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. […]

The Partnership for Public Service announced nine award winners of The Samuel J. Heyman Award, known as the Sammies. The winners will be celebrated at a gala on Tuesday evening, including the digital service team at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). […]

Retired General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, called for Congress to pass the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Act to elevate the National Protection and Programs Directorate, and suggested the creation of an independent agency to tackle cybersecurity issues during a Washington Post event on Tuesday. […]

The General Services Administration announced several companies receiving awards for “critical work” at the Centers of Excellence (CoEs) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), advancing the Centers of Excellence initiative into phase II. […]

At the National Association of Corporate Directors Global Board Leaders Summit on Monday, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Wray stressed that the FBI and corporate executives must work together to keep companies safe from cybercrime. Wray called on executives to report cyber incidents to the FBI as soon as possible, explaining that the FBI needed the info to have a clear understanding of the current threat landscape. […]

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said today that DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) will provide a resource center on Election Day that will actively respond to threats of cyber intrusion when voters go to the polls on November 6. […]

Akamai, a content delivery network and cloud service provider, and Slack, a provider of cloud-based collaboration tools and services, have joined BSA | The Software Alliance as new global policy members. […]

A new coalition named Future Congress aims to improve Congress’ understanding of technology and science to improve the body’s ability to understand technical policy challenges. […]

The Air Force has welcomed new IT leadership, naming Eileen Vidrine its new chief data officer. […]

Greg Garcia became the Army’s new deputy CIO on Monday. Garcia replaces Gary Wang, who retired from the position in May. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology today announced the release of the final public draft of its Risk Management Framework (RMF), opening the newly-revised document to one more round of public comment before the RMF is expected to be finalized by the end of the year. […]

Brig. Gen. Lorna Mahlock, chief information officer of the United States Marine Corps, said today that the Marines aren’t struggling to find capable IT talent, but utilizing that talent properly may pose a bigger challenge. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced on Monday a new organizational structure that reorganizes the directorate into four primary offices and places an emphasis on improving S&T’s speed. […]

Defense Department CIO Dana Deasy said today that DoD is currently sorting through the FY 2019 budget allocation for the new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), and likely will be creating outposts for JAIC to spur outreach to members of academia. […]

A bill introduced in the House today would bring together the Department of Commerce and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), along with private industry, to create a standardized definition of blockchain technology. […]

Sanjay Gupta, chief technology officer at the Small Business Administration (SBA), discussed last week how his agency has aggressively moved to the cloud while keeping security at the forefront with new pilots to meet Federal requirements. […]

California’s Democratic Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday signed S.B. 822 , which restores in the state Obama-era Federal net neutrality laws that were gutted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this year. […]

The Department of Justice’s Cybersecurity Unit–part of the agency’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section–has issued an updated best practices document for victim response and reporting of cyber incidents. […]

President Trump on Friday declared October 2018 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month – marking the 15th consecutive year of that designation. […]

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) IT modernization efforts won praise from the agency’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office at a House hearing on Sept. 27, but drew a more mixed review from members of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Social Security Subcommittee. […]