Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

A dozen legislative proposals designed to make the nation more resilient to a cyber attack have been submitted to congressional committees by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, who released its report the week before Federal agencies were told to “maximize telework.” […]

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Accreditation Body (AB) Chair Ty Schieber and Department of Defense (DoD) Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Katie Arrington shared new insights on what CMMC-AB looks like and how companies can expect to interact with it. […]

Cyber America Connected Internet of things
army fitness apps

The Department of the Interior (DOI) has tripled its remote work numbers amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic as agencies were instructed to maximize telework. […]

telework
innovation

Just like in pharmaceuticals, IT teams and end users use technology and applications off label. And, in extraordinary times, necessity is the mother of invention – you see heightened human ingenuity and even more creative off-label tech adoption. […]

Army

The Army Research Laboratory is building a new service to study the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) and determine the learning methods that benefit both soldiers and tech, according to an April 20 presolicitation. […]

Resiliency has taken on new meaning for government agencies as they accommodate new ways of working due to COVID-19 and as a result, grapple with an exponentially larger attack surface. MeriTalk sat down with former Navy CIO and DoD Deputy CIO, Robert Carey, now VP/GM of Global Public Sector Solutions at RSA Security, to talk about steps agencies can take to ensure they meet their missions in the short term, as well as in the longer term as we navigate toward the “new normal.” […]

Microsoft HQ
map global connected network world globe-min

The United States Agency for International Development operates in over 100 countries, providing foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. On March 2, approximately 65 percent of the overseas workforce logged in to their computers at USAID facilities while just 22 percent of the nearly 7,000 overseas staff logged in remotely or teleworked. […]

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is requesting a switch to remote voting amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in an April 21 letter to Chairperson of the Committee on House Administration Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Chairperson of the Rules Committee Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are seeking submissions for research concepts in the technical domain of disrupting machine vision systems without in-depth knowledge of how they were built or trained. […]

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved almost entirely to telework, an EPA spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

video conferencing
Pentagon, DoD

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Defense Department (DoD), and Federal Electronic Health Records Modernization (FEHRM) program office launched a modernized health data sharing capability which will enhance both VA’s and DoD’s ability to securely exchange records with community health care partners. […]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has expanded telecom access for essential workers, including public safety and national security professionals. CISA said that as of April 19, it has provided priority telecom services to 65,606 additional public safety and national security professionals, in both the public and private sectors. […]

Health Data
HUD Urban Development

Since the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instructed all employees who could to work from home just over a month ago, the agency is now reporting that 95 percent of their employees are currently teleworking, a senior HUD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) hasn’t implemented any priority recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2019 and now GAO has identified three additional recommendations, including one involving cybersecurity. […]

State Department

The State Department workforce is at about 90 percent telework, with the remaining 10 percent performing duties not transferrable to telework such as driving, CIO Stuart McGuigan announced at the April 21 AFCEA breakfast. […]

White House

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are prepping Federal agencies to start sending employees back to the office, as outlined in a memo released today. […]

Here’s an overview of some of the latest developments on the government and tech fronts due to COVID-19. […]

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