The Defense Department’s (DoD) Fiscal Year 2019 audit identified IT and DoD’s business systems as a material weakness, amid the report’s 1,300 findings and recommendations, according to documents released by DoD on November 15. […]

There’s been a lot in the news lately about what the Defense Department (DoD) wants to do with cloud services down the road, but a whole lot less about who’s already getting the cloud services job done today for America’s warfighters. […]

The House will vote today on a continuing budget (CR) resolution that will fund Federal government operations through Dec. 20, pay for a 3.1 percent annual pay raise for military personnel, and provide funding to the Department of Commerce for 2020 Census work. […]

An audit of the finances of the Small Business Administration highlighted the need for improved cybersecurity and internal controls over IT systems. […]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is looking to replace its existing Enterprise Talent Management System and implement a cloud-based application to meet the department’s needs, according to a solicitation released November 15. The solicitation is open until December 9. […]

Attacks by nation-state actors and exploits targeting supply chains are among top cybersecurity concerns of IT officials, a report by CrowdStrike released on Nov. 19 reported. […]

Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a bill on Nov. 15 that would require all Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) files to be submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a digital, searchable electronic format. […]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched a new broadband initiative dubbed the Minority Broadband Initiative (MBI), that will focus on “solving broadband deployment challenges in vulnerable communities.” […]

The Animal and Plant Health Service (APHIS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing to add a new system of records notice to its current inventory of records systems. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its list of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) topics for FY20. […]

Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist designated the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as the single service provider of common use IT services. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is making progress on improving cybersecurity, but with past weaknesses and upcoming modernization efforts, the department needs to address outstanding issues and set a solid security foundation, witnesses testified to the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization on November 14. […]

The General Services Administration’s 18F organization will begin seeking applications for a new GS-15-Executive Director on Nov. 18.  18F is a Federal office that works with other agencies to “fix technical problems, build products, and improve how government serves the public through technology.” […]

The House Science Committee voted to approve H.R. 4990, the Election Technology Research Act of 2019, on Nov. 14. […]

Data may be the new oil, or even gold – but only if agencies can capture, structure and put it to use. So, what can government agencies do to take back control and unlock their data potential? And, how are they applying data regulations like the Federal Data Strategy and Evidence-Based Policymaking Act to abstract data complexity while also increasing privacy? […]

John Zangardi, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) CIO since 2017, resigned from the agency effective Nov. 15, according to an internal email obtained by Federal News Network. […]

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced a bill that would require Federal law enforcement to obtain a court-ordered warrant before using facial recognition to surveil the public on Nov. 14. […]

House Inspector General (IG) Michael Ptasienski recommended “centralizing procurement for commodity items and standardizing office technology and support” at a Committee on the Modernization of Congress hearing on Nov. 15. […]

A U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) review found unrelated third-party names and social security numbers in a random sampling of Privacy Act responses completed by Records Management Center (RMC) staff. […]

Amazon Web Services plans to protest the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) decision to award the contract for its Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) cloud program to Microsoft, according to a statement from a company spokesperson. […]

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., a co-chair of the House Cybersecurity Caucus and one of the few widely acknowledged experts in Congress on cybersecurity, said on Nov. 14 that a lack of data “baselines” on security issues continues to hamper efforts in Congress – and the nation as a whole – to improve security. […]

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, suggested on Nov. 14 that Congress and the Trump administration could get more done to improve Federal cybersecurity if more agencies critical to that effort were headed by Senate-confirmed secretaries, rather than acting secretaries. […]

Kevin Cox, program manager for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, today discussed the program’s progress in generating AWARE (Agency-Wide Adaptive Risk Enumeration) algorithm scores for Federal agencies to track relative security status, and about how the program plans to refine the scoring process in the future. […]

The Federal government’s new approach to shared services, outlined in the Sharing Quality Services cross-agency priority (CAP) goal, is moving from planning stages to implementation, while emphasizing customer focus and placing an emphasis on a marketplace model, said Federal CIO Suzette Kent. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released draft versions of its strategies on cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) today, setting the stage for the agency’s adoption of the emerging technologies. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) released an update to the National Strategic Computing Initiative today. […]

In the agency’s latest effort to protect sensitive information, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) partnered with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to develop biometric and behavior-based access credentials for employees.   […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a Nov. 7 letter to U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy expressing concern about the use of China-owned social media platforms including TikTok by Army personnel in their personal and official capacities. […]

MITRE Engenuity announced on Nov. 12 the launch of its Center for Threat-Informed Defense, which describes itself as a “collaboration with industry to improve cyber defense at scale through collaborative research and development.” […]

As part of its Centers of Excellence (CoE) initiative, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is looking to replace the application it uses for annuity claims and move from legacy software to a new web app, according to two requests for information released November 12. […]