The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today recommending that four Federal agencies–the Departments of Energy (DoE), Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice (DoJ), and Treasury–take more than three dozen actions to comply with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements aimed at implementing the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). […]

In a report released today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has yet to implement a full one-third of GAO’s information security recommendations issued to OPM in recent years. […]

Two House subcommittees will convene a hearing tomorrow, Nov. 14, at 3 p.m., to hear officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) discuss how the two agencies cooperate on cybersecurity issues. […]

The ability of adversaries to attack in cyberspace with low consequence creates the need to impose friction and leads to the tenants of defending forward and continuous engagement with adversaries in cyberspace espoused in the National Cyber Strategy and the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Strategy, said Rob Joyce, senior adviser for cybersecurity strategy to the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA). […]

The United States, Russia, and China did not sign the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, a global cyber pact, released Tuesday at Paris Peace Forum by French President Emmanuel Macron. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to update its IT Schedule 70 contract to simplify the variety of mobility services offered and expand the services available to agencies under Special Item Number (SIN) 132-53. […]

During MeriTalk’s Data Center Brainstorm event on Nov. 7, Steve Rice, deputy CIO at the Department of Homeland Security, highlighted the importance of mobility and how improving access to mobile platforms can further the missions of DHS and its sub-agencies.   […]

John “Jay” Gibson, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) first chief management officer (CMO), announced Friday that he will resign effective Nov. 30. Gibson stepped into the role in February 2018. […]

The National Science Foundation, on behalf of the interagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development National Coordination Office, is looking to update its Cybersecurity Research and Development plan, last published in 2016. […]

A new report released today from One Identity found that Federal agencies lack basic elements of cyber hygiene. The study, conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by identity and access management (IAM) solutions provider One Identity found that “while agency leaders recognize IAM’s importance, the majority of agencies have yet to fully adopt recommended guidelines into their cybersecurity program and some even feel their current approach distracts from agency missions.” […]

This week, the House Veterans Affairs Committee will have its hands full with hearings on two major IT projects at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that have both recently been subject to scrutiny in the press and in Congress. […]

As Federal agencies seek to incorporate an application programming interface (API) strategy into their IT modernization initiatives, a word of caution: make sure you have API-specific security integrated into your IT infrastructure. […]

The Aspen Cybersecurity Group (ACG), which was formed last year by the Aspen Institute think tank to “translate pressing cybersecurity conversations into action,” has issued several policy recommendations to bolster the security of internet of things (IoT) devices including suggesting that device manufacturers invest more in building in better security, and that manufacturers be held accountable for the security of devices that they make. […]

Department of Homeland Security Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa expects the successor of DHS’ $22 billion Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions II (EAGLE II) contract to arrive “before the end of the year.” […]

With recent changes in the Trump Administration dominating the national news, White House officials said this week that they do not see any major course corrections coming from the executive branch on IT modernization. […]

The North Korean hackers known as Lazarus Group are now stealing from ATMs to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, according to research Symantec released Thursday. […]

Synack, a crowdsourced security testing firm, announced Thursday the launch of its Synack Veterans Cyber Program which will “recruit, empower, and deploy veterans in the cybersecurity industry.” […]

Dana Deasy, CIO at the Department of Defense, detailed this week how the Pentagon is adapting to the realities of using mobile devices and turning them into an advantage for the agency. […]

The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC)–a group formed last year to promote international stability by developing policy proposals and norms to guide responsible state and non-state behavior in cyberspace–on Thursday issued a set of six global norms that the group hopes will promote “the peaceful use of cyberspace.” […]

Following President Trump’s proclamation of November as National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen released a statement on Wednesday saying she and DHS are “committed to strengthening our efforts to protect and secure the infrastructure on which Americans rely, in close partnership with other Federal agencies, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, and the private sector.” […]

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), a partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the state of Maryland, is seeking public comment by Dec. 6 on a draft report (NISTIR 8219) detailing cybersecurity guidance aimed at the manufacturing sector that employs industrial control systems to monitor and control physical processes. […]

A report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released Wednesday found that “harnessing the full potential of cyber insurance will be imperative for preventing systemic cyber incidents of concern for governments and the private sector alike.” […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced today that it issued $1,272,320 of funding awards to develop new solutions to “improve the capability of organizations to understand and improve their cybersecurity control investment decisions.” The funding will be split between University of California, San Diego and University of Illinois, Chicago. […]

The demand for cybersecurity professionals is growing, according to data published Wednesday on CyberSeek, a free online resource from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Burning Glass, and CompTIA. […]

The United States is finally making no bones about its willingness to go after adversaries in cyberspace. […]

The race between Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s IT subcommittee, and challenger Gina Ortiz Jones, is too close to call, according to media outlets. […]

As Federal government agencies continue their methodical march to IT modernization spurred on by congressional and administration mandates, two senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) IT officials emphasized today the importance of the needs of core agency missions in leading those efforts. […]

New guidance for the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) will likely include revised performance goals for agencies, revised metrics for energy metering and virtualization, and new metrics for under-utilized servers, availability, and old hardware, said Jake Wooley, IT sustainability program manager at the Department of Energy (DoE), during MeriTalk’s 2018 Data Center Brainstorm. […]

Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross announced Tuesday that Laura Peter has joined the department as the deputy under secretary of Commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). […]

On Nov. 5, the United States implemented sanctions against Iran, which the Treasury Department described as the “largest ever single-day action targeting the Iranian regime.” While the sanctions were ostensibly targeting Iran’s growing nuclear program, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank which vacillates between nonpartisan, hawkish, and neoconservative in terms of its political leanings, argued in a report released Tuesday that the United States should be concerned about the cybersecurity implications of the new sanctions. […]