Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said today that DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) will provide a resource center on Election Day that will actively respond to threats of cyber intrusion when voters go to the polls on November 6. […]
New acquisition techniques can help contracting professionals and Federal IT leaders work together to bring new technology into government in a fast and efficient manner, said acquisition leaders during FCW’s Accelerate GOV conference on Thursday. […]
The Department of Energy’s new office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has already begun work to provide support to the nation’s energy grid and critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and the head of the new office appeared in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday to discuss the role of CESER within DoE. […]
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to approve a handful of bills that place a strong emphasis on cybersecurity, IT supply chain security, and the enhancement of digital citizen services. […]
House IT Subcommittee Chair Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Robin Kelly, D-Ill., today introduced legislation to reauthorize, rename, codify, and elevate the role of the Federal CIO, a position initially created as part of the E-Government Act of 2002. The bill, called the Federal CIO Authorization Act of 2018, is designed to create a “clearer IT reporting structure within the Administration,” the lawmakers said in a release. […]
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has issued a request for public comment “on ways to advance consumer privacy while protecting prosperity and innovation.” The comment solicitation, NTIA indicated, is unlikely to lead to any rulemaking process at least in the near term. […]
CrowdStrike announced Thursday that it received an agency FedRAMP authorization which it said will allow the company “to significantly expand its footprint in the Federal government to meet demand from Federal agencies for its endpoint protection technologies. […]
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today introduced the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act in the Senate. The House version of the bill (HR 6443), sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, passed the House earlier this month. […]
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) today announced awards to five research organizations as part of a new program aimed at identifying network and internet disruptions that could “significantly impact critical infrastructure systems” and “other essential systems on which society is dependent.” […]
Whether House and Senate budget negotiators will agree to fund the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) for FY 2019 remained an open question late Thursday following a public hearing by legislators working to reconcile differences in the House and Senate versions H.R. 6147, the “minibus” appropriations bill that includes FY 2019 budget measures for Interior, Environment, Financial Services, General Government, and a host of other areas. […]
Members of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) board and the fund’s executive director today provided a wide range of TMF updates regarding funding and coordination with lawmakers, on the same day that House and Senate conferees met to reconcile differences in appropriations bills that will ultimately decide the fund’s spending power for FY 2019. […]
A new report published today by the Government Accountability Office is calling attention to persistent agency difficulties in complying with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), as well as difficulties with finding skilled acquisition professionals across the Federal government. […]
Elizabeth Cain, the executive director of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), estimated that there are “about a dozen” projects in the fund’s pipeline, and that new awards are around the corner. […]
The Internet Association (IA), a tech association whose members include Amazon, Google and Microsoft, today released its list of six principles–transparency, controls, access, correction, deletion and portability–that the group says should guide future Federal-level privacy legislation and regulation. […]
Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today at an event hosted by the Professional Services Council that the Federal government is currently seeing a “nexus of three critical elements” that provides an unprecedented opportunity for innovation in IT. […]
The House of Representatives on Tuesday agreed by voice vote to approve HR 6430, the Securing the Homeland Security Supply Chain Act of 2018, which grants the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary authority to exclude certain contractors from doing business with the Federal government to address “urgent national security interests” and curb supply chain risks. […]
The House of Representatives today approved by voice vote HR 6443, the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act, which would codify the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program into law. […]
Christopher Krebs, Under Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), described how DHS’ National Risk Management Center (NRMC) is pinpointing the critical functions in American infrastructure and setting actionable tasks during an interview with Government Matters. […]
New Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) DEFEND task orders will allow the Department of Homeland Security to be “more surgical” and “more precise” about how it helps agencies get cybersecurity capabilities, particularly for CDM’s newly-expanded category of mobile devices, CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox said Thursday at an event organized by ATARC. […]
All 23 of the Federal civilian CFO Act agencies covered under the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program will be connected to the governmentwide cybersecurity threat dashboard by September, CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox said today. […]
Research firm Gartner said Tuesday that Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has surpassed Apple to become the second-largest provider of smartphones globally, edging out Apple in market share for the first time ever. […]
As the Federal government modernizes its technology, IT executives must help guide employees through that transformation and help them adjust to shifting roles in IT, said a panel of Federal technology executives at Digital Government Institute’s 930Gov conference on Tuesday. […]
Matthew Travis, deputy undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Programs and Protection Directorate (NPPD), said today that DHS’s recently-established National Risk Management Center (NRMC) represents the agency’s plan to play “the long game” in defending U.S. critical infrastructure sectors from attacks. […]
The General Services Administration has tapped the Department of Education to share with other Federal agencies Education’s successes in adopting the Technology Business Management (TBM) framework to arrive at a holistic understanding of IT processes, according to representatives of Education’s Office of the CIO. […]
Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to update metrics for Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) reporting, and said that agencies are seeing progress in those metrics, which are being tracked in a newly added category in the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard. […]
The General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract aims to aid modernization, support secure connections through various methods, and allow agencies to focus better on their mission, according to participants on a webinar titled “Building and Securing Government’s Connected Future with EIS,” hosted by FedInsider and sponsored by CenturyLink. […]
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., this week introduced legislation that would take several steps to curb the ability of Chinese companies to impact the U.S. technology supply chain and profit from alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property. […]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has named David Chow CIO, beginning earlier this week, a HUD official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
On the heels of Kelly Olson’s promotion to head the General Services Administration’s Technology and Transformation Services (TTS) organization (LINK to yesterday’s story), the agency is setting into motion a series of leadership changes impacting its FedRAMP operation, among others. […]
La’Naia Jones, Deputy CIO of the Intelligence Community, said today that the commoditization of hacking capabilities, expansion of IT supply chain exploits, and nation-state use of ransomware have come to the attention of the IC as primary areas of interest in the fight for better cybersecurity. […]