During the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal IT operations are providing a resilient fabric that enables accelerated delivery of vital services to citizens during an unprecedented public health crisis. As government IT operations reach their new steady-state and map the path to further modernization, MeriTalk is surfacing the untold stories – and lessons – of those efforts. In the latest installment of CIO Crossroads, we examine the Labor Department’s performance eight weeks into the fray. […]
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies like the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have made the telework transition much easier for their personnel because of cloud-based systems. […]
The National Institutes of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is asking industry to demonstrate products and technical expertise to support its project entitled, 5G Cybersecurity: Preparing a Secure Evolution. […]
Consolidating Federal data centers through adoption of cloud and shared services has the “greatest potential” for streamlining the use of Federal resources, according to Thomas Santucci, director of the Data Center and Cloud Optimization Infrastructure Program Management Office at the General Services Administration (GSA). […]
The CIOs of the Agriculture (USDA) and Transportation (DoT) Departments said today that workforce productivity trends have been stable or improved since both agencies turned to large-scale telework in March to combat spread of COVID-19. […]
In a project between ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology Group and the Acquisition Community of Interest (COI) important takeaways were found for improving training, implementing modern techniques, and integrating appropriate tools for improving the Federal acquisition process. […]
The final version of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-207 on zero trust could be released as soon as this month, with an opportunity for industry collaboration coming this fall, a NIST official confirmed today. […]
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was joined by a bipartisan group of senators to introduce legislation that would expedite staffing for the special pandemic recovery watchdog that oversees trillions in taxpayer funded pandemic relief. […]
According to a request for information (RFI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking to modernize its grants management system with an end-to-end automated solution. […]
The Department of Commerce (DoC) has amended an existing rule in order to prevent China-based network equipment maker Huawei from using U.S. technologies to design and manufacture semiconductors. […]
During the COVID-19 crisis, Federal agencies are vulnerable to more cyberattacks and data breaches than ever before, but agencies like the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) are working hard to address the cybersecurity challenges. […]
On the same day that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint warning to COVID-19 research organizations about China’s cyber threat, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission got its hearing in the Senate. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced May 14 that 774 broadband and telephone providers have agreed to extend the Keep Americans Connected Pledge through June 30 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. […]
The government’s Federal Data Strategy team extended some of the target dates for its 2020 action plan, and is making sure that COVID-19 response data is of the highest priority in the Federal Data Strategy’s call for agencies to prioritize data assets and projects. […]
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, just 40 percent of Federal and only 4 percent of State and Local government employees were authorized to telework. But since then, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is mandating that Federal agencies maximize telework across the nation, and many SLGs are doing the same. Embracing telework – and doing it right – is a government-wide priority. […]
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released its Insider Threat Roadmap on May 14, with details on how the agency plans to use emerging tech and advanced analytics to mitigate risks. […]
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has been taking the current remote-standard in stride as it has enough capacity in its cloud-based systems for personnel teleworking. […]
In a move to strengthen the United States’ cybersecurity posture, Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., introduced the Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems (CYBER LEAP) Act of 2020. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate released a predictive modeling tool to estimate the natural decay of SARS-CoV-2 – which causes COVID-19 – under a range of temperatures and humidity levels. […]
Often taken for granted in the eight weeks since the coronavirus pandemic struck is one simple but vital truth: the linchpin holding together the Federal government’s ability to provide crucial services is the technology that ties the enterprise together. Federal IT has literally brought us together – as a government, and as a nation. As government IT operations achieve steady-state and look to the next chapter of digital modernization, MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories – and lessons – of that effort. Today we check in with the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) operation. […]
A cyber intrusion that occurred at the U.S. Marshals Service in December 2019 exposed 387,000 individuals’ names, addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers to attackers, an agency spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk yesterday. […]
In a two-week period during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Small Business Administration (SBA) processed more total loans than it had in 14 years, according to Melvin Brown II, director of the Enterprise Business Management Office within the agency’s CIO Office. At the May 13 FCW Workshop on Data and Analytics, Brown shared the data management tips that helped the agency succeed. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) revealed a new human-centered design for its Cloud Information Center (CIC) on May 13, in accordance with web design guidelines in the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act. […]
DevSecOps, or development security operations, is not a term that rolls off the tip of your tongue in an “agile” way, but it is a process that is gaining momentum across the Federal government. […]
Maria Roat, who currently serves as CIO of the Small Business Administration (SBA), is being promoted to deputy Federal CIO at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of the month, MeriTalk has learned. […]
The Government Accountability Office said in a new report that it has 11 open recommendations to the Defense Department (DoD), among a total of 1,106 outstanding open recommendations to the agency. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released two supply chain risk management (SCRM) products on May 6 to help businesses and organizations boost supply chain security. […]
Federal agencies and departments have spent more than $10 billion on COVID-19 related contracts since February – more than doubling the total number of contracts in the past 11 days. […]
A bipartisan group of 23 members of the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) questioning whether the commission’s recent Ligado decision may have violated the law. […]
With nearly 1.5 million drones and 160,000 remote pilots now registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the administration continues to look for new ways to ensure safety and security in U.S. airspace. To that end, the FAA announced its industry partners that will help the Federal government establish requirements for future suppliers of Remote Identification (Remote ID). […]