Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s version 7.0 of its FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued today revealed broad trends of improvement and stabilization for Federal agencies compared to the previous scorecard issued in May. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee released the seventh version of its FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) scorecard, showing progress at many agencies over the six-month evaluation period, and no agencies that suffered grading drops from the prior period. […]

Internet of Things IoT sensors devices internet-connected smart city

Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., will introduce new legislation this week to “address cyber vulnerabilities created by the adoption of Internet-connected devices,” and specifically cyber threats of internet of things (IoT) devices owned and used by the Federal government. […]

cloud computing concept -min

IT security provider Zscaler said this week it is one of four cloud service providers selected to pursue Joint Authorization Board (JAB) FedRAMP certification, at the High Impact level, through the FedRAMP Connect program. […]

Rod Turk, the Commerce Department’s acting CIO who will be retiring next month, said in a wide-ranging discussion today that the Federal government is approaching the “tipping point” in its IT modernization efforts, and that requirements put in place in recent years to strengthen the hand of Federal CIOs in pushing modernization are resulting in less “rogue” tech projects at agencies. […]

BSA The Software Alliance

Twilio, a cloud communications platform, has joined BSA | The Software Alliance, with General Counsel Karyn Smith joining the trade group’s board of directors. […]

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) announces the appointment of Kevin Coleman as the organization’s executive director, replacing acting executive director Russ Schrader. […]

Capital, House of Representatives, Congress, Senate

The House has voted to approve bills that would two bills–one that would elevate and reauthorize the role of the Federal CIO, and another that would establish minimum standards for Federal agency website functionality and performance. […]

Cybersecurity flag

Today is Joshua Moses’ last day with the Office of Management and Budget. Moses, who is the chief of cybersecurity for the Office of the Federal CIO, has been with OMB since July 2015. […]

Cybersecurity flag

DEFEND–the new acquisition approach for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program– will allow agencies to quickly bring in cybersecurity products and provide support throughout the lifecycle, said Jim Piche, homeland sector director for the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) within the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

Machine learning AI modernization

A new survey on the impact of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) issued in March reveals positive responses to the document but also some of the biggest challenges on the PMA’s key drivers of IT modernization, data usage, and the workforce. […]

US Federal CIO Suzette Kent OMB MeriTalk CCXB

Federal CIO Suzette Kent this morning announced creation of the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy–a joint effort of the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Education, and the Federal CIO Council Workforce Committee–to kickstart the Federal government’s efforts to address gaps in the Federal cybersecurity workforce and help retrain Federal employees. […]

Kevin Cox CDM Program Manager Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program DEFEND

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is looking to give agencies a cyber hygiene score, redesign its dashboard, and tie the program together with other cybersecurity efforts, said Kevin Cox, CDM program manager at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to run a pilot program to fulfill Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) requirements in the cloud with an innovative approach to meet CDM’s goals. […]

Budget Federal spending

Technology sales leaders received an in-depth look at Federal agency budget forecasts during immixGroup’s Government IT Sales Summit, held Thursday, Nov. 15 in Reston, Va., shining a light on how government IT spending will take shape in the coming year. […]

Acquisition

Lesley Field, the acting administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), laid out the key areas where OMB is trying to improve IT acquisition, and detailed the initiatives underway. […]

Federal money spending government

IT officials from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) detailed progress their agencies have made so far in utilizing grants awarded by the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), and highlighted the benefits of TMF funding including the ability to repay the working capital fund through cost savings. […]

GAO government accountability office

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today recommending that four Federal agencies–the Departments of Energy (DoE), Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice (DoJ), and Treasury–take more than three dozen actions to comply with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements aimed at implementing the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). […]

Intel
Ron Wyden Oregon

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., long a champion for tighter regulations on government surveillance and expanded data privacy rights for citizens, on Thursday unveiled a “discussion draft” of data privacy legislation that he said would create “radical transparency” into how large corporations use and share consumer data, and impose prison terms and monetary fines on executives whose companies misuse consumer data. […]

The newest round of Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) awards came after the TMF board reviewed more than 40 proposals from agencies looking to win funds from the program, according to Federal Deputy CIO Margie Graves. […]

Federal Cloud Flag

The Professional Services Council told Federal CIO Suzette Kent in an Oct. 24 letter in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s request for comments on the 2018 Federal Cloud Computing Strategy that it “supports efforts to build on the 2011 Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, the ‘Cloud First’ policy, to help Federal agencies leverage commercial solutions to provide the best services at best value to the American people.” […]

Department of Homeland Security DHS

The Department of Homeland Security on Oct. 30 announced launch of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force, which the agency said is charged with developing “consensus recommendations” to identify and manage risk to the global ICT supply chain. […]

jeanette manfra dhs nppd oc&c assistant secretary

Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security, said today that the new update to Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) guidance will place even more accountability on department leaders and reflects an evolution in discussions between agencies and DHS. […]

The Professional Services Council (PSC) today released a five-year trend forecast for the Federal IT market that sees IT budget increases at defense agencies and points to the Technology Business Management (TBM) IT taxonomy and the FITARA scorecard as major IT management influencers. […]

Federal money spending government

The Technology Modernization Board within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the newest round of Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) awards on Monday totaling $23.5 million for proposals from the Department of Labor (DoL), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its updated fiscal year 2019 guidance and deadlines for the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA), containing similar deadlines and requirements to the prior year but featuring new language on using Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) vehicles for acquisitions of monitoring tools. […]

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