Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif, introduced the Less Traffic with Smart Stop Lights Act of 2019 (HR 3261) on June 13 to establish a Department of Transportation grant program to modernize stoplights to “reduce traffic, improve safety, reduce fuel costs, and lessen air pollution.” […]

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has promoted Matthew Schruers from vice president of law and policy to chief operating officer. […]

On June 13, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas, introduced the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Cyber Training Act (H.R. 3266) that would direct the Secretary of Defense to initiate a high school-level program that would increase JROTC students’ preparation for careers in computer science and cybersecurity. […]

Both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agree that OPM is facing delays in handling retirement applications and needs to replace the paper-based process, but GAO urged OPM to come up with a more concrete IT modernization plan for the program in a report released Friday, June 14. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA’s) contracting branch – the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) – will reduce its enterprise acquisition services fee starting Oct. 1. […]

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced the Protecting Personal Health Data Act today to safeguard the privacy of consumer health data from companies that collect such data. […]

Seven companies – Box, Dropbox, Okta, Slack, Twilio, Workday, and Zendesk – announced the launch of the Enterprise Cloud Coalition (ECC) on June 13. […]

Veterans submitted 3,000 benefits compensation claims using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) new Disability Compensation Claim Tool in the first month of the tool’s launch and have reported positive experiences using it, the VA announced in a June 13 news release. […]

ACT-IAC announced it is seeking government and industry experts to volunteer for a work group to exchange information on cloud security authorizations to operate (ATOs). ACT-IAC is establishing the group to help the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization and FedRAMP learn more about industry’s approach to security and cloud authorizations. The group […]

In light of the increasing ubiquity of data breaches, Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today recommending that Federal agencies should discontinue knowledge-based verification to strengthen their remote identity proofing processes and that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should provide guidance in creating alternative identity proofing methods. […]

While auditing for potential violations of contracting regulations, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found weaknesses in the administration of the $22.3 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract. […]

Agencies continue to move their data to the cloud, but increasing adoption of cloud applications outside of existing security programs like FedRAMP (the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) and the CIO’s office brings security concerns as well, a new report notes. […]

Despite organizations’ efforts to improve customer experience (CX), the 2019 Forrester CX Index indicates little to no rise in CX scores from last year across a range of industries, and that technology is the key forward in improving CX. […]

Artificial Intelligence and how it may impact employees is front-of-mind when it comes to workforce issues, but having “organizational depth” can help ease the transition of implementing AI in a rational and beneficial way. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee advanced the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 out of Committee on June 12. The bipartisan legislation, cosponsored by Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Will Hurd, R-Texas, would establish Federal baseline standards for all government-purchased Internet-connected devices. […]

The Defense Department (DoD) Office of Under Secretary Acquisition of Sustainment is creating a new certification model to streamline DoD’s cybersecurity acquisition processes, Special Assistant to DoD’s Assistant Secretary of Defense Acquisition for Cyber Katie Arrington said at the Professional Services Council Federal Acquisition Conference today. […]

The FedRAMP program has provided more authorizations to software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and reduced the time to authorization in the last three years of the program, according to an analysis of the program. […]

On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee held a full markup hearing on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 and voted to approve amendments to include a Department of Defense strategy to leverage artificial intelligence supported robotics, extend dual-use technology programs, and increase recruitment of science and engineering professionals to the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). […]

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on June 12 in a move to improve the accuracy of the Federal government’s broadband availability maps. The legislation, dubbed the Broadband DATA Act, was introduced by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. and committee members Gary Peters, D-Mich., John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. […]

The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) decided to migrate its antiquated legacy IT to the cloud after realizing that it’s old IT was driving the ATF into technical debt and that it lacked disaster recovery (DR). […]

Today, Reps. Jim Himes, D-Conn., and John Ratcliffe, R-Texas introduced new legislation that would establish election interference as a Federal crime. The bipartisan bill, dubbed the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, would make it a Federal crime to hack a voting system used in a Federal election. […]

New research suggests that over the past five years, 33 percent of cybersecurity data breaches could have been prevented with Domain Name System (DNS) firewalls. […]

The latest survey by Unisys of consumer security concerns found that Americans are more alarmed about the possibility of identity theft and bankcard fraud than they are about national security in general. […]

The House Appropriations Committee voted on June 11 to approve a spending package that includes a 3.1 percent pay increase for civilian Federal employees for FY20. […]

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization met today to discuss the implementation of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 agency legacy systems in most critical need of modernization in a June 11 report. […]

The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee proposed a total of $24.5 billion for FSGG discretionary budget authority in fiscal year 2020, which includes funding for election security, modernizing the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and protecting consumer data. […]

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says that more and more cyber criminals are capitalizing on website visitor trust in phishing campaigns. […]

Teresa Carlson, vice president-worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), applauded the Defense Department’s (DoD) pace of cloud service adoption, and said AWS services are sufficiently secure so that “there are no barriers” for DoD to use them. […]

The Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing today to discuss the impact of data brokers on financial data privacy, credit, insurance, employment, and housing. […]