The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officially launched a Special Salary Rate (SSR) in July to increase the basic bay for thousands of its IT and cybersecurity employees; however, this pay raise is set to expire in 2027, under the VA’s PACT Act authority. […]
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is adopting an automated capability that will ensure inactive accounts on one of its critical IT systems are shut down within 45 days. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has put out a call for industry expertise and technology products that will help support the agency’s Accelerate Adoption of Digital Identities on Mobile Devices project – which has the ultimate aim of creating a digital identification equivalent for use on mobile devices than can replace physical ID cards. […]
Although the Federal government has made progress in protecting U.S. critical infrastructure through a largely voluntary approach, Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha today called for minimum cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported that its Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) platform has helped agencies uncover and address more than 1,000 bugs through December 2022. […]
By Chip Daniels, Vice President, Government Affairs, SolarWinds When the Biden administration asked Congress to approve $300 million of additional money for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) in fiscal year 2023 (FY2023), hopes were high that agencies would finally have the financial backing necessary to truly accelerate digital transformation. Yet, when Congress passed its $1.7 […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced they are working together to improve IT system interoperability at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center near Chicago – the only fully-integrated VA and DoD healthcare system. […]
Nearly half a year after a scathing inspector general (IG) report exposed the General Services Administration (GSA) for years of misleading Federal agencies on the security of its Login.gov platform, GSA announced that the identity-proofing website has seen a 50 percent increase in use over the past year. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has approved a pay raise for STEM and cyber positions within its intelligence components, such as the National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). […]
It’s been one year since President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been busy implementing initiatives to safeguard the nation’s research ecosystem and to comply with the law’s research security provisions. […]
With the growth of the global space economy expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2030, the FBI – alongside the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations – is warning that adversaries will leverage cyberattacks to gain access to the U.S. space industry. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is looking to change the technology ecosystem through its secure-by-design and -default guidelines, and CISA officials explained the agency’s plan to foster this ecosystem at the Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas last week. […]
MeriTalk recently sat down with Kathleen Featheringham, vice president of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Maximus, to discuss these issues and how Federal agencies can successfully move AI use cases from concept to design, pilot, and scalable enterprise deployment to achieve mission success in area ranging from citizen services to national security. […]
Implementing a zero trust architecture is a must for all Federal agencies, but how that architecture is implemented relies heavily on the operational and business needs of an individual agency. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) is granting a two-year deadline extension to eight agencies to transition to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) communications services contracts. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued proposed regulations today to update the Pathways Programs to expand opportunities for early career professionals and better meet the Federal government’s workforce needs. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has rolled out a new challenge seeking innovative talent management ideas that would make an impact across the department in recruiting, retaining, and promoting a diverse workforce. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking public comment on a proposal to create a voluntary cybersecurity labeling program that would provide consumers with clear information about the security of their smart devices. […]
President Biden signed an executive order on August 9 that will give the Treasury Department the ability to block private-sector U.S. investments in China that involve hot-button technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics. […]
The Biden-Harris administration is launching a two-year competition that will leverage AI to protect the United States’ most important software – such as code that helps run the internet and critical infrastructure – senior White House officials announced at the opening of the Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas today. […]
It’s no longer a question of whether Federal agencies should implement a zero trust model for cybersecurity, but what methods they should implement to get to that goal. […]
Faced with increasing cyberattacks on K-12 schools, the Biden-Harris administration today unveiled several government actions to help bolster their cyber defenses, along with numerous commitments from private-sector organizations that aim for the same result. […]
In a new interview with MeriTalk, Brandon Iske, a principal solutions architect at identity platform provider Okta, and Bill Wells, a senior solutions architect at cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), evaluate the successes and challenges that agencies are experiencing as they implement required identity protections and offer advice and best practices for agencies as they continue to plan and implement components of their zero trust architectures. […]
The Pentagon’s top technology official is pushing defense agencies and components to use the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract for all future cloud acquisitions and top-secret cloud capabilities. […]
Throughout the Federal government, agencies are continuing to move to cloud infrastructures to speed IT modernization and improve cybersecurity. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) has released its long-awaited cyber workforce implementation plan, which outlines a foundation for DoD to successfully execute the objectives and initiatives aligned with the Cyber Workforce Strategy, which was released back in March. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) awarded Booz Allen Hamilton big money to continue work on the agency’s zero trust network access and application security architecture, Thunderdome, according to a July 28 announcement. […]
The Biden administration has launched a beta version of its new student loan repayment plan application, giving borrowers an early shot at signing up for the program at studentaid.gov. […]
The Biden-Harris administration’s newly released cybersecurity workforce strategy zeros in on the people part of the cyberspace ecosystem, identifying opportunities to build out the cyber workforce ecosystem and better educate Americans on landing cyber jobs. […]
MeriTalk sat down with Frank Reyes, cloud solutions leader at Maximus, to discuss the DoD’s cloud strategy, the future of cloud computing across the DoD, and how industry can partner with the DoD to support cloud integration and achieve mission success. […]