reported results of its review of Federal agency efforts to reduce IT contracts duplication, and found that four of the seven agencies reviewed had fully or partially taken recommended steps to regularly identify potential contract duplication. […]
A recurring theme in America’s response to the COVID pandemic is to work from home. While this is seen to help flatten the curve of COVID, it has created a new challenge to the cyber community. More now than ever, workers are relying on secure connections to continue working at full capacity. Both industry and Federal guidelines and tools have quickly adapted to help create safe cyber environments, but is it enough? […]