In the midst of dealing with the fallout from the Russian cyberattack that used SolarWinds software to breach the networks of thousands of the firm’s customers, SolarWinds has hired former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs and his new cybersecurity consulting firm as an independent consultant. […]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved the establishment of the Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) within the Department of State on Thursday to lead diplomatic efforts to deflect cyberattacks from foreign countries.  […]

The Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced last month that it will be conducting a review of the department’s cyber threat data sharing capabilities, pursuant to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 which set up structures for sharing threat data with government and private sector entities.  […]

General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy has asked for the resignations of all agency political appointees in order to demonstrate GSA’s “commitment to a peaceful transition of power” to the incoming Biden administration following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol complex by a mob supportive of President Trump. […]

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen cybersecurity veteran Lisa Monaco as his nominee for Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department (DoJ), and according to a Politico report, is getting ready to name Anne Neuberger deputy national security adviser for cybersecurity on the President’s National Security Council (NSC). […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) issued an “emphatic” call for Federal stakeholders to update older Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, with the message particularly aimed at system administrators in the Department of Defense (DoD), the intelligence community (IC), and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). […]

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) was breached by Russia-backed actors through the use of SolarWinds software, with “highly sensitive” documents – including sealed filings – put at risk, the organization said. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) anticipates awarding a contract on behalf of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) research arm for expert guidance to support DoD’s cloud migration efforts. […]

The citywide curfews in the District of Columbia and Virginia suburbs Alexandria and Arlington expired at 6 am on Thursday, Jan. 7, after multiple security breaches at the U.S. Capitol building by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new round of supplemental guidance on Jan. 6 to the emergency directive that the agency issued on Dec. 13, 2020, providing remediation guidance in response to the Russia-backed hack of more than 18,000 government and private sector systems via SolarWinds Orion products. […]

The U.S. Courts released a request for information (RFI) seeking Cloud Management Portal (CMP) products to support both private and commercial cloud hosting providers. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is updating its repository for enterprise data, which will now be able to support multiple information systems for the DoD’s defense business enterprise. […]

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the research arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has launched a multi-year research effort aimed at expanding wide-area satellite imagery technologies. […]

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a citywide curfew beginning at 6 p.m. ET for the entire city of Washington following multiple and continuing security breaches today at the U.S. Capitol complex. […]

The Department of Education said it anticipates releasing a solicitation seeking cloud hosting, system administration, and website support and development for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), according to a recent Beta.Sam.gov posting. […]

A new audit report released by the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found deficiencies in the agency’s IT controls related to cash management and federal debt information systems. […]

The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is gaining two new supercomputers to upgrade its computing abilities. […]

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on how to best distribute $3.2 billion of funding approved by Congress late last month as part of combined FY 2021 government funding and COVID-19 relief legislation to help low-income Americans access internet services. […]

The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University – which focuses on data and technology issues to drive more equitable practices in society – has named Cori Zarek executive director. […]

Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies said today they believe that “fewer than ten” Federal agencies have been targeted by “follow-on” activity after initial breaches in the Russia-directed hacking of government networks via SolarWinds Orion products. […]

The White House issued the National Maritime Cybersecurity Plan – a plan for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop and deploy a maritime cybersecurity workforce in order to monitor, protect and mitigate cyber threats to the maritime sector. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a new draft of its Polaris Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) on Dec. 31, 2020 and is seeking feedback from the small business IT community by the end of the month, according to an RFP posted on beta.SAM.gov. […]

The newest version of the “United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions” document – known colloquially as the Plum Book – shows that at least six major Federal IT positions could see changes during the transition to the Biden Administration in the coming months. […]

After being excluded from the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the 117th Congress made the Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program (FedRAMP) Authorization Act one of the first bills passed in the House, passing by voice vote today. […]

The Biden-Harris transition team has chosen two Obama White House veterans – David Recordon and Austin Lin – to run technology operations in the White House’s Office of Management and Administration (OMA). […]

The State Department has kicked off the new year with a bang. The Department announced on Jan. 4 that it has appointed Dr. Matthew Graviss as its first-ever Chief Data Officer (CDO). Graviss will lead the Office of Management Strategy and Solution’s Center for Analytics (CfA), which is the State’s enterprise data capability. […]

The United States Postal Service (USPS) did not do enough to ensure that some of its main IT contracts were well-managed and remained competitive, bringing spending under the contract into question, according to a report from the USPS Office of Inspector General. […]

The U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) is in the planning stages of creating a software development wing of the Army that would reduce its reliance on vendor software. AFC put out a call for white papers on Dec. 28 which they will use to invite vendors to submit prototypes and, later, award a contract by March of this year, according to the Federal government’s beta.SAM.gov website. […]

A Treasury Department official told House Ways and Means Committee members in a Dec. 23 letter that the agency has found no evidence that the suspected Russia-backed breach of Federal government systems via SolarWinds Orion products exposed U.S. taxpayer data. […]

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought pushed back strongly Dec. 31 on claims by President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team that OMB is dragging its feet on providing required assistance to the transition team. […]