The House Appropriations Committee released a second of five appropriations minibus FY2020 spending bills for Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the finalized version of Special Publication (SP) 800-205 today, offering a guide for implementing attributes in Federal access control systems. […]
The U.S. Army is revamping its strategy for acquiring intellectual property (IP) to meet sustainment goals and use data more efficiently, said Dr. Alexis Lasselle Ross, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategy and Acquisition Reform. […]
A new zero-day flaw has been discovered in a TP-Link Wi-Fi extender, according to an IBM blog post published today. […]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai on June 17 announced formation of a new agency task force aimed at putting more broadband service to work to advance precision agriculture. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for feedback on the nation’s high-performance computing resources as the agency develops a new National Strategic Computing Initiative. Responses are due by August 23. […]
Michael Chertoff, formerly secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and now at the helm of risk-management and security consulting firm Chertoff Group, said today he believes that U.S. data regulation will end up taking a page from European data privacy laws by giving citizens greater ability to control what companies do with their data. […]
As of April, 209,000 Americans have volunteered to provide their personal health data for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program to build a national research cohort of over 1 million participants that will help drive the Precision Medicine Initiative. But those participants may have placed their data at risk. […]
The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 2500) includes a provision to establish new acquisition pathways for software applications and software upgrades, as well as develop a program for acquisition training and management. […]
The worsening worldwide shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals is shaping up to be a key driver to cloud-delivered security services, explained Peter Firstbrook, a VP analyst with Gartner, at the company’s Security and Risk Management Summit on June 17. […]
The United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) did not properly manage its active directory, leaving multiple vulnerabilities and showing little improvement from previous audits of the agency’s cybersecurity posture, according to a Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General (IG) report released June 13. […]
As the Department of Homeland Security Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) has begun migrating its biometric processing system to the cloud, the office issued a Request for Information (RFI) today to gather information for developing, maintaining, and securing its data on the new cloud environment. […]
Among the many amendments that representatives will pitch next week to adjust the House spending package, Reps. Anthony Brown, D-Md., and Tim Walberg, R-Mich., look to introduce amendments to increase cybersecurity funding. […]
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced the Deter Obnoxious, Nefarious, and Outrageous Telephone (DO NOT) Call Act of 2019 on June 14. The legislation “will improve enforcement and enhance penalties for violations made under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA),” according to the bill’s sponsors. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Federal government does not collect data on airline IT outages, leading to limited insights into how IT outages impact travelers, according to a report released June 12. […]
Reps. Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., and Tim Walberg R-Mich., introduced new legislation on June 13 to “help close the workforce shortage in the telecommunications industry.” The legislators said the TOWER Infrastructure Deployment Act, H.R. 3255, “reflects the need for a highly-skilled, professional workforce equipped to deploy 5G, lightning-fast broadband networks, and new broadcast technology.” […]
Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif, introduced the Less Traffic with Smart Stop Lights Act of 2019 (HR 3261) on June 13 to establish a Department of Transportation grant program to modernize stoplights to “reduce traffic, improve safety, reduce fuel costs, and lessen air pollution.” […]
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has promoted Matthew Schruers from vice president of law and policy to chief operating officer. […]
On June 13, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas, introduced the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Cyber Training Act (H.R. 3266) that would direct the Secretary of Defense to initiate a high school-level program that would increase JROTC students’ preparation for careers in computer science and cybersecurity. […]
Both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agree that OPM is facing delays in handling retirement applications and needs to replace the paper-based process, but GAO urged OPM to come up with a more concrete IT modernization plan for the program in a report released Friday, June 14. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA’s) contracting branch – the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) – will reduce its enterprise acquisition services fee starting Oct. 1. […]
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced the Protecting Personal Health Data Act today to safeguard the privacy of consumer health data from companies that collect such data. […]
Seven companies – Box, Dropbox, Okta, Slack, Twilio, Workday, and Zendesk – announced the launch of the Enterprise Cloud Coalition (ECC) on June 13. […]
Veterans submitted 3,000 benefits compensation claims using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) new Disability Compensation Claim Tool in the first month of the tool’s launch and have reported positive experiences using it, the VA announced in a June 13 news release. […]
ACT-IAC announced it is seeking government and industry experts to volunteer for a work group to exchange information on cloud security authorizations to operate (ATOs). ACT-IAC is establishing the group to help the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization and FedRAMP learn more about industry’s approach to security and cloud authorizations. The group […]
In light of the increasing ubiquity of data breaches, Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today recommending that Federal agencies should discontinue knowledge-based verification to strengthen their remote identity proofing processes and that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should provide guidance in creating alternative identity proofing methods. […]
While auditing for potential violations of contracting regulations, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found weaknesses in the administration of the $22.3 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract. […]
Agencies continue to move their data to the cloud, but increasing adoption of cloud applications outside of existing security programs like FedRAMP (the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) and the CIO’s office brings security concerns as well, a new report notes. […]
Despite organizations’ efforts to improve customer experience (CX), the 2019 Forrester CX Index indicates little to no rise in CX scores from last year across a range of industries, and that technology is the key forward in improving CX. […]
Artificial Intelligence and how it may impact employees is front-of-mind when it comes to workforce issues, but having “organizational depth” can help ease the transition of implementing AI in a rational and beneficial way. […]