The House Appropriations Committee is putting pressure on the General Services Administration (GSA) to get agencies migrated over to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Contract, including a provision to push agencies to adopt the contract, as well as other IT oversight items for GSA. […]
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials confirmed that no more than 100,000 photos of travelers and license plates were compromised in a data breach CBP identified on May 31, according to The New York Times and Washington Post. […]
Federal agencies should strive to bring talent with cloud migration and development skills in-house rather than hiring contractors to handle migrations, said Major Gen. John Ferrari, director of the Army Program Analysis and Evaluation Office. […]
Most industries are still vulnerable to fake emails and email addresses despite using Domain-based message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) protocols. […]
News emerged on May 9 that a Russian hacker collective known as Fxmsp claimed to have breached three major U.S.-based antivirus companies. The hackers said they “worked tirelessly” for the first quarter of 2019 to obtain access to the companies’ internal networks, where they extracted sensitive antivirus source code, artificial intelligence models, web security software, and security plug-ins. […]
The Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought wrote a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight other members of Congress asking for a two-year delay of a ban that prohibits U.S. government contractors from doing business with Chinese-telecommunications company Huawei, in an effort to give companies more time to comply with the legislation. […]
Cybersecurity professionals polled indicated that the most prevalent types of threat actors and attack vectors of recent years will remain consistent but increase in attack volume in 2019. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has delayed the transfer of 1,200 IT employees that was set to take place in September of 2019 as labor unions raised their concerns about the move. […]
Federal agencies are remediating critical and high vulnerabilities in their IT systems within the allotted time frame only about half the time, according to figures within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year 2020 congressional budget justification. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated on June 7 that H.R.1648, the Small Business Advanced Cybersecurity Enhancements Act of 2019, will cost about $2 million annually to implement, and $11 million in total between 2019 and 2024, if the bill is enacted. […]
The Data Foundation and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton released a report today on Federal uses of blockchain, offering guidelines on when to use the tech, and examining existing agency blockchain projects for best practices. […]
As the reality of cyber threats and data breaches becomes closer to normal life for private and public sector organizations, a Nominet report finds that while executives know cyber risks are high, they still lack resources and accountability for handling breaches and information security. […]
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested information on how the Department of Justice (DoJ) is securing its offensive cyber tools in a June 5 letter to Attorney General William Barr. […]
Today was the deadline for wireless emergency alerts (WEA) to feature enhanced alerting support, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has informed the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau that the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) will not be able to support updates to WEAs at this time, the FCC said in a statement. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) released a request for information (RFI) Friday, June 7 on the agency’s plan to consolidate its 24 existing schedules into one contract vehicle, including a draft version of the terms and conditions for the new Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). Feedback is due by June 21. […]
On Tuesday, June 4, Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Todd Young, R-Ind., introduced a bill with the goal of assisting U.S. workers in the job market with more information, as automation filters into more industries. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today that examines challenges and potential risks for consumers and regulators of insurance company technology, or insurtech, as insurance companies have begun to leverage artificial intelligence (AI), mobile applications, big data, and other technologies into their services. […]
A U.S. senator is raising concerns that China could be exporting surveillance capabilities to authoritarian governments, and is calling on the State Department to put more emphasis on preventing the spread of those tools. […]
A recent Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) found that although the NRC had sufficient protection of digital computers, communication systems, and networks associated with safety, security, and emergency preparedness, the commission’s cybersecurity inspection program is facing future staffing issues that will affect its ability to mitigate cyber risks. […]
The Defense Department’s (DoD’s) Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS) have not met the regional security implementation expectations of DoD’s Joint Information Environment (JIE), according to a June 4 public Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. […]
The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) has been utilizing resources to work with private industry to understand best practices and techniques when working with different datasets to best implement AI. […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) extended a request for information on a potential enterprise data exchange to share weather observations across the globe. Responses are now due by June 17. […]
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is creating new digital workflows to streamline processes and automate administrative functions. The goal is to create efficient, modern services that enable NCI staff to stay focused on supporting cancer research and advancing scientific knowledge to help people live longer, healthier lives. […]
Experts in constituent communication explained the reasons behind distrust of members of Congress, and provided technological methods of improving meaningful engagement between constituents and members at a June 5 House Committee on the Modernization of Congress hearing. […]
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is planning to enroll participants in a new system to electronically verify Social Security information by June 2020, as the agency announced in an upcoming Federal Register notice posted today. […]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Justice Department (DoJ) still have more work to do to boost the accuracy of facial recognition technology (FRT) they use and to ensure privacy of data used with that technology. […]
Two FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) report summaries released June 4 highlight weaknesses in cybersecurity procedures at the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA). […]
The National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science (SCQIS) is seeking information on recommendations related to key policy areas in quantum information science (QIS). […]
The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, or ACT-IAC, announced the results of its elections for members of its Industry Advisory Council (IAC) Executive Committee. […]
The House Armed Services Committee draft version of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released June 3, includes multiple provisions that would increase congressional oversight over multiple Defense Department (DoD) technology initiatives. […]