Privacy was the topic du jour on the Hill today. In its first hearing in the new Congress, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce heard testimony from privacy rights activists and technology industry groups on how to protect consumer privacy in the era of big data. All witnesses before the Subcommittee agreed that the Federal government needs to enact Federal data privacy legislation, though witnesses disagreed on what exactly the legislation should cover. […]

Following up on a letter to health organizations to describe their cybersecurity challenges, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sent a letter to the heads of health-related Federal agencies on Monday, calling on them to work towards a national health-sector cybersecurity strategy. […]

The move by government organizations to public cloud infrastructure is often motivated by a desire to provide better services to citizens, but an academic piece warns about the need to maintain public access to open data in the cloud. […]

A bipartisan group of senators urged Trump administration officials in a letter dated today to ban the use of inverter equipment made by China-based Huawei from the U.S. electric grid, citing the same cybersecurity concerns that led Congress to block Huawei network equipment from the U.S. market because of firm’s alleged links to Chinese intelligence services. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intends to publish on Tuesday a final rule in the Federal Register updating regulations in order to give the agency’s CIO “a significant role in advancing the commission’s overall information technology capabilities.” […]

Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 researchers announced on Friday that they have identified a spear phishing campaign from November 2018 that is targeting U.S. national security think tanks and academic institutions. Research indicates that the “threat actor might have interests in gathering intelligence related to not only North Korea, but possibly wider in the Northeast Asia region.” […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a notice on Monday stating that they intend to extend their IT infrastructure contract with their current contractor from February 22 to August 31, due to delays caused by the 35-day partial government shutdown. […]

As Federal technology managers increasingly operate in a hybrid, multi-cloud world, having a holistic view of their agency’s application landscape and architecture will help in mapping the right workload to the right type of cloud deployment. […]

On Thursday, the U.S. government released its Fourth U.S. Action Plan for Open Government that will work to making Federal government data more accessible, ensuring the grant-making process is more accountable, and Federally funded scientific research is more accessible. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is seeking feedback on proposed updates to the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) after being informed from 2018 baseline assessment results. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released SP 1800-4A, a guide on how organizations can secure mobile devices used for work, on Thursday, offering suggested solutions for enterprise mobility management and mobile device management. […]

Katie Nickels, a threat intelligence expert for MITRE, released a grassroots compiled list of recent cybersecurity indictments of state-sponsored hackers earlier this week. […]

Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the Trump Administrations 2018 S&T Highlights report. […]

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would not be able to partner or share information with countries that adopt Huawei technology. […]

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sent letters to various healthcare groups to seek information on ways to best improve cybersecurity within the healthcare industry. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released an RFI on Thursday asking for help in finding solutions to collect taxes in the field, including mobile payments, online payments, and other systems. Vendors have until March 21 to respond. […]

In the 115th Congress, a new study found that 226 cybersecurity-focused bills were introduced which was an increase compared to past sessions, but only 10 had been signed into law. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is working to address partner agency concerns about the effectiveness of its Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS) program, according to a blog post released by the agency on Thursday. […]

President Trump in Twitter postings this morning called for the rollout of 5G wireless services in the U.S., and took it one “G” further by saying he’d also like to see deployment of “6G” technology – an idea that is still largely hypothetical. […]

The White House on Wednesday issued its new National Strategy for Aviation Security (NSAS) which calls for greater efforts to protect the U.S. “Aviation Ecosystem” from a range of threats including those posed by cyberattacks and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). […]

A paper released by think tank New America on Thursday recommends that local governments build partnerships with Federal, state, and other local partners to prepare for major cyberattacks. At the Federal level, strategies for doing helping cities include providing grants targeted specifically to cybersecurity help, the report suggests. […]

Defense Department (DoD) officials voiced sometimes conflicting ideas today about how the agency should migrate legacy systems to the cloud. […]

With the redesign of the VA.gov website for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency has made progress in providing a better customer experience. Now, alongside partners at the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), the agency is looking toward other areas to improve across the department, said officials from VA and USDS today. […]

The Department of Defense’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy puts the DoD on more of a fast track toward developing and employing AI and machine learning to support, as the strategy’s preface states, “a force fit for our time.” The strategy outlines an accelerated, collaborative approach with industry, academia, and allies toward new technologies that will “transform […]

Evangelos Razis has joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as its new senior manager for international digital economy policy. […]

Cybersecurity technologies provider Symantec reported that ransomware activity fell by 20 percent in 2018 on a year-over-year basis, but that the focus of attacks shifted sharply toward enterprises and away from consumers last year. […]

In a blog post last week, the General Services Administration (GSA) provided an update on the kind of feedback that it received from the industry for its proposed e-commerce portal. […]

A top-ranking official at the Department of Justice (DoJ) discussed the development of drone aircraft, and their uses for public safety work at both Federal and local levels of government. […]

There are two fairly obvious ways–plus another great big one that is more philosophical in nature–to look at the announcement late Tuesday from the Federal Communications Commission that the agency’s chairman, Ajit Pai, is circulating to his fellow commissioners a draft report to Congress finding that the digital divide in America narrowed “substantially” during 2017, and that rollout of broadband service in the U.S. is happening in a “reasonable and timely” way. […]

Both the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) named new CIOs this month. Henry “Jamie” Holcombe will join the USPTO as CIO on Feb. 25 and Keith B. Vaughn has already begun his work with the USITC. […]