The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its 2019 Annual Report on Tuesday, May 21, and while the report names a few current areas with duplicative or inefficient IT efforts, it also points to past IT initiatives as examples of Federal success in achieving cost savings. […]
A group of five senators released bipartisan legislation that would create a national policy to securely deploy commercial 5G networks and establish an up to $700 million grant program to aid American communications providers in removing Chinese products from their networks. […]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the first intergovernmental standard on artificial intelligence (AI) on May 22, with its 36 member countries, including the United States, signing off on its principles. […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to monitor plans of action and milestones (POA&Ms) for cybersecurity weaknesses as required by EPA policy, the agency’s Inspector General (IG) said. […]
A new Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) report reviewing the Justice Department’s (DoJ’s) Criminal Division (CRM) identified vulnerabilities in five of the eight domain areas in CRM’s 2018 information security program and practices. The public report, released May 23, only summarized the full audit, but the summary said that DoJ’s Office of the Inspector […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Smart Cities Internet of Things Innovation (SCITI) Labs program has made progress in its second phase by choosing eight technology developers to ready smart cities prototype technologies for the commercial marketplace, according to a May 22 DHS news release. […]
The Senate voted 97-1 Thursday, May 23 in favor of a bill that would give Federal regulators more tools to combat perpetrators of fraudulent robocall scams. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) expects to complete all phases of its Centers of Excellence (CoE) program at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and move resources to other agencies by the middle of next year, said Anil Cheriyan, head of GSA’s Technology and Transformation Services (TTS) unit. […]
The U.S. Air Force’s effort launched last year to hasten digital transformation efforts is well under way and features weekly meetings between Air Force business and IT leaders aimed at addressing key challenges in the campaign, an Air Force official said today. […]
General Services Administration (GSA) Senior Solution Architect Richard Bright hailed several benefits of the agency’s migration to cloud services at the Alfresco Government Summit conference today, including resulting service improvements and an uptick in workforce culture. […]
While artificial intelligence (AI) technology offers significant opportunities to the Federal government to both reduce costs and improve performance, implementation of the technology will require proper policy, budget, and leadership support, according to a May 22 report from the Professional Services Council Foundation (PSCF). […]
Despite near-universal trust in the science of mathematics, human biases can readily creep into data analysis and design of algorithms, leading author and algorithmic auditor Cathy O’Neil to warn that biases baked into algorithms may create sweeping consequences for both individuals and society as a whole. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released several resources to help agencies implement workforce reskilling efforts as technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) take on more tasks in the Federal government. […]
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced the Protecting Data at the Border Act on May 22. The legislation would ban the Federal government from conducting warrantless searches of Americans’ phones and laptops when crossing the U.S. border. […]
For the first time, Moody’s has downgraded a company’s credit rating because of a cyberattack. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing May 22 examining the impact of facial recognition technology on citizens’ civil rights and right to privacy. […]
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing Wednesday, May 22, on pending legislation – including bills related to electronic health records, and to make the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) website more accessible to disabled veterans – but took no votes on those measures. […]
Members of two House Veterans Affairs subcommittees sharply criticized Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials at a hearing on Wednesday, May 23 for the agency’s failure to keep up with expanding IT requirements for VA’s popular Caregivers program, which provides a range of services for post-9/11 wounded veterans. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program expects to announce the award of a new contract this week for dashboard ecosystem technology that will better integrate at both the Federal agency and DHS level security data generated through the CDM program. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its cost estimate for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Cyber Awareness Act, H.R. 2331 and S. 772, on May 20, and said the bill would cost nothing to implement. […]
A new memo released Tuesday, May 22, by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) updates the Federal identity, credentials, and access management (ICAM) policy, encouraging the use of more flexible solutions, supporting pilots for new authenticators, and requiring agencies to create an ICAM team. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published a list of best practices for securing election systems on May 21. […]
The Defense Security Service has awarded a $75 million contract to Perspecta through an other transaction agreement (OTA) that will work to add advanced AI to backend systems and modernize the vetting processes of security clearance personnel for the National Background Investigation Service (NBIS). […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking to standardize a national crowdsourced tool in the department after it reported having success in driving efficiency across VA healthcare centers. […]
Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee regarding President Trump’s 2020 fiscal year budget, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan stated that the 2020 budget would continue to assist in building up an innovative tower effort at the U.S.-Mexico border. […]
House members and witnesses from academia and industry on Tuesday discussed the importance of providing academic programs, tools, and pathways to not only help address the cybersecurity workforce shortage in America, but to also diversify the cybersecurity field. […]
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said today he plans to introduce a bill that would prohibit online service providers from collecting data from consumers “any data that is beyond what is necessary for the companies’ online services.” […]
The Trump administration’s plan to reorganize the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) ran squarely into bipartisan concerns expressed by House members over a lack of information about the plan to move the agency’s functions to the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo today to agency chief human capital officers (CHCOs) encouraging increased workplace flexibilities for employees impacted by the closure of six Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) stations over the summer. […]
Due to poor contract management controls, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been overpaying contractors, and has had inadequate invoice reviews for noncompliant invoices that were undetected, a new EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found. […]