From a cybersecurity perspective, the strengths of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are also weaknesses. The capacity to crunch massive amounts of data, identify patterns, and learn while working covers a lot of territory, but also leaves room for vulnerabilities, which Pentagon and Intelligence Community (IC) researchers want to close up. And the job doesn’t look easy. […]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Tuesday released the Democratic roster for the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which was created as part of a House Rules package adopted earlier this month when Democratic leadership took over in the House. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has not yet named the committee’s Republican members. […]
Jordan Rae Kelly is now a senior managing director in the cybersecurity practice for FTI Consulting. Kelly was previously the director for cyber incident response at the National Security Council (NSC). […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has put a lot of emphasis on speeding up the acquisition and development of new technologies out of a need to keep pace with new advances and potential adversaries. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)–evaluating the Army Futures Command modernization effort–throws in a word of caution, saying there is such a thing as going too fast. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to share Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) guidance across the department, leading to an estimated 860 unreported data centers and inadequate DCOI goals, according to a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general. […]
The 17 members of Congress whose job it is to try to avert another partial Federal government shutdown held their first official meeting today, and two of the Democratic House members that are part of the House-Senate conference committee created to resolve differences on border security issues described the initial negotiating session as both cordial and constructive. […]
In the face of increased public scrutiny and increased calls for Congressional oversight into the social media giant’s cybersecurity habits, Facebook has made quite a few new cybersecurity hires. […]
The Federal Communications Commission announced that Geoffrey Starks was sworn in as a commissioner today. […]
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who has been an advocate for Federal IT policies on Capitol Hill, announced that he will be a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. […]
The House voted today to approve a 2.6 percent pay increase for civilian Federal employees. The legislation sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., cleared the House on a vote of 259-161, with all 230 House Democrats being joined by 29 Republicans voting for the measure. […]
A new report from cybersecurity firm Security Scorecard released this week found that the partial Federal government shutdown had minimal negative effects on Federal network security, and even found some positive impacts on patching and endpoint security. […]
The House on Tuesday passed H.R. 769, the Counterterrorism Advisory Board Act of 2019, which would establish a board at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to coordinate and integrate departmental intelligence, activities, and policy related to counterterrorism. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced the leadership and membership of its subcommittees on Tuesday, with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., as chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, which will handle Federal IT oversight duties. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., will service as the subcommittee’s ranking member. […]
The Department of Defense puts a lot of effort into cybersecurity but still has some significant holes in its structure, some of them dating back a decade, according to a report issued earlier this month by the department’s Inspector General (IG). […]
The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) has extended the deadline on a request for information for cloud migration services, with the goal of closing multiple data centers and moving a suite of applications to a commercial cloud environment. The RFI is open until February 20. […]
A day after the Federal government fully reopened and less than three weeks after it faces another potential funding crisis, a group of Senate Democrats has been pushing to get back pay to low-wage government contractors who missed paychecks during the partial lapse in appropriations. […]
Technology experts speaking at the State of the Net conference today agreed that comprehensive legislation and enforcement is necessary to better protect consumer data, and that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should play a bigger role in that enforcement. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee announced today that Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., will chair the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation. […]
Multiple tech-related issues including cybersecurity, social media manipulation, and intellectual property theft took center stage today at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing featuring six U.S. intelligence organization chiefs fielding senators’ questions about threats to the country from adversaries who they said are becoming more dangerous as they better understand and use technology. […]
A Federal data breach disclosure law, which would require companies to report data breaches to customers within 30 days, will be reintroduced this year, according to Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. […]
During the State of the Net 2019 Conference, cybersecurity experts zeroed in on how the shutdown impacted not only the United States’ cybersecurity posture but also the Federal government’s cybersecurity workforce. […]
A group of Democratic senators went public with a letter to Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, and Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), asking them to answer questions about the partial Federal government shutdown’s effect on cybersecurity. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched its new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STAA) team on Tuesday, with a focus on enhancing GAO’s ability to audit technology. […]
Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Communications and Technology, delivered a wide-ranging survey of tech issues in the panel’s gunsights for this year and beyond during a keynote speech at the State of the Net 2019 conference today, and generally came down on the lighter side of the regulatory spectrum. […]
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing put out a request for information yesterday seeking information on technology or materials with hidden machine-readable counterfeit deterrent capabilities for future currency. […]
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reported today that customer satisfaction across Federal agencies was down in 2018 to a score of 68.9, following two years of improved satisfaction, as part of the ACSI Federal Government Report for 2018. […]
In a continuing effort to move email systems to the cloud, the Air Force said in migrated 555,000 email accounts to the Microsoft Office 365 cloud in early January, marking the first phase in a $1 billion Cloud Hosted Enterprise Services (CHES) program. […]
In anticipation of winter weather affecting the evening commute, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced a two-hour early departure for Federal personnel in the Washington D.C. area today, with an option to take unscheduled leave to stagger departure times. […]
MeriTalk today announced the launch of its FITARA Dashboard, a publicly-viewable resource that brings the latest congressional scoring of Federal agency information technology modernization progress into clearer focus, and provides analytical tools to perform detailed comparisons of how 24 major Federal agencies have achieved progress toward their goals over the past three years. […]
The Department of Justice unsealed charges against Chinese communications equipment maker Huawei on Monday, accusing the company of wire fraud, stealing trade secrets, and undermining sanctions against Iran. […]