The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said it will implement new procedures by January 2020 to improve medical information-sharing for veterans accessing healthcare in their communities, in accordance with the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act (MISSION Act). […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Sept. 27 that a former Federal contractor was sentenced to two years in prison for “illegally accessing his former employer’s network systems, stealing critical servers and information, and causing a loss of over $1.1 million.” […]

NTT Data Services Federal Government announced Sept. 30 that it won a $114 million contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). […]

The House of Representatives has approved the Cybersecurity Vulnerability Remediation Act (H.R. 3710), which would increase the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) responsibilities in addressing a variety of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. […]

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) compliance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) for the first quarter of FY2019 was timely and complete but still has room for improvement, according to a Sept. 27 Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. […]

The Department of the Navy named Aaron Weis, senior advisor to Department of Defense (DoD) CIO Dana Deasy, as the Navy’s new CIO and principal staff assistant to the Secretary of the Navy on IT management, digital, data, and cyber strategy on September 27. […]

President Trump signed a short-term spending bill on Sept. 27 that extends Federal government funding through Nov. 21.  FY2019 government funding had been set to run out on Sept. 30. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to improve its cyber workforce planning to meet Congressional mandates and improve the department’s capabilities, according to a report from DHS’ inspector general, released September 23. […]

The United States Air Force (USAF) announced Air Force Explore, a call to action for “capability ideas that advance the transformational component of the Air Force Science and Technology 2030 strategy,” on Sept. 26. USAF anticipates awarding four to seven awards, each within the $1-2 million range. […]

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, introduced two bills to the Senate on Sept. 26, that address underrepresented demographic groups in the science, technology, education, and industry (STEM) field and full talent-pool engagement. […]

The CyberPeace Institute, an independent non-governmental organization (NGO), launched Sept. 26 with the mission to “assist vulnerable communities, promote transparency, and advance global discussions on acceptable behavior in cyberspace.” […]

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took quick action to secure Domain Name System (DNS) services on its websites, meeting the deadlines set out in Emergency Directive 19-01, according to an audit conducted by FDIC’s inspector general and released September 24. […]

A bill that would amend the Federal Power Act to bolster the defense of the U.S. electric grid was introduced to the U.S. Senate on Sept. 26. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) is initiating a program that aims to accelerated distributed applications and improve network stack performance “by a factor of 100 through the creation of clean-slate networking approaches,” according to a Sept. 26 news release. […]

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization held a hearing today to discuss the future of scheduling at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and implementing a commercial off the shelf scheduling solution. […]

A bipartisan group of members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced a bill today to provide $1 billion in aid to remove prohibited equipment from the networks of small communications providers and prevent the usage of Federal funds for “any company that poses a national security risk to American communications networks.” […]

The Senate voted today 82-15 to approve a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the Federal government through Nov. 21. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified in a new report several cybersecurity risks to the U.S. electric grid and called upon the Department of Energy (DoE) to develop an improved Federal strategy to protect against cyber threats to the grid. […]

The House Homeland Security Committee approved legislation on Sept. 25 a cyber committee within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

The Senate on Sept. 24 passed a bill that would increase the Federal government’s ability to respond to and aid government agencies and private-sector companies that are involved in major cyber incidents. […]

The Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is looking for assistance in developing “AI-based knowledge graphing” that collects strategic activity abroad from open source web-based content for analysis and reporting. […]

A plethora of still-developing advanced technologies – plus new systemic approaches that recognize the growing dominance of cloud and managed services – will be key drivers of security improvements for Federal agencies several years from now as they continue to implement the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program. […]

With the upcoming release of the Federal Data Strategy’s final action plan on the horizon, Federal chief data officers (CDOs) agreed on Sept. 25 that the strategy holds plenty of promising features to advance their work, including an official CDO council that will help them share ideas and experiences. […]

Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of the Fiscal Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Treasury Amy B. Edwards highlighted today how her department went about simplifying the process for which customers can see how funds are spent. […]

Through the adoption of modern security technologies, Federal agencies are adopting security solutions that map to a Zero Trust architecture, even if the agency isn’t yet ready to pursue a full Zero Trust model, according to new research from MeriTalk. […]

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on Sept. 24 introduced H.R. 4458, the Cybersecurity and Financial System Resilience Act of 2019, to combat cybersecurity threats facing the Federal Reserve System. […]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Engagement Center and the Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (GRC) released 10 policy principles to govern the use of and regulate artificial intelligence (AI) on Sept. 23. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Defense Department’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) announced today they are teaming up for a “discovery sprint” as part of GSA’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) initiative. […]

The Smithsonian Institution (SI) made some progress in its Fiscal Year 2018 FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) audit, but still sat at around a Level 2 on the FISMA scale, according to a report released September 23 by the Smithsonian Office of Inspector General. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) have released a draft cybersecurity guide for energy sector asset management.  NCCoE is seeking comments on the draft through Nov. 25. […]