MeriTalk recently connected with ManTech’s Seana McMoil, Senior Executive Director, National Cybersecurity Programs, on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted agencies’ cyber defense plans, and the importance of raising awareness of women in cybersecurity as October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month. […]

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has released results of a two-part survey that found most GPO employees were satisfied with IT support and top leadership’s communication in keeping them informed during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee want the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is handling cybersecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said in an October 9 letter. […]

Even before its official launch, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program is generating additional interest in its applicability for non-defense sectors, panelists said at the CISQ Cyber Resilience Summit. […]

Bob Kolasky, Director of the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), today pronounced state and local election authorities “well positioned” to conduct secure elections next month. […]

With the Federal government placing more and more emphasis on supply chain security, harmonizing various efforts to reduce confusion is an important step towards better regulation, said Grant Schneider, former Federal CISO, and now senior director of cybersecurity services at Venable. […]

The General Services Administration’s 18F office has released “de-risking” guides to help agencies deliver successful IT projects on both the Federal and state levels. 18F, which is part of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization, partners with Federal agencies to assist them in improving the user experience of government services by helping agencies build and buy technology. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 guidance has taken center stage this year not only as a long-planned policy evolution, but also as a potential life-saver for Federal agencies to employ new use cases applicable to their need to implement wide-ranging and long-lasting telework. […]

The U.S. Army is looking to equip military dogs with augmented reality (AR) goggles to help keep human soldiers out of harm’s way. […]

U.S. policy-makers and several close foreign allies issued a statement this weekend calling for technology providers to provide access for governments and law enforcement to encrypted data and protected systems. […]

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office last month released to Congress its interoperability strategy which aims to optimize the interoperability of information systems that the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) use to support health care of active duty military and veterans. […]

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to take further action to spur improvements in aircraft avionics systems in order to meet evolving cybersecurity threats and the trend toward increased connectivity between aircraft and systems, the Government Accountability Office said. […]

The Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) is offering up $10 million in funding to research how COVID-19 spreads on public transit. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has appointed Billy Bob Brown Jr. Assistant Director for Emergency Communications. […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $72 million in distance learning and telemedicine infrastructure in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. […]

Chairs of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Darren Soto, D-Fla., re-introduced legislation earlier this week to expand government use and the definition of blockchain, ensuring the use of the technology for electronic records and signatures. […]

The Defense Department (DoD) is putting $600 million toward additional 5G wireless experiments and testing at five military sites, with more to follow. […]

The American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) released the its Ethical Application of AI Framework whitepaper on Oct. 8 to help government leaders ethically determine how much confidence to place in technologies that comprise AI. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) released its enterprisewide data strategy yesterday, paving the way for use of data as a strategic asset across all component agencies. […]

The National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) approved 71 draft recommendations related to artificial intelligence today that offer suggestions for changes across the Federal government. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aiming to make improvements to a program designed to share cyber threat data between government and the private sector entities – at the same time as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report calling for several specific program improvements. […]

Nearly six months into the COVID-19 pandemic impacting how nearly every organization operates, ServiceNow’s global “The Work Survey” offers insight into how executives and employees view the increased reliance on technology and the shift to telework. […]

Looking ahead to a post-pandemic future, Department of Transportation (DoT) CIO Ryan Cote said at MeriTalk’s October 7 CIO Crossroads webinar that the workplace structure will be forever changed as organizations and Federal agencies realize the value of technology implemented throughout the mass shift to remote work. […]

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) CIO Karen Evans said today she needs to make sure that the agency’s ability to conduct large-scale telework remains sustained as uncertainty continues over future developments with the coronavirus pandemic. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is inching closer to the launch of a Cyber Talent Management System (CTMS) to help improve and expand the agency’s cyber workforce. […]

Across several agencies with the Department of Defense (DoD), building a zero-trust architecture to secure IT systems is becoming the strategy of choice for agency leaders as several confirmed efforts to transition over from a traditional perimeter approach today. […]

Federal agencies have made significant progress on open data, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not issued implementation guidance or performance reports under the OPEN Government Data Act, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

President Trump intends to appoint Sean Plankey Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), according to an Oct. 7 release from the White House. […]

A new report from the White House’s National Quantum Coordination Office (NQCO) identifies eight quantum technology “frontier” areas that it says contain “core problems with fundamental questions” confronting quantum information science (QIS). […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) on October 7 released a request for information for vendors and other interested parties on “resource-efficient technologies that improve commercial building health and resilience.” […]