The Department of Defense (DoD) is steadily integrating robotic process automation (RPA) agency-wide through interdepartmental collaborations. […]

Federal agencies are making progress in assessing and articulating their IT staffing needs, but lag behind on developing strategies to tackle those gaps and keep track of progress in addressing them, according to a report released October 30 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

Several senators introduced legislation on Oct. 30 that aims to “strengthen local government cybersecurity defenses by switching to the .gov domain for websites and email addresses.” […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released today that the Census Bureau “is generally on track” to meet some of the early operational milestones for the 2020 Census, but that the Commerce Department component still has a lot of work to do in a short time on 15 IT systems that are critical to upcoming service deliveries for next year’s census. […]

Federal IT decision makers feel their agencies are holding onto outdated data centers for too long. According to recent MeriTalk research, a variety of cost and mission-focused factors are to blame. […]

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) chief financial officer said today that adoption of robotic process automation (RPA) technologies across Federal agencies is helping to reduce manual tasks performed by the Federal workforce, but without the worrisome byproduct of trimming Federal government jobs. […]

The Navy’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) said today that the Defense Department’s (DoD) highly anticipated joint data strategy between the Army, Navy, and Air Force will feature an emphasis on data protection and security. […]

The process of sharing datasets across Federal agencies is a complex one, and one Federal expert said today that pre-existing rules governing already-collected data can hinder interagency sharing opportunities. […]

In the last year, cybersecurity spending rose by 24 percent, but cyberattacks increased by 17 percent, according to a report from ServiceNow released Oct. 29. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking to update the techniques used to generate digital signatures under FIPS 186-5 and is seeking public comment, as noted in an upcoming Federal Register post. […]

The deputy director of the Defense Department’s (DoD) Digital Defense Service (DDS) gave a strong endorsement on Oct. 29 of the value of the agency’s “bug bounty” programs which enlist the help of third parties to explore segments of DoD networks looking for vulnerabilities. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has been using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to sniff out bogus websites that are trying to interact with the agency and its networks, a senior IT leader at the agency said on Oct. 29. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided a glimpse into its vision for the organization’s Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STAA) team and Innovation Lab, at the Modernization in Action event on Oct. 29. […]

The Pentagon’s award late last week of its ten-year Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract for general purpose cloud computing to Microsoft took center stage on Capitol Hill today at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Dana Deasy as the Defense Department’s (DoD) CIO. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to move from cloud adoption to optimizing and enabling the full promise of cloud computing within the Pentagon, said Peter Ranks, deputy CIO for information enterprise at DoD. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program has an important role to play in protecting Federal systems, but the adoption process can be downright scary for some agencies. On Halloween, MeriTalk will host a webinar to dig through the skeletons and challenges in CDM’s closet, shine a flashlight on the success stories of the program, and ultimately help demystify the CDM program for vendors and agencies alike. […]

Two Federal Trade Commissioners – one a Republican and the other a Democrat – agreed on Oct. 28 that the agency has the tricky task of balancing both consumer data privacy and business interests, and must find that balance even as the fast pace of technological advancement makes the value of prescriptive regulation uncertain.  […]

A bill reintroduced in the Senate Oct. 24 aims to increase the reach of emergency alert communications on national and state levels by preventing some alert opt-outs on mobile phones, requiring that alerts issued by the White House or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) be run repeatedly by television and radio stations, and exploring how to create a system to offer emergency alerts on audio and video online streaming services. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is looking to industry for advice on how the agency can share and spread human centered design (HCD) practices across the Federal government, as noted in a request for information released today. […]

In a Friday letter to President Trump’s acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., demanded answers about recent departures from the administration of key Federal cybersecurity officials. […]

The Social Security Administration did not remediate multiple known vulnerabilities for over one year, according to a summary of a report from SSA’s inspector general, released October 24. […]

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced updated Republican subcommittee assignments on Oct. 25. Among the changes, Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., will join the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee. […]

The Department of Defense has awarded its 10-year, $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract for general purpose cloud computing to Microsoft, setting the stage for the department’s cloud strategy to take effect. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is tackling managed service provider (MSPs) cybersecurity by developing a customizable reference model that MSPs can adapt to fit their program needs. […]

The FBI released new election security resources as part of its Protected Voices initiative on Oct. 23. […]

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) announced Oct. 25 that it will provide priority telecom services (PTS) to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Emergency Communications Division. […]

A spotty risk management strategy, along with poor security control assessment procedures, are undermining the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s ability to identify and detect network security threats, according to an FDIC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report released on Oct. 23. […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offered its comments on the draft version of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Privacy Framework, including praise and suggestions for several additions to the policy. […]

A panel of Federal agency officials who are knee-deep in implementing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies explained critical steps to getting started with the technologies, and dealing with data-bias issues, at an event organized by ATARC on Oct. 24. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), along with the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), on Oct. 24 launched their Accelerate R2 Network Challenge. […]