Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate on April 21 would make it more difficult for Federal agencies to buy personal data on American citizens, and do more to protect citizens’ personal data from shady data broker sales. […]
President Biden intends to nominate Stacey Dixon, an intelligence community veteran and current deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to serve as the principal deputy director in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the White House announced today. […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is looking into how it could use AI and machine learning in nuclear power generation and is seeking comment from the commercial nuclear power industry to help in that inquiry, according to an NRC request for comment published April 21. […]
As government agencies have increased their digital presence through social media, websites, or other online channels, they also have put themselves in position to be attacked outside of their traditional digital perimeters. These outside attacks can include social media impersonations, account takeovers, false or misleading information, or the disclosure of confidential agency information. […]
Witnesses at today’s House Agriculture Committee hearing agreed that involvement of the Federal government is a prerequisite to any successful expansion of broadband service access in rural areas of the United States. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is replacing its aging financial and acquisition systems with an integrated system after two prior attempts to replace the systems cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of several years to develop. In a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, GAO made recommendations to minimize risk of cost overruns and delays. […]
Federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) saved the government an estimated $53 billion through investigations in fiscal year 2020, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) reported in its annual report to Congress and the President. […]
Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced two separate bills that aim to boost United States leadership in quantum information science (QIS). […]
We sat down with Justin Wilkins, director of engineering for U.S. Public Sector at Varonis, to discuss the importance of a zero trust security architecture, why the concept is taking off, and more importantly – how to read through all the buzz and start taking actionable steps today. […]
President Biden intends to nominate Pamela Melroy, a former astronaut and former deputy director at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to be the next deputy administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the White House announced April 16. […]
The top members of the House Government Operations Subcommittee indicated today that Federal IT modernization – and the role that the newly expanded Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) can play in furthering that goal – loom large in their thinking as they consider the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s ongoing tracking of Federal agency IT improvements via the FITARA Scorecard. […]
A 2019 tweak by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the definition of a data center – and thus how the Federal government proceeds with its Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) aimed at sharply cutting the number of data centers that Federal agencies operate – is having the effect of leaving the government more vulnerable to cyberattacks, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official concurred today. […]
On April 15, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released a discussion draft of legislation that would regulate the exportation of American citizen’s sensitive, personal information to adversarial nations. […]
Running both the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command in an era of expanding cyberattacks pushes a lot of pressing issues to the top of a leader’s to-do list, but for Gen. Paul Nakasone – who heads both organizations that are key to U.S. efforts to operate in cyberspace outside of national borders – workforce development tends to rise above the rest. […]
A senior Biden administration official dropped significant hints today about the contents of the administration’s expected executive order (EO) on cybersecurity. The coming EO has been much talked about in policy circles in recent weeks, with a consensus view that it will be released soon, but without much firm detail about its expected content. […]
Rob Brown, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), today discussed the importance of data quality checks as well as what steps USCIS is taking to accelerate its digital modernization. […]
President Biden today issued executive orders (EO) that blame, shame, and sanction the Russian government for perpetrating the SolarWinds Orion supply chain cyber attacks, and interfering with U.S. elections, among other transgressions. […]
At the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), cybersecurity is at the forefront of mission goals that include transitioning to cloud systems, a new cyber training regimen for USPTO remote examiners, and a new insider threat program, and agency official said April 14. […]
President Biden intends to nominate Robert Santos as the next director of the U.S. Census Bureau, the White House announced Tuesday. […]
Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, released a statement today requiring all Federal agencies to apply Microsoft’s new set of Exchange patches “immediately.” […]
Defense officials hinted at positive developments by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with quantum information science work at a Senate hearing today, and told senators that the agency is kicking off its Innovation Steering Group under Defense Department (DoD) Secretary Kathleen Hicks to improve adoption of new technologies for DoD agencies. […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is searching for new contracted program security personnel to assist the agency in innovation and research for national security efforts. […]
The House Government Operations Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for April 16 at 9:30 a.m. to examine compliance with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). […]
Have you ever wondered just how fast your broadband service really is? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a press release today reiterating that it wants the public to find out the answer to that question by downloading its “FCC Speed App.” The app allows consumers to measure the speed of their mobile and in-home broadband networks, while also contributing data to the FCC’s Measuring Broadband America program. […]
President Biden will nominate Jen Easterly, a cyber veteran who helped stand up U.S. Cyber Command, to be the next director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) component, the White House announced Monday. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is launching the Federal Workforce Competency Initiative (FWCI) to identify key skills needed to successfully perform in a variety of Federal jobs and develop a competency database. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) improved its cyber resource readiness between the years 2017-19, but its cyber mission capability readiness decreased over that same span, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) has a created a working group to focus on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, CIGIE announced April 8. […]
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Office of Online Services (OLS) is looking for a FedRAMP compliant Customer Feedback Management (CFM) cloud-based solution. […]
The U.S. Department of Treasury released a new document this week to clarify its TCloud enterprise cloud contract, stating that the $1 billion contract will most likely be awarded to a single vendor to meet the Treasury’s needs of rapid cloud adoption. […]