A new report from a group of Federal government and private sector experts details how “precision agriculture,” or agriculture that uses connected technology to improve efficiency, faces new cybersecurity threats and a low degree of awareness in the industry to combat them. […]

Cerner announced a number of partnerships to support the company in its $10 billion contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize the VA’s electronic health records system. […]

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 28 signed into law S.B. 327, which will ban companies from selling Internet-connected devices with weak or default passwords, such as “Password” or “1234567.” Instead, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, all devices must have a “preprogrammed password [that] is unique to each device manufactured.” A primary concern with weak pre-programmed passwords is that users don’t change them to strong, unique passwords after purchasing the device. […]

Google announced today plans to shut down its Google+ social media platform in August 2019, and that it patched a vulnerability in the service in March that potentially exposed Google+ user data. […]

Department of Defense CIO Dana Deasy described how DoD is approaching cloud services, including the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies during an interview on “Government Matters” on Sunday. […]

The U.S. Navy said it increased General Dynamics Information Technology’s contract ceiling from $177 million to $270.2 million for the Personnel Modernization (PERSMOD) contract. […]

Apple told congressional leaders in a letter dated today that a story last week by Bloomberg Businessweek–reporting that chips made by a Chinese firm and used in Apple equipment were engineered to enable backdoor data transmissions to China–is “not true.” […]

The White House on Friday announced the appointment of Margaret Weichert as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), replacing Jeff Pon at the helm of the agency. […]

Federal and private sector leaders described how Internet of Things (IoT) devices present opportunities for the Federal government, but also present the need for regulation during a panel at the Internet of Things Global Summit on Thursday. […]

A new, stealthy Internet of Things (IoT) botnet has emerged with the capability of stealing information from a wide range of devices, underscoring the need for the Federal government to provide guidance on how agencies can reduce risks associated with the deployment of their IoT networks. […]

Christopher Krebs, Department of Homeland Security under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), said Thursday that NPPD is focusing on the cybersecurity fight of both today and tomorrow, through the various coordinating centers that fall under NPPD’s purview. […]

The Navy is taking software development, particularly with regard to maritime cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and development operations, out to sea. […]

On Wednesday, officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Energy (DoE) met with the Oil and Natural Gas Sector Coordinating Council and announced a collaborative initiative to improve pipeline cybersecurity. […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the launch of an interactive data tool to display substance abuse data along with other public information, allowing local leaders to “build grassroots strategies to address the opioid epidemic,” the department said in its announcement. […]

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today that DHS has “become a political piñata” in Washington since his time as the agency’s head, even as the scope of the work and associated challenges have grown across the Department’s vast range of component agencies. […]

Officials from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted the importance of enforcing and creating programs to support data security and privacy for Internet of Things (IoT) devices during the Internet of Things Global Summit on Thursday. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) today announced that a grand jury has indicted seven officers, all Russian nationals and residents, in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. […]

Following the long-awaited passage of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Act in the Senate, the head of the organization set to be elevated as the nation’s official cybersecurity agency expressed his satisfaction at how congressional approval of a simple name change will reinforce the authority of the Federal government’s lead organization in cyberspace. […]

The Senate passed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act (CISA Act) on Wednesday by unanimous consent but included some amendments, setting up a few remaining steps before the bill reaches President Trump’s desk. […]

Matt Lira, special assistant to the president for innovation, policy, and initiatives at the White House Office of American Innovation, has a unique visualization exercise to help consider how we should address problems in the Federal IT space. […]

Congress is getting behind the push to develop artificial intelligence technologies and policies with recent calls for research and development that may overlap efforts already underway. It also reflects the kind of “whole of country” approach that some leaders have said is necessary to keep up with the Chinese. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released NIST Internal Report 8202, Blockchain Technology Overview. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent called today’s first official test of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System a “historic event,” highlighting the test as evidence of the expanding role of mobile technologies and their impact on a broader effort toward digital transformation in the Federal government. […]

California Governor Jerry Brown on Sept. 29 signed S.B. 1001 into law. The legislation prohibits automated accounts–colloquially known as bots–from pretending to be human when attempting to “incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election.” […]

A group of 24 technology organizations banded together to urge the Senate to pass S. 3157, the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act. In a letter released today, the group said the legislation “will modernize wireless infrastructure regulations for next-generation 5G wireless networks” and will unlock “significant consumer and economic benefits.” […]

Andrew Saul, the White House’s nominee for commissioner of Social Security, noted his commitment to continue the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) IT modernization efforts during a Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will in the coming weeks release a new regulation that will allow the Federal government to directly hire cybersecurity personnel, significantly slimming a lengthy hiring process that has bogged down the Federal government. […]

In recent comments regarding the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), Rep. Will Hurd, R-Tex., said that he is “pretty sure that we have resolved the issue with TMF,” and expects Congress to include the full $150 million in an upcoming minibus funding bill. […]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will conduct its first national test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system on Wednesday. […]

Locked in our technology siloes, the word “cloud” has become common vernacular. Working in IT, we know what it means, and we know at this point the kind of potential cloud computing unlocks. It’s not a big step to say that it will underpin technological innovation for the foreseeable future. […]