Amidst the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the United States and 26 other countries released a joint statement on advancing responsible state behavior in cyberspace on Sept. 23. […]
It’s an interesting time to take stock of DHS CISA’S Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – the big question, seven years in, is CDM improving Federal cyber security? That’s what Hill leaders want to know – and that’s why MeriTalk surveyed 160 Federal government and industry CDM stakeholders to grade the program’s effectiveness. […]
The U.S. Army may release its updated modernization strategy as soon as October, and no later than the end of this year, Army Futures Command (AFC) Deputy Commander General Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley said today. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) improved its performance on the department’s FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) audit, going from Level 3 in Fiscal Year 2017 to Level 4 in FY2018, an agency inspector general’s report issued this month shows. […]
A new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds that FHFA doesn’t have an agency-wide cybersecurity incident data analysis program based on a consistent data set, and that it lacks sufficient information to conduct trend or other time-series analyses for security purposes. […]
Microsoft announced Sept. 20 that it is extending free security support for Federally certified voting systems running Windows 7 through the 2020 election. Microsoft had previously announced it was ceasing to support Windows 7. […]
The first High Impact Service Provider (HISP) Action Plans on customer experience (CX) have been released by Performance.gov to highlight public-facing services in accordance with 2018 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-11 Section 280 guidance and the President’s Management Agenda. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with the Federal CIO Council’s architecture subgroup, released a draft report on zero-trust architectures and the use cases and deployment models where zero-trust can improve cybersecurity. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has appointed Dr. Margaret Martonosi to lead the agency’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). […]
In the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), the Justice Department was tasked with combating cyber-enabled threats and attacks by “conducting 8,400 computer intrusion program deterrences, detections, disruptions, and dismantlements, while successfully resolving 90 percent of its cyber defendant cases.” According to a Q3 FY2019 update, the Justice Department has not only met its quarterly targets, but it has also exceeded them. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced in a press release today the appointment of Kshemendra Paul as the agency’s chief data officer (CDO). […]
The Department of Labor (DoL) is making progress on its goal to take an enterprise approach to department administration, especially when it comes to IT, according to a Q3 Fiscal Year 2019 update to the agency’s priority goal posted on September 19. […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has continued its progress toward modernizing IT and data analytics capabilities across the agency in accordance with the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) with a set date of Sept. 30, 2019, to “provide USDA leadership with instant access to key data on program activities and trends.” […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) needs to improve its IT investments management, according to a new SEC Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. […]
While the Department of Education is somewhat on track to meet its goal of improving student privacy and data security at institutions of higher education, it still has room to improve, according to an update to the Department of Education’s agency priority goals – part of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) – released September 19. […]
In a panel at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Summit today, House Committee on Homeland Security (CHS) Aide Moira Bergin stressed Chairman Bennie Thompson’s, D-Miss., desire to reestablish the White House cybersecurity advisor position. […]
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force’s first interim report, which details the groups’ progress since its formation. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Strengthen Federal Cybersecurity Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal plan is likely to meet its fiscal year 2019 target for Federal agencies having capabilities to manage user access and privileges that will be monitored on the Federal CDM Dashboard. […]
The State Department is making progress in its IT modernization effort, but not meeting the goals it set for fiscal year 2019 as part of the President’s Management Agenda, an update to the agency’s priority goals shows. […]
The White House’s new approach to shared services remains on track for full implementation during fiscal year 2020, according to an update to the Sharing Quality Services cross-agency priority (CAP) Goal on the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) released September 19. […]
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that the threat posed by Chinese government-supported network equipment makers including Huawei to the global 5G communications ecosystem is unprecedented. One solution to displace Huawei equipment from communications networks, the senator said, may be government-industry cooperation to make cheaper communications gear available to carriers. […]
Agencies are mostly making progress on the White House’s IT modernization goals – with many goals completed, most remaining goals on track, and a few challenge areas – according to a President’s Management Agenda (PMA) update released September 19. […]
Federal cyber officials from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Cybersecurity of Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) highlighted today that IT modernization and implementing OMB’s guidance are some of their biggest priorities. […]
As the 2020 election cycle revs up, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs said today that he believes new National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien will take security seriously and will allow CISA a great opportunity to continue improving cybersecurity efforts. […]
The House voted this afternoon to approve a nearly two-month stopgap spending bill that would push current Federal funding levels beyond the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year. The bill, H.R. 4378, passed in a vote of 301-123. The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week, sending it to the White House for President Trump’s signature. […]
More than a year after the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator position was eliminated, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., is urging the Trump administration to reestablish the role, according to a statement released Sept. 18. The recent push comes as President Trump named Robert O’Brien as his new National Security Advisor, following the resignation of John Bolton. […]
Federal cybersecurity officials spoke about the strategies they’re pursuing to address workforce issues within their agencies during a Sept. 18 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Summit panel. […]
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives are looking to address gaps in Congress’ technology expertise by bringing back the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) and making it responsive to member needs, according to a Sept. 18 press release. […]
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Sept. 18 expressed general support for Federal data legislation to protect consumer privacy and to preempt state-level data privacy laws, but also cautioned that she does not want to see the U.S. copy the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) framework. […]
A Social Security Administration (SSA) audit to determine the effectiveness of controls identifying potentially fraudulent Internet Claims (iClaims) found the controls to be “generally effective,” but also said that the number of undetected fraudulent iClaims is unknown. […]