The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) said today that it will conduct a series of systematic reviews this fall, in coordination with the Campbell Collaboration and in partnership with Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, aimed at preventing acts of targeted violence and terrorism. […]

White House

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, today issued new guidance to Federal agencies on shifting employees from low-value work to high-value work, including a focus on IT. […]

Federal government, cloud computing
Cybersecurity cyber

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) previewed the results of its biannual state CISO survey during a webinar on Tuesday, revealing the continued growth of cybersecurity staff among the states, and continuing resource challenges. […]

NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is seeking comments on a draft practice guide that explores how multifactor authentication can help reduce fraudulent online purchases. […]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has named David Chow CIO, beginning earlier this week, a HUD official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

military healthcare, veterans healthcare

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning about a new scam that targets men by claiming to know a personal secret about them and demanding a ransom in bitcoin. […]

IoT Connected Devices Internet of Things

Wireless communications industry trade group CTIA said this week it launched its cybersecurity certification program for cellular-connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices. […]

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a request for information (RFI) for moving its FAA Enterprise Network Services program (FENS) to Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) High standards. […]

NIST
Department of Homeland Security DHS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) announced today that it awarded DataRobot $200,000 to begin testing a prototype of a machine learning platform for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Travel Assessment System. […]

VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking to significantly overhaul its online presence, and on Wednesday opened bidding on a contract to develop a content management system for VA.gov–the agency’s primary website. […]

g20 flag argentina

A collection of tech-sector trade groups including the Internet Association and Digital Europe is urging leaders from the world’s top 20 economic powers to focus on policies that encourage broadband deployment and adoption, and job skills training for the digital workforce when the G20’s Digital Economy Task Force meets next week in Argentina. […]

Bill Zielinski GSA IT Category Acquisitions FAS assistant commissioner

Bill Zielinski has been tapped to replace Kay Ely and will serve as the acting assistant commissioner of the IT Category (ITC) for the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), a GSA official confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]

The Pentagon is a very large building that houses a lot of the authorities for the U.S. Military. It's big. This photo doesn't do it justice, but they're kinda rightly concerned about people flying drones around there.
Look at that plane taking off at an airport.
Privacy issues

The Reform Government Surveillance (RGS) coalition, whose members include tech-sector bellwethers such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, called on the Senate to take prompt action to confirm nominees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which has only one member currently. […]

Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., has requested that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division investigate “whether the uses of facial recognition technology – as currently utilized – by law enforcement agencies are in violation of civil rights protections.”  In a letter to assistant attorney general John Gore yesterday, Cleaver noted the potential benefits of facial […]

voting, election security

Cybersecurity solutions provider Cylance today announced that it is offering free artificial intelligence-based antivirus software “to support all 2018 U.S. political campaigns” in the wake of pervasive election security concerns across the Federal government. […]

Kay Ely, assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category in the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) with the General Services Administration (GSA), will move to a task force to merge OPM and GSA operations and will subsequently retire, a GSA official confirmed to MeriTalk. Ely has served across the Federal government with the Office […]

White House

The White House said President Trump has signed into law the NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Act, S. 770, which directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide resources to small businesses to help them implement NIST’s voluntary cybersecurity framework. […]

Stacey Dixon will be the next director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). […]

China-based communications equipment maker Huawei Technologies said in a statement late Monday that the ban on Federal government use of the company’s products contained in the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President Trump this week won’t do anything to improve supply chain security. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded to TekSynap, a small business based in Reston, Va., a $435 million contract for enterprise IT services and support for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). […]

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