The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – widely regarded as the most significant climate legislation passed by Congress – was signed into law just over one year ago. But what impact and progress has the legislation made towards its objectives of spurring investment in clean energy to reduce carbon emissions? […]
Many Federal government agencies are having a difficult time filling cybersecurity roles with skilled personnel, but going forward, the FBI is placing an emphasis on building a diverse workforce to support its mission. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is providing some insight into the first task orders awarded under the DoD’s $9 billion multi-vendor cloud contract, the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC). […]
New guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) highlighted significant ongoing challenges Federal agencies and industry face in implementing security controls like multifactor authentication (MFA) to manage identity security. […]
Federal agencies are working to optimize data centers to achieve better performance, an effort that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports has made “mixed progress.” […]
President Biden has nominated Aprille Joy Ericsson, a long-standing aerospace engineer at NASA, to serve as an assistant secretary of defense (ASD) within the Department of Defense’s (DoD) research office, a new position the Pentagon announced this summer. […]
Private-sector providers of IT and security technologies to the Federal government liked the general trend of improvement in agency grades on the 16th edition of the FITARA Scorecard that came out last week, but also are eager to see progress on scorecard grading categories that shine a brighter light on agency cybersecurity and cloud use. […]
The 11th hour approval on Saturday night of a continuing resolution (CR) to fund Federal government operations beyond the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023 on Sept. 30 gives the government another 45 days of funding – and Congress the same period to work on legislation for FY2024 appropriations or confront another possible shutdown. […]
As the Federal government approaches the near certainty of a shutdown late Saturday, agencies began issuing their respective contingency plans to their workforce – indicating which employees and services are deemed essential and which will be furloughed. […]
The head of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said Thursday that the Biden administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) executive order (EO) will be unveiled this fall. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) parent agency – said yesterday that only 571 of CISA’s 3,117 employees would continue to work through a government shutdown – meaning that 79 percent of the agency’s staff would be staying home until government funding is restored. […]
While Federal agencies showed an improving overall grading trend across a range of longstanding IT-related categories on the 16th version of the FITARA Scorecard released today, coming additions to the scoring category lineup could create a changed and perhaps more challenging landscape for overall grades on future scorecards. […]
Version 16.0 of the FITARA Scorecard is set for release on Sept. 26, to be followed by a roundtable discussion on the new agency IT scores led by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – who is ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation – with participation from several large Federal agency representatives. […]
Although the Federal government has numerous programs in place to provide financial support to aid the deployment of high-speed broadband to unserved areas, industry experts told members of Congress on Thursday that they’re not getting the “biggest bang for the buck.” […]
Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., introduced new legislation this week that looks to strengthen U.S. defenses against potential cyberattacks by calling on the secretary of Homeland Security to establish a National Risk Management Cycle. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is actively focused on getting guidance out to agencies on the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the Federal government, Federal Chief Information and Security Officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha said this week. […]
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Defense (DoD) needs to do better in mitigating the effects of restrictive practices by cloud service vendors – from choice of provider to the cost of cloud services – as it moves its data and software to the cloud. […]
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee will vote on a bill Wednesday that would block prior marijuana use from becoming grounds for failing to hire someone into the Federal government. […]
The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is creating a playbook that aims to clarify, facilitate, and encourage incorporation of cybersecurity into the Federal grant process. […]
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Subcommittee held a hearing Thursday probing into Federal agency telework and productivity rates, and heard mostly upbeat stories from agency leaders on how pandemic-era telework policies benefited their operations. […]
A handful of law enforcement agencies across the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DoJ) are utilizing facial recognition technologies without requiring proper staff training to do so, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in its latest report on the technology. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) told members of Congress today that it is going “back to the drawing board” to develop a new deployment schedule for its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program, with hopes to resume the program in the summer of 2024. […]
The Senate confirmed Tanya Bradsher on Tuesday to serve as the deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by a vote of 50-46. […]
Amid rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, a race against China to lead in AI, and increasing Federal funding, the question of whether AI will be widely adopted among Federal agencies has been resolved. […]
Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer John Sherman said his office is taking over as the lead on the Pentagon’s 5G-related activities, effective Oct. 1. […]
While it’s clear that artificial intelligence (AI) technology is here to stay, a top Defense Department (DoD) tech official said this week that DoD must embrace the technology, but also proceed with caution. […]
The State Department is currently working on a new comprehensive version of an international cyber strategy that it will be circulating around the agency and government this fall. […]
Comply-to-Connect began in 2013 as the Department of Defense’s (DoD) program to help the service branches prevent unsecured devices from connecting to the DoD network. Long before that, in the mid-to-late 1990s, Michael Overstreet served as an Air Force information warfare officer working on cyber defense. Now, Overstreet is director of systems engineering at Cisco, and in this recent interview, he discusses how Comply-to-Connect has evolved – and how it today uses zero trust principles to protect access to the DoD network and data. […]
Just six months after the White House released its National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS), Acting National Cyber Director (NCD) Kemba Walden said that her office is looking forward to publishing a posture report. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has announced on Sept 5 a “voluntary pledge” for K-12 education technology software developers and manufacturers to commit to creating products with a greater emphasis on cybersecurity built in. […]