Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

The Cyber Security National Action Plan announced in February is aiming to recruit people with broad skill sets to work in Federal government cybersecurity. U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott spoke Thursday at the Federal Forum in Washington, D.C., about recruiting people with knowledge on specific domains, economics, and human behavior. “Our approach needed strengthening,” Scott said. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

The Federal Communications Commission’s new consumer privacy rules cause disagreements among experts about whether the rules are overbearing or progressive. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services welcomed Beth Anne Killoran as its new chief information officer. […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture received a C grade on its Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard, which was released in May. Flip Anderson, acting executive director of FITARA for USDA, was so frustrated with the FITARA grading system that he created his own scorecard to gauge how closely the USDA complies with the act’s mandates. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT […]

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General on June 29, arguing that a section of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act unconstitutionally criminalizes research aimed at determining whether online algorithms result in discrimination against certain races, genders, and other minority groups. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

Ransomware is the least of a CIO’s worries, according to new report issued by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT). James Scott, ICIT senior fellow and Drew Spaniel, ICIT researcher, co-authors of a new report, titled “The Anatomy of Cyber-Jihad: Cyberspace is the New Great Equalizer,” call cyber jihadists the latest threat to America […]

Government IT has a problem with planning better solutions, not coming up with ideas for those solutions, according to Federal CIO Tony Scott. “Ideas are not the problem in Washington; Washington is full of ideas. What Washington doesn’t have…is a good implementation plan for those ideas,” Scott said at a Citrix cybersecurity event. […]

Federal agencies can now use cloud computing systems to store their most sensitive, unclassified data, through the recent release of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Baseline.
“This release allows agencies to use cloud environments for high-impact data, including data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin,” said the FedRAMP announcement. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

In his keynote speech at the 2016 Cloud Computing Brainstorm, U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott recalls his time working with the legendary Steve Jobs during Disney’s acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, outlines his plan for modernizing the government’s aging IT infrastructure, and offers the possibility of staying in the CIO role longer. […]

In a review of its progress over the past nine months compared with the four years before that, the GSA released an infographic touting the increases in authorizations, re-uses, and use frequency of cloud service providers. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

Time may be running out on the Federal government’s plan to replace and modernize billions of dollars’ worth of legacy IT systems—some of which date back more than 40 years and control critical programs, including the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal. […]

Federal agencies 18F and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) are desirable in theory but confusing and misdirected in practice, according to members and witnesses at the House Oversight Committee hearing on Friday. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been consumed with transformation for the past 21 months, attempting to change from what Secretary Robert McDonald has privately described as a “Kremlinesque” culture to a high performing organization that puts veterans in control of their healthcare. That transformation effort, known as MyVA, is McDonald’s direct response to the […]

Privacy advocates launched a new website Monday called end702.com that urges Congress to allow a controversial section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire at the end of next year. Fight for the Future and a coalition of public interest groups are encouraging Congress to let Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of […]

Nelson P. Moe, Virginia’s chief information officer, has a vision to make the commonwealth’s 63 agencies more agile with better technology and response time at the speed that meets business needs. […]

Proponents of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) worry that a change in presidential administration could derail the progress made to release Federal financial data to the public. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […]

Politics and blame stand in the way of Federal IT modernization, according to comments made at the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on legacy IT systems. Congressmen said they were disappointed and baffled over the degree of outdated technology in Federal agencies, some in mission critical systems. […]

MeriTalk is running a series taken from a book-length work authored by a senior Federal IT official currently working in government. This is one part of an extensive, firsthand account of how IT decisions are made, the obstacles standing in the way of real change in government technology management, and what one career Federal IT employee really thinks about the way government does IT. […] […]

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