Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

John Curran

MeriTalk

John Curran is MeriTalk's Managing Editor covering the intersection of government and technology.
Tech Tonic - July 2025

Who’s going to take home the hardware in this year’s MeriTalk AI Honors Awards? We’re going to find out at Tech Tonic on July 17 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Morton’s the Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., and you’re invited to the celebration! […]

Iran

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put the nation on alert Sunday to the dangers of cyberattacks and other retaliatory measures that could be launched by Iran following the June 21 bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States.   […]

DoD Pentagon Military
Army

The Department of the Army has named Brandon Pugh as principal cyber advisor, with the top-level duties of advising the secretary of the Army and the Army chief of staff on cyber matters and implementing the Pentagon’s cyber strategy in the Army. […]

NIST
Emerging tech

Cloud security provider Zscaler, Inc., said it has earned key competencies under the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Government Competency – part of the broader AWS Competency Program – that recognizes AWS partners with expertise and experience in delivering mission-critical solutions to government agencies. […]

James Walkinshaw, the Fairfax County, Va., supervisor and former chief of staff to Rep. Gerry Connolly, is pledging strong efforts to support the Federal workforce and improve oversight of government IT operations as he campaigns to succeed his former boss to represent the 11th district of Virginia in Congress. […]

Officials with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) said on June 11 that they envision rapid progress through the rest of this year on several pilots that are aiming to harness automation to speed FedRAMP’s ability to approve cloud-based service offerings for government agency use. […]

CISA

Bridget Bean is stepping down as executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and retiring from Federal government service, a spokesperson for the agency told MeriTalk today. […]

John Curran
MeriTalk