Robot

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on July 31, introduced a bill to combat illegal robocalls. […]

elections, election security, voting

In response to the 2017  Cambridge Analytica scandal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the Voter Privacy Act on July 31. The legislation would give voters greater control over how their personal information is used by political candidates and campaigns in Federal elections. Feinstein’s office said currently there is no Federal law regulating the collection and use of voter data by political organizations. […]

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) released a draft interagency report to establish a core baseline guide for cybersecurity that manufacturers may adopt for Internet of Things (IoT) devices they produce. […]

Customer experience CX-min

The Senate on July 25 approved the Federal Agency Customer Experience Act (S. 1275), which would charge Federal agencies with gathering customer feedback about agency services, and to make some of that feedback data public. […]

USDA Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken implementation of FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) to heart, making it part of performance plans, department policy, and gaining visibility across its IT environment, USDA officials explained July 31 at an ACT-IAC event. […]

Christopher Krebs under secretary undersecretary DHS Department of Homeland Security National Protection and Programs Directorate NPPD leader CISA cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency

Christopher Krebs, Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), today outlined a range of security concerns associated with deployment of 5G wireless networks in the U.S., and offered a list of top-level recommendations for government and industry to deal with them. […]

Congress Capitol Senate House

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) said it uncovered a transnational fraud ring that has impersonated DHS procurement officials in order to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars of IT equipment. […]

broadband 5g -min

The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) took the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to task in a July 22 report that finds “control weaknesses” in FirstNet’s handling of a $336 million payment it made to its contractor AT&T. Separately, FirstNet said it has taken action to resolve the issue. […]

email security DMARC

The state and local government sector is seeing strong growth in the adoption of DMARC email authentication, but still lags far behind the Federal government and has much room to improve, according to a recent report from Valimail. […]

israel america U.S.

Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., introduced new legislation on July 30 that would require the State Department to investigate the potential benefits of establishing a cooperative U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The bill, dubbed the U.S. -Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence Act, has garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has already introduced a companion bill in the House. […]

Health IT Medical Record

Launched July 30, Data at the Point of Care is a new pilot program from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Digital Service that will assist healthcare providers in providing high quality care to Medicare beneficiaries by giving the providers easier access to a patient’s Medicare data for treatment. […]

workforce federal workers industry-min

In an effort to become a more modern and technologically advanced office, the U.S. Copyright Office is working on a pilot program for its digital recordation system, beginning in the spring of 2020. […]

Blockchain binary

During today’s Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, legislators heard from experts from the private sector, government, and academia regarding regulations needed for blockchain technologies. […]

DoD Pentagon Military

The Department of Defense (DoD) purchased $32.8 million of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) IT products with cybersecurity flaws using government purchase cards, exposing the lack of controls on purchasing COTS items, according to an inspector general report released July 26. […]

Microsoft HQ

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),the  Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the National Governors Association (NGA), and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released new recommendations to help state, local, and tribal governments safeguard against ransomware, and urged governments to take “immediate action” to prevent attacks. […]

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, pressed the Department of Homeland Security in a July 26 letter to deliver an overdue report on biometric identification technology viability.  That report, the senators said, was due to be delivered on July 2. […]

data privacy, people, personal data, binary

In its Mobile Threat Landscape Report, released today, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike highlighted the “key types of mobile malware observed so far in 2019, along with their typical deployment mechanisms.” The report also identified both how and why some adversary groups and cybercriminals are targeting mobile devices for both intelligence and financial gains and takes a forward-looking approach to understand potential changes in the threat landscape. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has awarded a 15-year, $984 million task order on the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract to AT&T, the company announced in a July 29 press release. […]

healthcare cyber-min
John Ratcliffe

Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, will step down on August 15, with President Trump naming Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, as his nominee to replace Coats as the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). […]

Cyber Security Brainstorm

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) needs to do more to help Federal agencies with FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) compliance, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

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