The Federal Communications Commission said this week it is seeking public comment through Sept. 10 on its annual report to determine whether “advanced telecommunications capability”–typically referred to as broadband service–is being deployed “to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” […]
Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan announced Thursday that the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) will undergo a re-branding. The unit will drop “experimental” from its name and will be called Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU. […]
A bipartisan group of House Intelligence Committee members today introduced the Secure Elections Act that would help state and local governments apply for Federal grants to modernize their election systems and receive relevant cyber threat information. […]
People power took the stage during a panel on Thursday at FCW’s Cybersecurity Summit as participants emphasized the importance of supporting cybersecurity personnel to ensure quick and effective responses to threats. […]
During an Aug. 8 webinar on VMware Cloud on AWS hosted by the Digital Government Institute, participants said that VMware and AWS are setting up a dedicated instance of the service called VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US). This instance is intended to meet standards set by FedRAMP, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). […]
Vice President Pence said today that the Trump administration and the Defense Department are preparing to move forward with detailed plans to establish a new United States Space Command as a unified combatant command, and if Congress approves, as a separate branch of the military–dubbed the U.S. Space Force – equal to and separate from the existing five branches. […]
A former top White House cybersecurity policymaker and IT systems manager at the Department of Education said today at the FCW Cybersecurity Summit that Federal agencies should expect to become targets of sophisticated cyber attacks and should count on assistance from other entities including their cloud service providers to meet those assaults. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to ensure robust cybersecurity across multiple cloud providers, said an agency cybersecurity leader at FCW’s Cybersecurity Summit on Thursday. […]
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Deputy CIO Guy Cavallo and CTO Sanjay Gupta said today at the FCW Cybersecurity Summit that their agency’s unorthodox approach to the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program is yielding a ton of practical benefits, even though it required a bit of a departure from CDM’s initial guidelines. Now, SBA is providing a new potential model for other agencies – many struggling with the first of CDM’s four phases – to use when considering how to achieve the outcomes the program intends. […]
Agencies have 68 days remaining to achieve compliance with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) binding operation directive (BOD) 18-01, which requires the active enforcement of the Domain Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) protocol. […]
Federal agencies should reduce complexity to fight back against cybersecurity threats, government and private sector participants said during a panel at FCW’s Cybersecurity Summit. […]
A new survey from Tripwire, a security and compliance automation software provider, found that organizations need to go back to basics and make sure they are properly implementing and maintaining cybersecurity fundamentals. The survey, released today, found that organizations are not focusing on basic security controls that the Center for Internet Security (CIS) refers to as “cyber hygiene.” […]
The U.S. Cyber Command (Cybercom) and the National Security Agency have joined the effort to protect the integrity of this year’s midterm elections, which are occurring under the shadow of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that 2018 is seeing more of the same. […]
Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today at the FCW Cybersecurity Summit that continuous dialogue and attention on cybersecurity priorities are working to move the Federal government collectively in the right direction at a time when the need for unified effort is paramount. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Officials in government, the private sector, and academia discussed their efforts to establish a defensive posture and use technology-augmented programs to deter and detect insider threats, at an event hosted by Nextgov and Equifax Tuesday. […]
The White House said Tuesday that President Trump intends to nominate Travis LeBlanc, former chief of the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, and Aditya Bamzai, formerly an attorney-adviser with the Department of Justice and now an associate law professor at the University of Virginia, to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). […]
The Pentagon is looking to get into the weeds with cyber defense, using artificial intelligence to hunt down attacks that may use the size and complexity of its systems to hide out while waiting to strike. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Wayne Belk, director of the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF), said today at an event hosted by Nextgov and Equifax that his unit in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is now working with the Defense Department to clarify and strengthen the roles of the Federal government’s insider threat staff, beginning with its security analysts. […]
Carol Harris, director for information technology acquisition management issues at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), will take over the FITARA-related responsibilities of Dave Powner–GAO’s departing director of IT issues–while Nick Marinos, director of cybersecurity and information management at GAO, will pick up Powner’s responsibilities on Census issues, GAO confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday convened a conference call with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) regarding cybersecurity and ongoing threats to the 2018 midterm elections. […]
Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said today that the billions of dollars the U.S. government and private sector spend each year on cybersecurity are not being properly and efficiently utilized unless government and industry wrap human resources departments tightly into security discussions. […]
Supply chains increasingly are being targeted by attackers, according to Accenture’s Cyber Threatscape Report. […]
Charles Phalen, director of the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), said today at an event hosted by NextGov and Equifax that he supports a proposal in the President’s government reform and reorganization plan to move NBIB “in its entirety from the Office of Personnel Management into the Department of Defense.” […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced yesterday the appointment of Air Force Colonel Bradley Barnhart as the new chief of staff at DISA. […]
Ninety-seven percent of Federal finance and procurement professionals feel they aren’t fully prepared for the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act and the new creative vehicles it provides agencies to fund IT modernization initiatives, according to a new study. […]
Federal agencies must build “identity-aware” infrastructures to effectively monitor and manage user access to information and information systems across their enterprise for more secure and efficient operations, according to cybersecurity experts. […]
U.S. Census Bureau CIO Kevin Smith said that the Department of Homeland Security performed penetration tests this year that were unable to break through Census’ data safeguards, confirming the strength of Census’ cybersecurity programs for both its self-response website and in-field mobile devices. […]