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. […]
FBI Issues PSA on Cyber Threats due to COVID-19 According to a Public Service Announcement (PSA) by the FBI, cyber threat actors are attempting to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploiting virtual environments. “As of March 30, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received and reviewed more than 1,200 complaints related […]
In an April 3 letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Democratic senators are questioning the data privacy of the company’s COVID-19 coronavirus screening website despite Apple’s promises not to collect identifying health information. […]
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., asked Zoom Communications CEO Eric Yuan in an April 6 letter for a detailed accounting of the company’s security and privacy practices following numerous press reports of security complaints about the company’s teleconference services. […]
Everyone knows by now that the best way to flatten the coronavirus curve is to stay at home as much as possible and practice physical distancing. But as weeks of social distancing drag into months, cabin fever and loneliness have begun to set in. […]
In the modern era of IT security, few have seen as much – and done more to make it secure – than Bill Rucker, president of Trustwave Government Solutions. In the midst of a 20-year stretch in the public sector market that began with Intellitactics prior to its acquisition by Trustwave, Rucker leads the company’s effort to help government fight cybercrime, protect data, and reduce security risk. […]
The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in the Department of Defense will be training individuals to implement and champion the AI principles which the department adopted. […]
After Congress agreed to pass the CARES Act in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote to House Democrats that it is time to “double down” on those efforts. […]
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to use cloth face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Department (DoD) is directing military personnel, DoD civilian employees, their family members, and contractors to cover their faces in public settings. […]
The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (AI) is calling for a national research cloud led by the Federal government to fuel innovation and collaboration between academia, the public sector, and industry. […]
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) update its Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancement (BASE) cybersecurity template to reflect key cybersecurity practices. […]
Here’s an overview of some of the latest developments on the government and tech fronts due to COVID-19: […]
The Department of Defense is working to get the word out about its new cybersecurity certification for contractors in the Defense Industrial Base. […]
As the COVID-19 coronavirus spreads throughout the United States, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the most up-to-date news on the pandemic. […]
While new information about the novel Coronavirus continues to develop and economic uncertainty remains, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) updated an economic forecast to account for the pandemic. […]
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) voted in favor of adopting a $200 million telehealth program, as appropriated by the CARES Act, to help healthcare providers purchase telecommunications devices and broadband connectivity. […]
The Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) says that those involved in developing wireless, Internet of Things, 5G, and other compute-rich networks are at security and economic risk and that the solution is global supply chain security standards and programs that are industry driven. […]
As efforts to control the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have increased, the Federal government has moved the majority of its workers to telework. While this is a great step to enable social distancing, it does open up serious cybersecurity concerns. […]
In a letter to the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote asking to “consistently implement” relief for contractors amid the novel Coronavirus outbreak. […]