As FITARA, the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, turns 1, the Federal IT community is gushing over its potential. But the terrible twos are ahead. […]

Christmas is coming, and some Federal CIOs may wish for FITARA to go away. They should come up with a new list. The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) is here to stay. Not all CIOs view FITARA as a lump of coal – 84 percent of Feds are optimistic about the law’s impact, […]

Agencies treasure data and like to refer to information as their crown jewel. But if an agency can’t find data, then any crown jewel is more of a lost treasure. There’s no sense in wasting time hunting for data. That’s like spending your Sundays watching the Redskins lose. Time to Clean Up What’s your attic […]

Every good manager has an open-door policy. Come on in. Let’s talk about it, right after you get those TPS reports finished. That would be greaaaat… Open doors are good when it comes to management. When it comes to cybersecurity, open doors are an invitation for hackers. Access Excess That’s one takeaway from a new […]

Remember when cloud used to scare Federal agencies? It wasn’t that long ago that shopping for cloud resembled a trip through a haunted house – surprises around each corner. Screams and sweaty palms. But cloud isn’t so scary. Let’s talk about it. Deep Breath Many agencies have overcome their cloud computing anxieties, and they want […]

Sales of vinyl records were up 52 percent in the first half of the year compared to last year. Are the ‘80s back? What else is coming back? Gas guzzlers? Feathered hair? The Macarena? What about mainframes? Nope. Album sales are surging because audiophiles like holding vinyl in their hands and reading liner notes. But […]

What a difference a week makes. Days after Pope Francis and Xi Jinping blew into town we’re looking at a government shutdown. Our Federal friends may not go to work on October 1. The 2013 shutdown lasted 16 days. What will you do if you’re forced to take a politically-fueled vacation? While the parties try […]

Summer’s almost over. But hackers never go out of season. IRS. OPM. Cyberattacks on Federal networks are a big deal and require a lot of attention – and budget – from agency CIOs. Federal CIO Tony Scott mandated over the summer that agencies shore up their networks, policies, and procedures to defend their networks from […]

Cybersecurity is still a sexy topic. Just ask Ashley Madison. Federal agencies have an intimate knowledge of cyber threats, too. That’s why MeriTalk is bringing the best minds together for the Fourth Annual Cyber Security Brainstorm. We’re all just friends. Curious? I guess sites like Match.com and eHarmony just don’t cut it in anymore. Does […]

It’s important to keep your weight down. Better on the heart. Healthcare is at risk in much the same way. Government health and human services agencies struggle to confirm and verify healthcare benefits due to data integration challenges, according to a new study, “The Economics of Eligibility: The Cost of Eligibility and Verification Challenges for […]

No one goes it alone anymore. So some smart people at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) started thinking about how to help the financial, energy, healthcare, and other critical industries better protect their data, networks, and infrastructure from a cyber attack. They developed the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to help organizations figure out […]

July is the most popular month to move, according to the American Moving and Storage Association. Homeowners and renters aren’t the only ones boxing up their paperbacks and photo albums. Federal agencies are doing the same thing. But they’re moving to the cloud. Packing Up The Department of Defense (DoD) may have the most boxes […]

It’s a big, bad world. So what do agencies need to know that can help them improve cybersecurity? At the Symantec Symposium, these key ideas to improve security resonated with an audience concerned that they will be the target of the next attack. 1.    Take a broader view. “Identify and protect” used to represent a […]

Following the historic Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack and the theft of data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – for the second time in a year – agencies are searching for a long-term cure to cybersecurity woes. Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) could be the medicine they need. A panel of CDM experts […]

Nothing gets headlines like a data breach and nothing protects against breaches like multi-level authentication. The challenge is balancing security with convenience and cost. It’s not that it’s impossible to keep all your data locked up and secure. It is. It’s that making it secure and accessible is so difficult. “Why is identity such a […]

Cubicle farms are dying. Where can I send flowers? We can work anywhere, but it takes IT smarts to ensure that an increasingly mobile workforce has secure access to whatever it needs, whenever it needs it. Managing the mobile enterprise is critical, and it’s the focus of next week’s Citrix Mobility 2015 Government Summit, bringing […]

Snowden and Manning introduced the world to insider threats. Not only do we know what that means now, we also understand how difficult it is to stay ahead of such threats. But with the expansion of mobile technologies and increasingly sophisticated threats – both inside and outside – the whole nature of cyber defense is […]

Lots of people are talking about cloud computing. So listen carefully. Even if the term is a misnomer, cloud computing is a big deal. Here’s the thing – organizations can do anything in the cloud that they can do on-premises. So why are Federal agencies still investing just a fraction of their IT budgets on […]

Numbers don’t lie. These numbers from Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report are scary, but they describe what’s at stake in the never-ending fight against hackers. Last year: Attackers targeted five out of six large companies, a 40 percent increase over 2013 24 zero-day vulnerabilities were discovered 317 million pieces of new malware were created That’s […]

Honesty is the best policy, right? That’s why honesty has its own day – tomorrow is National Honesty Day. No lie. Funny that it comes at the end of the month that begins with April Fool’s Day. Or maybe that’s ironic… So let’s be honest. Cyber’s all the rage. So is big data. While some […]

A picture is worth a thousand words. At least. From now until 2020, the digital universe will nearly double every two years, with video surveillance reaching approximately 3.3 trillion hours globally by the same time, according to MeriTalk’s new Video Vortex study. That’s a lot of words. Behind the Lens Surveillance cameras, mobile devices, and […]

It may be April Fool’s Day, but cyber’s no joke. John P. Carlin was confirmed as the Assistant Attorney General for National Security a year ago. He’s a serious gentleman with a serious job. At DOJ’s National Security Division, he heads law enforcement’s cyber security efforts. Heading Off Disaster In a speech last year at […]

Fans will fill out 70 million brackets this week in an attempt to win an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament pool. Who’s your pick? Kentucky? U Va? Both look strong. Apparently the odds of picking a perfect March Madness bracket are less than one in 9.2 quintillion (that’s 9,223,372,036,854,775,808), according to Science Daily, which credits DePaul […]

Continuous monitoring is surging along, but agencies are really bad at authentication. Cyber attacks were up 15 percent last year. Agencies spent $12.7 billion on cybersecurity in Fiscal 2014. The annual Federal Information Security Management Act compliance report paints a dismal picture of Federal IT security. Let’s break it down. Authentication efforts are lagging. “Numerous […]

Revelations that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as Secretary of State should scare the hell out of CIOs. The government spends $14 billion a year on cybersecurity, but no amount of spending or regulations will make a difference if top leaders flout the rules and set up a […]

Fifty Shades of Grey hit movie theaters last weekend, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele have quite an… unconventional romance. Romantic tension of a different sort is heating up between Feds and cloud computing vendors. MeriTalk’s new study, “Cloud Without the Commitment,” digs into that relationship. Seems Feds are getting […]

Defense wins championships. That’s why New England beat Seattle on Sunday. Defense also keeps data centers from getting sacked. This isn’t about Football Nope. It’s about cyber. And data centers. We all know cyberattacks are proliferating. So MeriTalk asked Feds how their concerns over cyber affect their data center strategies, and turned it into an […]

There’s only one explanation – it’s a belated Christmas miracle. The 114th Congress is getting down to business, and the president last night outlined his priorities in his State of the Union speech. It just so happens that the legislative and executive branches are singing the same tune on cyber. The House and Senate majorities […]

The attack on Sony and other high-profile data breaches have forced lawmakers to pay attention to cyber legislation. But will the 114th Congress do as much for IT as the 113th? Several lawmakers who can affect IT policy are newly elected or newly assigned to tech-focused committees. Here’s a rundown of the new faces and […]

Feds face a long to-do list and lots of questions about the ability – and willingness – of the legislative and executive branches to work together as the 114th Congress convenes. Six issues lawmakers must grapple with in the New Year: Who Will Be the Next Federal CIO (and does it Matter)? The White House […]