The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a list of 55 “national critical functions” today, signaling a shift from protecting specific critical infrastructure sectors to protecting specific activities that are crucial to the country. […]

On Monday, Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., announced a bill to provide funding to states to safeguard voting systems from cyberattacks. […]

Professional services company, Accenture, has won a blanket purchase order agreement contract – worth a potential $2 billion – from the Department of Energy (DOE), according to a news release on the company’s website. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today that shines a light on nine Federal agencies for 12 practices the agencies adopted to help them more effectively implement FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) provisions. […]

As technology changes mission requirements, the management of human capital, and how work is done at the Federal level, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report today recommending how Federal agencies should remain cognizant of emerging tech’s impact on managing and maintaining their workforce.  […]

With the release of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) new memo on shared services, the General Services Administration is looking to the opportunity to support the whole-of-government approach that the memo supports, said Keith Nakasone, deputy assistance commissioner for IT Acquisition at the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). […]

As CIOs look to overcome obstacles in modernizing their organizations’ IT systems across a spectrum of industries, making IT an issue of trust rather than cost has become key to driving CIO initiatives, according to Grant Thornton’s 2019 CIO Survey Report. […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee is getting ready for Tuesday’s hearing on unwanted robocalls. The hearing – which will include expert testimony from academia, consumer interest groups, and technology interest groups – will cover seven legislative measures that lawmakers unveiled today. […]

Anil Cheriyan, head of the General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) Technology Transformation Services unit (TTS), shared details today on his office’s new work in the areas of robotic process automation (RPA) and identity proofing. […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is searching for information on improving its data repository and user interface design. […]

Efforts to secure data under regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation have not improved protections, a Varonis report indicates. Varonis found an uptick in sensitive data availability to personnel this year versus last, after analyzing 54 billion files. The report found that 53 percent of companies have over 1,000 sensitive files open […]

Cybersecurity and the acquisition of a new Coast Guard electronic health records (EHR) system remain on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) list of open priority recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided an update on the 19 recommendations it made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made in March 2018 and of those recommendations, the EPA has taken actions to improve on five of the recommendations as of April 2019. […]

With the release of a new memo by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on shared services today, a major revamp of how the Federal government approaches and acquires cybersecurity services, financial management systems, HR systems, and more is underway. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is soliciting submissions for construction manufacturing that can be done autonomously. The proposed technology should be able to construct barracks, houses, and other buildings, along with mobility and counter-mobility tools like bridges, culverts, and anti-vehicle obstacles. […]

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, weighed in on blockchain technology in an op-ed in The Hill on April 22, making the case for his new legislation, the Token Taxonomy Act. […]

A new memo released today by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revamps the Federal government’s approach to shared services by establishing lead agencies for business support areas, including cybersecurity, and requiring agencies to meet government-wide standards and gain approval to go outside shared services. […]

Microsoft is getting into the SparkNotes game with its latest project. In an April 23 blog post, Microsoft explained that it is using AI to help decode 19 plays from William Shakespeare in an attempt “to shine a new light on some of the greatest pieces of literature, as well as make them more accessible to people who worry the plays are too complex to easily understand.” […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD’s) immature global supply chain networks for moving F-35 aircraft parts have largely contributed to F-35 spare parts shortages and difficulties managing and moving parts around the world, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in an April 25 report. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released draft guidance on securing internet of things (IoT) devices for small business and home applications so that manufacturers can create products that only transmit data in approved ways. […]

While Federal government IT spending may hold steady in the White House’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2020, funding for modernization initiatives is expected to fall, according to a report from Bloomberg Government. […]

Kevin Bankston is leaving New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) to become director of privacy policy at Facebook, where he will focus on “development privacy-protective tools” and help shape privacy policy for emerging technologies. […]

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations, today announced the observance by more than 170 countries of “Girls in ICT Day,” which aims to help bridge the digital divide in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.  […]

U.S. Navy Cybersecurity Division Director Rear Admiral Danelle Barrett hashed out the Navy’s effort to modernize its on-ship communication network architecture to simplify data accessibility at Gov Exec’s April 25 Mission to Modernize. […]

As robotic process automation (RPA) takes root in the Federal government, a conservative approach on security and authority to operate certifications (ATOs) from agency IT organizations can be a roadblock to the adoption of RPA, said Gerard Badorrek, CFO at the General Services Administration. […]

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are becoming significantly more frequent and voluminous as attacks have become multi-vectored and transformative over time, according to an April 24 Neustar whitepaper. […]

The Asia-Pacific region is increasingly falling victim to cyberattacks, supplanting the North American region for most-attacked status, according to an annual report by Trustwave. […]

With the Department of Defense focused on artificial intelligence (AI) to support the warfighter, cloud computing will be a big part in getting tools out to the tactical edge, said Dana Deasy, CIO of the department, at GDIT Emerge on April 23. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doesn’t have any current plans to utilize artificial intelligence in its operations, but mostly because it hasn’t yet found a practical use for the technology. […]

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that shifts responsibility for Federal government “security, suitability, and credentialing” background investigations to the Department of Defense (DoD) – making official a move that has long been in the works. […]