Ransomware attacks are filling headlines. Now reaching unprecedented levels, the ransomware crescendo is part of the surge in cyber-attacks that became a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

Innovation

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision addresses the five technology trends poised to have the greatest impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 5: From Me to We, which promises to place the ecosystem at the core of government operations. […]

telework

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision looks at five technology trends likely to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 4: Anywhere, Everywhere, considering the implications of virtual work patterns across the Federal space. […]

modernization
Emerging tech

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision highlights the five technology trends poised to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 2: Mirrored World, which promises to drive improvements across a range of Federal use cases. […]

innovation

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision addresses the five technology trends poised to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 1: Stack Strategically as it promises to be a game-changer for Federal agencies. If the COVID-19 pandemic proved anything, the Federal government needs to […]

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, technology was establishing itself as a driving force in government, with cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, and other advances changing the way agencies meet the mission. The pandemic accelerated all that. For the Federal government, COVID-19’s impact was far-reaching. “We are truly in unprecedented times in our nation,” Defense Department […]

Rather than focus on a single topic or recent news event in this column, let’s talk about a number of important Federal government management matters. Think of it as the good government version of Chris Berman’s complete NFL highlights coverage in 60 seconds… […]

As we have seen with recent security breaches – including the SolarWinds attack – it can be challenging for Federal security leaders to effectively detect cyber threats across their networks. In the last few decades, private sector organizations have established tools to help monitor for malicious activity, but until recently, the Federal government hasn’t had one centralized method. […]

Federal money spending government

The bipartisan infrastructure agreement announced with much fanfare by the White House and a handful of Democratic and Republican senators on June 24 remains a feel-good topic in the nation’s Capitol – after all, who doesn’t like the old-fashioned notion of agreement amidst partisan divides – but the longer the wait for nitty gritty details on the deal, the more questions that come to mind. […]

Like many before him, President Biden seems to recognize that a crisis presents both danger and opportunity. Facing a barrage of high-profile cyberattacks, the President’s recent Cybersecurity Executive Order also illustrates the profound opportunity in front of his administration to improve the Federal government’s cybersecurity posture by an order of magnitude. […]

Cyber

Many of us are going back to work in person – and this includes the Federal government. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and General Services Administration (GSA) announced on June 10 that the 25 percent occupancy restriction for Federal offices has been lifted, and agencies will soon be able to increase the number of employees in their physical workplaces. […]

For decades, Federal chief information security officers (CISOs) focused on protecting a traditional perimeter and the users within. Today, however, they recognize that there are a seemingly endless number of third-party partners, vendors, and customer accounts, as well as service accounts – accounts which are either not directly tied to employees, or non-human accounts– which could result in compromises. […]

cybersecurity

The old adage “consistency is key” rings especially true for Federal cybersecurity operations centers (CSOCs) today. Agencies who pay close attention to their operations center but lack visibility and control of cybersecurity blind spots – specifically applications and workloads – are ripe for attack. […]

Earlier this month, in a May 6 column, I offered up a President’s Management Agenda framework – PMA 46 – for the Biden-Harris Administration as we awaited the full FY 2022 budget proposal, which was publicly released today. While the so-called “skinny budget” released in April outlined plans for the discretionary part of next year’s […]

AWS Work from Home

It is hard to believe that we are coming up on a year of living with COVID-19. In February 2020, countries around the world were beginning to institute travel restrictions, and organizations were shifting large portions of their teams to working from home. We knew that customers needed to enable their teams to work remotely, very quickly. […]

President Biden
funding

A billion of anything isn’t quite what it used to be, but it’s still a lot. And when that billion is dollars for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) – a great vehicle that has been underutilized because of low funding levels and strict repayment rules – it may yet end up being a real difference-maker across many government agencies looking at IT modernization. […]

President Biden

President Biden on April 9 released a massive $1.52 trillion fiscal year 2022 spending plan that reflects his vision of an expanded – and expansive – Federal government that boosts spending for domestic programs and addresses issues such as education, affordable housing, public health, racial inequality, and climate change, among many others. […]

Disinformation is undoubtedly on more people’s radars – Federal IT pros included – heading into 2021 and beyond. But just because we know more about it doesn’t mean we are better prepared to face the challenge that disinformation is posing. […]

Federal money spending government

With many states admitting to substantial fraudulent payments due to poor management and problematic unemployment insurance (UI) application systems, what are they doing about fraud in other state programs that collectively make up another giant elephant in the room? […]

FITARA

The security operations center (SOC) has become the critical hub of Federal agencies’ cyber readiness. SOC analysts keep agencies safely up and running – determining the size and impact of incidents, utilizing threat intelligence, implementing response procedures and collaborating with other staff to address issues. […]

Cloud
cloud

After a decade-long initiative to expand telework, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the federal government’s workforce to cloud-based telework, practically overnight. While improving workforce flexibility seems like the obvious benefit, federal agencies can also take this opportunity to leverage the extensive ecosystem of open source partners and applications to boost their multicloud modernization efforts. Agencies that work […]

FITARA
security

As the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became apparent early this year, the first matter of business for the Federal government was simply getting employees online and ensuring they could carry on with their critical work and missions. This is a unique challenge in the government space due to the sheer size of the Federal workforce and the amount of sensitive data those workers require – everything from personally identifiable information to sensitive national security information. And yet, the Department of Defense, for one, was able to spin up secure collaboration capabilities quite quickly thanks to the cloud, while the National Security Agency recently expanded telework for unclassified work. […]

innovation

When agencies began full-scale telework earlier this year, many were not anticipating it would evolve into a long-term workplace strategy. However, in the wake of COVID-19, recent calculations estimate $11 billion in Federal cost-savings per year due to telework, as well as a 15 percent increase in productivity. Agencies are determining how they can continue to modernize – and therefore optimize – to support greater efficiency into the future. […]