Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., introduced a short-term spending bill on Wednesday, that would fund the government through February 8, 2019, and avoid a government shutdown later this week. The bill must be approved by both chambers of Congress before reaching President Trump’s desk for his signature. “The measure will provide the resources necessary […]
In the President’s Management Agenda, issued in March, President Trump called on the Federal government to modernize the Federal workforce. In the months that followed, the Federal government has made significant progress on the cross-agency priority (CAP) of workforce improvement, but still has a ways to go, according to an update released yesterday on Performance.gov. […]
The Trump administration disclosed yesterday that it updated its CAP Goal Action Plan to leverage Federal data as a strategic asset. […]
An updated cross-agency priority (CAP) Goal Action plan was released yesterday, designed to modernize technology to increase productivity and security, reduce costs, and establish a modern IT workforce. […]
A report from the Department of Defense Inspector General found various software management problems across several service components which the IG said raise cybersecurity risks and create unnecessary costs, but DoD’s Office of the CIO declined to respond to the draft report. […]
The Federal government is making some progress in supporting the cross-agency priority (CAP) goal of greater transparency among Federal IT spending, but is behind schedule on establishing government-wide standards for Technology Business Management (TBM)–a set of best practices for running IT businesses and communicating IT costs and benefits–according to an update released yesterday on Performance.gov. […]
A newly issued Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights gaps in implementing Federal guidance on cybersecurity at major agencies in fiscal year 2017, finding 35,277 cybersecurity incidents. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) is seeking comment on a draft set of technical guidance and recommendations to improve the security and robustness of interdomain traffic exchange. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new priority goal action plan for the agency on Tuesday. […]
During a press briefing today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is considering other options to fund construction of a border wall along the U.S. southern border, other than through the President’s standing demand for $5 billion in funding from Congress for that purpose. […]
On Monday, the Senate unanimously passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act. The READI Act will “ensure more people receive relevant emergency alerts on their mobile phones, televisions, and radios, explore new ways of alerting the public through online video and audio streaming services, track and study false alerts when they occur, and improve the way states plan for emergency alerts,” according to a press release from the bill’s sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. The bipartisan legislation was also championed by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. […]
A Google spokesperson declined today to confirm or deny a report from The Intercept that an internal struggle between Google’s privacy team and executives managing its Dragonfly China search engine project has led to an effective shutdown of the effort. […]
According to a new survey conducted by Propeller Insights, on behalf of ExpressVPN, 82 percent of Americans think that Congress should do more in 2019 to regulate how big tech companies collect and process online personal data. […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Karen Peltz Strauss retired yesterday from her position as deputy bureau chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. […]
In the afterglow of last week’s FITARA Scorecard 7.0 report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee–which catalogued both substantial improvements by some Federal agencies in numerous grading categories and efforts by others to shore up a sturdier floor under otherwise fairly poor grades–several Federal IT industry executives took a few minutes with MeriTalk to share their thoughts about how agencies might be able to boost their grades on the next scorecard, scheduled for May 2019. […]
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) announced Monday that Elisebeth Collins has left the board effective Dec. 15. Collins was a board member for over six years, having joined the board in August 2012. […]
Cloud computing offers benefits and efficiencies, but agencies need to go through the application rationalization process and decide what works best for their situation, said Deputy Federal CIO Margie Graves and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy CIO Steve Rice. […]
A group of 31 civil rights and advocacy groups released a letter today urging Mark Zuckerberg to step down as Facebook’s CEO. […]
A new study by Accenture finds that most Federal IT executives see themselves as supporting players, rather than prime movers, in technology modernization. […]
Senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) discussed how the new HHS Accelerate blockchain, the first blockchain to receive an authority to operate (ATO), can help the department improve acquisitions through greater visibility during Sunday’s episode of Government Matters. […]
While the Department of the Treasury’s USAspending.gov follows several best practices for reporting open data, the site needs to improve on security requirements, metadata, and an improved search function, according to a report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]
The newly-named Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been elevated within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and one of the biggest priorities for the agency will be responses to cyber threats from other nations, as a senior CISA official discussed on Sunday’s episode of Government Matters. […]
The U.S. Navy has awarded a new contract to General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) for its SeaPort NxG contract vehicle. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) came to an updated agreement continuing efforts to stop fraudulent practices that target U.S. service members, veterans and dependents who use military education benefits. […]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud modernization were the main topics of discussion at the Get Cloud Smart: The Art of the Possible event hosted by MeriTalk on December 13. […]
The Senate Intelligence Committee released two reports on Monday finding that Russian social media influence operations–which came to broad attention in the U.S. following the 2016 presidential election–are still ongoing in the U.S. […]
Cloud security provider Zscaler announced today that it received FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) authority to operate (ATO) at the Moderate Impact Level for its Zscaler Internet Access-Government (ZIA-Government) solution–nearly coincident with the Office of Management and Budget’s release of a draft update of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) policy late Friday. […]
A new report from the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (IG) found weaknesses in cybersecurity defenses for ballistic missile defense systems, putting technical information on the systems at risk. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a draft of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) policy late Friday, with the goals of removing barriers to cloud and modern technology adoption, ensuring that the TIC initiative remains agile, and streamlining and automating verification processes. […]
Federal agencies identified 26 long-range emerging threats to U.S. national security, including emerging technologies and foreign cybersecurity threats, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. […]