As government agencies shape their goals and priorities for the new administration, they continue to target waste, fraud, and abuse. Rob Owens, deputy inspector general for Management and Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), explained this week how HHS is targeting waste, fraud, and abuse by utilizing geospatial analytics and visualization as part of a Geographic Information System (GIS). […]
In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began replacing its outdated biometric identity management system but needs to fully implement key IT acquisition best practices to fully implement the entire Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) system by 2021, which is three years behind schedule due to technical challenges. […]
Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced a binding operational directive (BOD) requiring the Federal government to develop and publish vulnerability disclosure policies (VDP). CISA announced today it has chosen vendors for its VDP platform. […]
A senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today the Federal government’s process of modernizing its IT systems to achieve better cybersecurity may be a decades-long process. […]
President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget includes an estimated $58.439 billion in IT spending for Federal civilian agencies, and $500 million for the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), according to a budget breakdown the White House released today. […]
In a Senate Appropriations Committee review of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget request today, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized the importance of building resilience among the nation’s cybersecurity and the cyber workforce. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee voted May 18 to advance five bills that would look to improve the nation’s cybersecurity in several areas, including protecting pipeline infrastructure, testing cybersecurity readiness, and improving state and local cybersecurity, among others. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on May 13 the formation of a new Space Systems Critical Infrastructure Working Group, in an effort to minimize risks to space systems by bringing together space system critical infrastructure stakeholders. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is working on a “hardened” cloud environment that it can evaluate through pilots with Federal agencies, CISA Acting Director Brandon Wales told senators on May 11. […]
As Federal agencies and organizations are looking to make the move to zero trust security architectures, the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) program should help guide that transformation, Sean Connelly, TIC program manager for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said May 12 at MeriTalk’s CDM Central: the Age of the Cyber Defender virtual conference. […]
The Department of Homeland Security has named its next chief data officer (CDO), elevating senior advisor Mike Horton to the position. Horton took over in April, according to his LinkedIn, for Carlene Ileto, who had served as acting CDO since October 2020. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has officially withdrawn a rule proposed during the Trump administration that would have required anyone associated with an immigration benefit or request – including United States citizens – to appear for biometrics data collection. […]
Numerous Federal agencies are springing into action in response to the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Company, a major supplier of fuel to the northeastern U.S. that temporarily shut down pipeline operations after disclosing the attack on May 7. […]
Ransomware is being prioritized as the first of six “sprints” planned by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on a range of cyber threats due to the gravity of the problem, and because ransomware represents today’s threat, not tomorrow’s. […]
Members of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission are asking the chair and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee to increase funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by at least $400 million, with some of that funding intended to make sure that CISA’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program can quickly deploy security tools. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced that .gov top-level domains will be available at no cost for qualifying organizations beginning immediately – a move that should help on the cybersecurity front especially for smaller governmental entities. […]
The United States Coast Guard (CG) intends to work with one or more companies to help improve communications between Coast Guard Cutter tactical commanders and boarding teams, according to a notice of intent posted to the Federal registry April 27. […]
In a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, GAO’s Chris Currie, director of the Homeland Security and Justice team, flagged longstanding management and operational issues within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) that has led to “frequent leadership turnover” and “organizational weaknesses.” […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued Emergency Directive (ED) 21-03 that requires Federal civilian departments and agencies running Pulse Connect Secure products “to assess and mitigate any anomalous activity or active exploitation detected on their networks.” […]
The Federal government is curtailing its “surge” response to the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange hacks after seeing improvements in patching that have helped to remediate the impacts of the cyber attacks, the Biden administration said today. […]
A group of communications technology trade groups urged Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in an April 12 letter to stick by what they called the Federal government’s “longstanding commitment” to use industry-led standards and best practices to deal with cybersecurity and supply chain security issues facing the information communications technology (ICT) sector. […]
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are warning about advanced persistent threat (APT) actors exploiting a Fortinet vulnerability to gain access to government and other networks, according to an April 2 joint advisory. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm is looking for contractors who can help the agency move foreign exchange student records completely online. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is partnering with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense and other entities to recognize National Supply Chain Integrity Month and promote a call to action for strengthening global supply chains. […]
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on March 31 offered some broad-brushed details about the Biden administration’s coming executive order on cybersecurity. […]
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on March 31 previewed six “sprints” planned by DHS and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) component throughout 2021 to bolster Federal cybersecurity across a range of areas including ransomware, industrial control system (ICS) security, and workforce development. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released supplemental directions to help agencies root out and mitigate vulnerabilities in their Microsoft Exchange on-premises products. […]
The ongoing “Sunburst” cyber-espionage campaign that resulted in the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange breaches represents a strategic failure by the U.S., rather than simple IT inadequacy, according to a report by the Atlantic Council. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft guidance to help local election officials reduce the risk of cyberattacks on election systems, and is seeking public comment on the draft. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is awarding the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (UW-APL) $959,305 to bring together experts to develop digital contact tracing (DCT) application testing criteria. […]