Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
OPM Office of Personnel Management
elections, election security, voting

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Tuesday her intention to restore the Elections Subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration, which was created during the 110th Congress but abolished in 2013. Pelosi, who will likely be elected House majority leader when Democrats take control of the House in January, also announced that Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, will serve as chairwoman of the subcommittee. […]

Electric Grid Substation Tennessee Valley Authority

With November being National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency Month, cyberattacks on electricity providers like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are being brought into focus, and a new report from TVA’s Inspector General raises some concerns about the organization’s ability to deal with potential ransomware attacks. […]

NASA
Space NASA Satellites
NIST

Federal agencies are using the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework to manage their agencies’ cybersecurity risk, a year after the White House issued an executive order directing the heads of executive agencies and departments to use the NIST framework, according to an agency official. […]

State Department
Collaboration Global Federal government United Kingdom

A report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) released Monday argues that devices infected by botnets need to be eliminated. The report proposed increasing regulations and holding more organizations accountable for malicious botnet activity to achieve its goal. […]

Department of Commerce

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on Nov. 19 seeking public comment on “criteria for identifying emerging technologies” that are essential to U.S. national security and that may be included in possible future export control regulations. […]

European union EU-min
Washington DC capitol federal government-min

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Coons, D.-Del., said they plan to introduce a bill that would create and help fund a tax-preferred savings plan that workers can use to retrain or “upskill” as automation and other technology advances continue to impact the employment market. […]

Christopher Krebs under secretary undersecretary DHS Department of Homeland Security National Protection and Programs Directorate NPPD leader CISA cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency

Christopher Krebs, head of the newly minted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), offered his vision for the agency’s future, and how component-agency status will allow the organization to reach its full potential, during an event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce on November 16. […]

DoT Department of Transportation

The Department of Transportation’s (DoT) Inspector General has flagged several broad cybersecurity categories as “top management challenges” for the agency in FY 2019, including what it called some “longstanding security weaknesses.” […]

The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) on Monday released an interactive tool that consumers, businesses, and governments can use to “measure and quantify” the deployment of the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) email security protocol. […]

Russia hacking hack cyber-min

Hackers with ties to the Russian government are using a spear-phishing campaign to impersonate Department of State employees, according to cybersecurity firms FireEye and CrowdStrike. […]

Google Cloud

Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, announced Friday that she will be leaving her post in early 2019–a specific date was not mentioned. […]

Kirstjen Nielsen DHS

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen emphasized the need for industry and government to consistently work together to thwart threats and defend critical infrastructure within an agenda of “relentless resilience,” during a speech on Nov. 16 at an event organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. […]

Cybersecurity cyber

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) on Friday announced that S&T and the Dutch government are each putting up $1.25 million to fund “collaborative cybersecurity research and development” across five U.S.-Dutch research teams. […]

rural broadband 5g fcc -min

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, a broadband industry group that represents more than 800 independent and community-based telecommunications companies in rural and small-town America, announced Friday that it elected new board members at its fall board meeting. […]

Air Force

Like other military services and Department of Defense components, the Air Force is finding itself overloaded these days with streaming intelligence data, and is looking to machine learning and artificial intelligence to help its analysts quickly put all that information to practical use. […]

Veterans Affairs VA Vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs faced congressional scrutiny on Thursday for delayed payments to veterans following the passage of the Colmery Act, also known as the Forever GI Bill, as House members called on VA IT officials to explain how the system could not handle the additional workloads and criticized the department’s response. […]

Capitol Washington DC Federal

A lack of incentives for House members, and a declining count of professional committee and member staff with the necessary experience, are combining to dampen oversight activities in the House, panelists said Nov. 16 at an event organized by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). […]

.gov website cybersecurity government

Michael Horowitz, inspector general of the Justice Department and chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), said today that the Oversight.gov website launched by CIGIE now has reports from 70 of the 73 Federal inspectors general, up from 67 IGs when the site was unveiled about a year ago. […]

Trump

Creation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)–long a goal of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stand up a dedicated component agency focused on cybersecurity–became a reality Friday as President Trump signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018 into law. […]

GSA General Services Administration
voting booth, election security
Federal money spending government
Acquisition

Lesley Field, the acting administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), laid out the key areas where OMB is trying to improve IT acquisition, and detailed the initiatives underway. […]

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