President Joe Biden has nominated Dilawar Syed to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), subject to Senate confirmation. […]

Renata Spinks has been elevated to acting CISO at the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), taking over the position in January 2021. […]

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) awarded $12.6 billion to 144 contractors through its Solutions for Information Technology Enterprise (SITE III) acquisition contract, according to a March 2 Department of Defense announcement. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) released an updated request for information (RFI) searching for guidance on its Best-in-Class Multiple Award Contract (BIC MAC) contract vehicle, which aims to support Federal agencies’ procurement requirements for professional services. […]

The Biden administration has identified cybersecurity and digital threats among its top priorities for national and global security, according to new guidance issued by the White House on March 3. […]

The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR) is looking for a new cloud-based Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint tracking system. […]

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should develop outcome-oriented performance measures and data collection measures to better position it to assess the effectiveness of its initiatives to diversify its security technology marketplace, and give small businesses better chances in the TSA marketplace, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

The Senate was expected later today to introduce its version of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, and to begin 20 hours of scheduled debate on the legislation. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on March 3 issued an emergency directive to Federal civilian agencies to patch a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange on-premises products.  The agency said that cloud services such as Microsoft 365 and Azure systems “are not known to be affected by this vulnerability.” […]

Wanda Jones, the chief security information officer at the U.S. Air Force, said her agency has seen a high level of productivity after the switch to remote work and plans to continue to telework beyond the pandemic, while keeping security top of mind. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) organization has appointed Sonny Bhagowalia as its permanent CIO, MeriTalk has confirmed, letting him take the word “acting” off his business cards. Bhagowalia had held the position in an acting capacity since last June when former CBP CIO Phil Landfried retired. […]

Shalanda Young – currently the Biden administration’s nominee to become deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – attracted key support from congressional Democrats today to become director of OMB. […]

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) – which drives the Defense Department’s (DoD) effort to make faster use of emerging commercial technologies – reported a 35 percent year-over-year jump in new projects for 2020. […]

The Federal government’s response to the Russia-backed SolarWinds cyberhack – and the pressing need for government agencies to speed progress on putting in place cybersecurity protections including through the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – […]

Working beyond organizational boundaries and improving access to digital services is critical for IT modernization and the Biden-Harris administration’s Federal IT priorities. […]

The use of telehealth skyrocketed throughout 2020, and while helped stem the spread of COVID-19, its increased use laid bare the logistical and regulatory challenges facing telehealth. […]

The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing today on the nomination of Shalanda Young to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in which Young voiced her commitment to ensuring investments to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). […]

After the House version of the reconciliation bill passed last week, the Senate will bring its version of the bill to a vote by week’s end, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. While the Senate is still working on finalizing its draft of the legislation, parameters for votes and amendments have already been set, according to internal Senate communication. […]

In a blog post for the General Services Administration (GSA), Commissioner at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Sonny Hashmi outlined FAS’ commitment to progressing reform initiatives, administrative priorities, pandemic support, and data management. […]

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) recently welcomed the addition of Amazon Web Services GovCloud services to the milCloud 2.0 lineup under an agreement announced last month. The new partnership gives Department of Defense (DoD) mission partners an easy and effective way to adopt both fit-for-purpose and general purpose cloud capabilities for a wide variety of workloads. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) has appointed Greg Sisson the agency’s permanent chief information security officer (CISO). […]

MeriTalk recently connected with ViON’s Rob Davies, chief operating officer, and Andy Flick, director of cloud services, to discuss how multi-cloud initiatives, alongside new ways of thinking about IT procurement, can transform Federal IT infrastructure. […]

The Army’s Deputy CIO Greg Garcia retired on Feb. 26, ending nearly four decades in Federal service, Army’s CIO office confirmed. Garcia served as the Army’s first deputy CIO since last August when the CIO and G-6 offices split into separate organizations. […]

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) published its 2021 report today in which it concludes that “the United States must act now to field AI systems and invest substantially more resources in AI innovation to protect its security, promote its prosperity, and safeguard the future of democracy.” […]

The Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) Office of Information and Technology (OIT) has issued an updated request for information (RFI) searching for guidance on developing its Enterprise Strategic Planning and Governance (ESPG) directorate. […]

Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that President Joe Biden has made a slew of appointments at the Pentagon, including two in the cyber realm.  […]

Homeland Security (DHS) found that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has improved its technology on the U.S. southwest border, but still have challenges to tackle. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has teamed with T-Mobile to deploy 5G capabilities for the Miami VA Healthcare System, providing 5G service to medical staff and patients with capable devices. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) would get a $1 billion funding increase in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, according to a preliminary draft of the Senate version of the legislation obtained from sources by MeriTalk. The Senate will debate its version of the legislation this week. […]

Government agencies and the private sector will spend $100 billion or more to recover from the SolarWinds hack, which went undetected for at least nine months and may have compromised 18,000 government and private sector organizations using SolarWinds Orion software. Even if breached organizations successfully mitigate the damage from SolarWinds, they know adversaries aren’t going to stop trying to get in. If they plug one vector of attack, the adversary will find another to exploit. […]