Members of Congress have a lot on their plates, and on any given day understanding the nuances of technology issues may not be one of them. […]
Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Richard Neal, D-Mass., released a five-year infrastructure investment framework Jan. 29 with $98 billion dedicated to broadband initiatives. […]
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. […]
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. […]
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. […]
The House on Jan. 28 approved by a vote of 385-8 the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act. The bill was passed by the Senate in December 2019, and it’s next stop is the desk of President Trump. […]
Witnesses at today’s House Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing agreed that closing the digital divide and increasing internet adoption in the U.S. requires a combination of private sector competition, and financial and regulatory help from the Federal government. […]
The Department of Interior has issued an order that temporarily grounds the agency’s fleet of nonemergency drones, citing cybersecurity concerns. […]
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) CIO Renee Wynn will retire on March 31 after 30 years of public service, a NASA official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
Members of Congress and officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) discussed the value of data-driven suicide prevention strategies at a Jan. 29 House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing led by committee Chairman Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee today voted to approve two bills important to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its leadership and legal authorities. […]
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Jan. 28 that it filed for a temporary restraining order against five telecommunications companies and three individuals who it says are responsible for carrying hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls to American consumers. […]
ThunderCat Technology has been doing business and providing IT solutions for the Federal government for over 10 years, specializing in cloud, cybersecurity, DevOps, data infrastructure, and so much more. MeriTalk sat down with ThunderCat’s Senior Cloud Architect Randy Pierce to get his insights and thoughts on where hybrid and multi-cloud environments are headed in 2020. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill Jan. 28 to give Federal employees a 3.5 percent pay raise in 2021. […]
United Kingdom authorities said today they will allow communications service providers to use in their networks a limited amount of equipment made by “high risk vendors,” and impose restrictions on more extensive use of equipment from those firms. […]
Mona Sedky, an attorney in the Justice Department’ Computer Crime and Intellectual property section, billed herself today as the “voice of doom,” and lived up to that title in describing the potential security downsides of voice cloning technologies at a Federal Trade Commission workshop. […]
State Department CIO Stuart McGuigan shared today how an IT oversight council and increased emphasis on data strategies are helping the agency improve effectiveness and efficiency of its services. […]
The Pentagon has begun the search for a Chief Data Officer (CDO) that will report directly to the Defense Department’s (DoD) Office of the CIO (OCIO) as the department begins transitioning the CDO position to OICO. […]
While AT&T is on track to meet all nationwide First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) milestones, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week flagged schedule, communication, and end-user satisfaction management issues that it said could stop the program from reaching its full potential. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) released two draft guides on data management and protection in the wake of cyberthreats. […]
As Federal agencies continue the long march away from on-premise networks to the world of cloud and SaaS, the payoff of that migration remains evident, as do a daunting range of complexities that come with the new network architectures. MeriTalk sat down with two Cisco veterans – Distinguished Architect Craig Hill, and Systems Architect Chris Hocker – to talk about cloud ready networks and how Federal agencies can best approach the network architectures necessary to realize the full potential of the cloud paradigm. […]
The Jan. 31 public comment date is fast approaching for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) draft guidance documents for version 3.0 of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Countering Weapon of Mass Destruction Acquisition Division (CWMD) is seeking cloud software engineering services to help with its mission of combating the use of WMDs. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is launching a survey of its private sector partners, according to a Jan. 16 Federal Register posting. […]
Sue Gordon, who stepped down last year as principal deputy director for National Intelligence, has reached a consulting arrangement with Microsoft. […]
A group of privacy and civil liberties groups wrote a letter to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board (PCLOB) urging the board to demand that the President and Secretary of Homeland Security suspend the use of facial recognition systems by Federal agencies. […]
A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) draft report on a new program to standardized and centralize cybersecurity regulations is now open for public comment. […]
In a short note on its website, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encouraged cloud administrators and users to review the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Jan. 22 guidance on mitigating cloud vulnerabilities. […]