Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
elections, voting, election security, midterms

An apparent series of interconnected failures surrounding the use of a key vote-tallying phone app – plus delays associated with a phone-reporting backup system – derailed the reporting of the Iowa Democratic Caucus results last night, even as more states and localities are preparing to add app technologies to some aspects of their election processes. […]

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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a Jan. 31 estimate that the Harvesting American Cybersecurity Knowledge through Education (HACKED) Act of 2019 would cost $57 million to implement over the next five years. […]

NIST
Federal Cloud Flag

Two major government IT policy developments over the past year are working to drive the pace and sophistication of Federal cloud-based network adoption – and the advent of Cloud Ready Networks (CRN) that are designed to accommodate those policy trends and the long-term benefits they envision. […]

Federal healthcare agencies are pushing forward on modernizing their IT systems with the goal of providing better care and health services for patients, but the journey is anything but short, or easy. […]

Army
VA

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert Wilkie removed Deputy Secretary James Byrne from his post Feb. 3 following controversy about how Byrne responded to an alleged sexual assault at an agency medical center. […]

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The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today seeking regulations for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. […]

Pentagon DoD Defense Military

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) announced today the creation of a new research data hub to expand STEM education research. […]

Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center (JAIC) Director Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan is retiring from the Air Force in Summer 2020, JAIC spokesman Lieutenant Commander Arlo Abrahamson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) held the first of two planned townhall meetings on electronic rulemaking (eRulemaking) on Jan. 30 to gather comments on the agency’s approach to modernizing eRulemaking management in order to, among other aims, mitigate fake comments and manage mass-comment campaigns. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released the final version of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), which aims to certify DoD contractors’ cybersecurity practices and bolster supply chain security. […]

GSA General Services Administration

The General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported three weaknesses in GSA’s Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliance for Fiscal Year 2019 in a report dated Dec. 5, 2019, but released on Jan. 30.   […]

General Services Administration GSA

The General Services Administration (GSA) began a mass modification to its multiple award schedules (MAS) Jan. 31 to consolidate all 24 systems into a single schedule, marking the second phase of its strategy to modernize the Federal acquisition system. […]

Federal supply chain security threats are growing, and government and industry alike are directing more attention to reducing risks. Some, including Jeff Moore, senior vice president, Sterling Computers, believe the reseller channel is particularly vulnerable and needs significantly more attention. […]

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today approved final rules for a program that will funnel $20.4 billion over ten years to communications service providers to extend fast broadband services to unserved and underserved areas of the U.S. […]

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capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House Jan. 24 would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to establish a free cybersecurity marketplace for small businesses to purchase services from security vendors. […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has chosen CenturyLink to provide wide-area network and high-speed network services to the agency via the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) program. […]

GSA General Services Administration

The General Services Administration (GSA) has named Julie Dunne commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), after appointing her acting commissioner of FAS in October 2019. […]

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged lawmakers on Jan. 29 to consider action on several steps the U.S. could take to extend its technological leadership in the world and fend off tech competition from China, including expanding a National Science Foundation (NSF) program to connect agency-sponsored researchers to more cloud computing resources. […]

Cybersecurity flag

In Part One of MeriTalk’s discussion with Maitland Muse, Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances at AppGuard, we discussed the ways that traditional antivirus technologies have been compromised, and how a new approach to defending agency networks is required. […]

White House flag at half mast

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