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. […]

In a scene from the movie “The Matrix,” Carrie Anne Moss’ character calls to get a flight program for a certain kind of helicopter, and after a few blinks of the eyes, the program is installed in her brain and she’s ready to roll. The Pentagon’s lead research arm isn’t quite at that point yet, […]

As Congressional members celebrate and lament the results of yesterday’s midterm elections, Federal IT leaders face a changed landscape on Capitol Hill, with a new party in charge of the House and close elections for several members key to initiatives like FITARA, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), and IT modernization. Here are some of the key races and their results: […]

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has declined to hear a case regarding the legality of Obama-era Net Neutrality rules–putting an end to a lengthy legal battle by declining to hear USTelecom’s appeal. The telecommunication industry group originally sued the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) under the belief that the FCC lacked the authority to impose public-utility, common-carrier obligations on broadband internet access service. Under the Obama-era rules, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were barred from blocking or throttling web content or creating the so-called internet “fast lanes.” […]

The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a joint statement Monday night stating that none of the organizations had seen any compromises that would threaten midterm election voting. […]

Cybersecurity firm Morphisec said that 63 percent of 1,000 Americans that it surveyed in late October regarded the threat of “adversaries propagating misinformation on social networks” as a “more significant threat” to the U.S. midterm elections than possible cyber attacks against voting infrastructure. […]

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) awarded a $100 million IT services contract to Reston, Va.-based TeraThink on Oct. 29. […]

A new report on FISMA compliance from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) found that the bureau has consistently implemented its information security programs but also called on CFPB to strengthen its enterprise risk management program, among other recommendations. […]