As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to play out with no firm end-date in sight, its impact on major events has been felt widely and the status of future events grows only more uncertain. […]
A group of Federal agencies including the Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) departments are urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke authorizations held by China Telecom (Americas) Corp. to provide service between China and the U.S. The agencies said the company’s ownership by the Chinese government poses “unacceptable” risks to U.S. security. […]
Over 1,000 files on cyberattacks collected by security provider CrowdStrike in March mentioned the COVID-19 coronavirus, and Adam Meyers, the company’s VP of Intelligence, said the trend will only continue through April. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) are urging intelligence agencies to use a provision in recent Federal stimulus legislation which enables Federal contractors to be paid if they cannot telework or report to work due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) is setting up an ordering guide, templates, and procurement resources for Federal agencies to obtain enhanced screening services for their facilities due to the Coronavirus pandemic. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is advising the Federal workforce to use the “Zoom for Government” platform for teleconferencing instead of the company’s free service. […]
A month deep into the coronavirus pandemic, the problem isn’t finding news on the COVID-19 virus and its impacts, it’s finding too much of it – and having to sort it all out to discern the bottom-line impacts. […]
Federal Communications Commission Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has made access to broadband “no longer a luxury.” […]
Under the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has provided links to free and low-cost online cybersecurity educational content. […]
Cloud is more important now than ever to provide the necessary flexibility, security, and scalability to support the growing remote workforce. While government agencies have made significant progress in adopting cloud – through OMB’s Cloud First and Cloud Smart policies – there is still more to be done. […]
Bill Marion, deputy CIO at the U.S. Air Force, will be leaving his position at the end of April, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
Robert Carey, VP/GM Global Public Sector Solutions at RSA Security, has rightly earned the ability to take the long view of large-scale technology deployments across both the private and public sectors. He’s six years into a second private-sector career with previous stops at GDIT and Vencore since capping off an eight-year run as CIO of the Department of the Navy, and then Principal Deputy CIO at the Department of Defense. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has pushed back its Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program – despite the core software for the program being “over 99 percent complete” – to focus more fully on healthcare challenges during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. […]
Here’s an overview of some of the latest COVID-19 coronavirus developments on the government and tech fronts: […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released interim Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 guidance today focused on the rapid transition to telework as Federal agencies adjust their operations to combat spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. […]
The Democratic Party’s top leaders in the House and Senate today proposed a $500 billion interim emergency coronavirus relief bill as a prelude to the next jumbo-sized relief measure that could rival the size of the $2 trillion CARES Act legislation signed by President Trump late last month. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is prioritizing COVID-19-related listings on USAJOBS to promote agency response to the pandemic. Job postings related to COVID-19 will be tagged as such to make it easier for visitors to sort through, to elevate those job postings on the site, and to allow OPM to better track progress on filling those positions. […]
In a joint alert from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the agencies warned against cyber threats from malicious online groups exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
The Defense Department (DoD) is investing $600 million along with the work of more than 1,000 people in its effort to develop vaccines and treatments for the COVID-19 coronavirus, a DoD official said April 7. […]
An executive order signed by President Trump on April 4 creates a formal Federal agency structure to scrutinize applications by foreign entities to acquire U.S.-based telecommunications assets, the Department of Justice said (DoJ) on April 7. […]
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is in the process of notifying small business applicants impacted by an exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) in connection with their its Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications. […]
Here’s an overview of some of the latest developments on the government and tech fronts due to COVID-19: […]
Final guidance to the Multiple-Award Schedule (MAS) Modification is ready for use by contractors, according to the General Services Administration (GSA). […]
As schools have closed down across the country to combat the spread of COVID-19, students are increasingly needing broadband access to take part in digital learning. However, there are still wide swaths of the country – much of it rural – that lack access to broadband. […]
In an agencywide memo, NASA CIO Renee Wynn warned that cyber threats have significantly increased during the Coronavirus pandemic. […]
Federal agencies spent almost $1 billion on contracts related to the COVID-19 coronavirus in the past week, boosting total spend to $2.3 billion in coronavirus spending since February, according to data obtained today from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). […]
Department of Defense (DoD) CIO Dana Deasy is leading a Telework Readiness Task Force to ease the agency’s transition to telework and improve cybersecurity, DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
In a Dear Colleague letter to House members, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told members that the House is taking additional action to limit physical presence in the Capitol by formalizing electronic submissions for floor documents. “Beginning [today], staff must electronically submit all Floor documents – including bills, resolutions, co-sponsors and extensions of remarks – to […]
It’s Day 21 of quarantine (but who’s counting?), and now that we’re about 1,000 Zoom meetings in, we’ve noticed that grooming habits in our Fed IT community have, shall we say, evolved… […]
The fifteen-member Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body hosted an online meeting of thousands today, with the biggest news being that no third-party assessment groups have yet been appointed to help in the effort by the Defense Department (DoD) to create formal cybersecurity certifications for defense industrial base firms. […]