Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced the Hack Your State Department Act on June 12. […]
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently released a report citing a need for improvements in software version control management for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). […]
The House Appropriations Committee released a second of five appropriations minibus FY2020 spending bills for Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the finalized version of Special Publication (SP) 800-205 today, offering a guide for implementing attributes in Federal access control systems. […]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai on June 17 announced formation of a new agency task force aimed at putting more broadband service to work to advance precision agriculture. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for feedback on the nation’s high-performance computing resources as the agency develops a new National Strategic Computing Initiative. Responses are due by August 23. […]
As of April, 209,000 Americans have volunteered to provide their personal health data for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program to build a national research cohort of over 1 million participants that will help drive the Precision Medicine Initiative. But those participants may have placed their data at risk. […]
The United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) did not properly manage its active directory, leaving multiple vulnerabilities and showing little improvement from previous audits of the agency’s cybersecurity posture, according to a Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General (IG) report released June 13. […]
As the Department of Homeland Security Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) has begun migrating its biometric processing system to the cloud, the office issued a Request for Information (RFI) today to gather information for developing, maintaining, and securing its data on the new cloud environment. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Federal government does not collect data on airline IT outages, leading to limited insights into how IT outages impact travelers, according to a report released June 12. […]
Reps. Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., and Tim Walberg R-Mich., introduced new legislation on June 13 to “help close the workforce shortage in the telecommunications industry.” The legislators said the TOWER Infrastructure Deployment Act, H.R. 3255, “reflects the need for a highly-skilled, professional workforce equipped to deploy 5G, lightning-fast broadband networks, and new broadcast technology.” […]
Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif, introduced the Less Traffic with Smart Stop Lights Act of 2019 (HR 3261) on June 13 to establish a Department of Transportation grant program to modernize stoplights to “reduce traffic, improve safety, reduce fuel costs, and lessen air pollution.” […]
Both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agree that OPM is facing delays in handling retirement applications and needs to replace the paper-based process, but GAO urged OPM to come up with a more concrete IT modernization plan for the program in a report released Friday, June 14. […]
Veterans submitted 3,000 benefits compensation claims using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) new Disability Compensation Claim Tool in the first month of the tool’s launch and have reported positive experiences using it, the VA announced in a June 13 news release. […]
In light of the increasing ubiquity of data breaches, Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today recommending that Federal agencies should discontinue knowledge-based verification to strengthen their remote identity proofing processes and that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should provide guidance in creating alternative identity proofing methods. […]
While auditing for potential violations of contracting regulations, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found weaknesses in the administration of the $22.3 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract. […]
Artificial Intelligence and how it may impact employees is front-of-mind when it comes to workforce issues, but having “organizational depth” can help ease the transition of implementing AI in a rational and beneficial way. […]
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on June 12 in a move to improve the accuracy of the Federal government’s broadband availability maps. The legislation, dubbed the Broadband DATA Act, was introduced by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. and committee members Gary Peters, D-Mich., John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. […]
The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) decided to migrate its antiquated legacy IT to the cloud after realizing that it’s old IT was driving the ATF into technical debt and that it lacked disaster recovery (DR). […]
The House Appropriations Committee voted on June 11 to approve a spending package that includes a 3.1 percent pay increase for civilian Federal employees for FY20. […]
The House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization met today to discuss the implementation of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 agency legacy systems in most critical need of modernization in a June 11 report. […]
The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee proposed a total of $24.5 billion for FSGG discretionary budget authority in fiscal year 2020, which includes funding for election security, modernizing the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and protecting consumer data. […]
The House Appropriations Committee Homeland Security Subcommittee allocated $63.8 billion in its draft of the FY2020 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget, including increased funding to efforts to bolster cybersecurity, election security, and new IT and border security technologies. […]
The House Appropriations Committee is putting pressure on the General Services Administration (GSA) to get agencies migrated over to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Contract, including a provision to push agencies to adopt the contract, as well as other IT oversight items for GSA. […]
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials confirmed that no more than 100,000 photos of travelers and license plates were compromised in a data breach CBP identified on May 31, according to The New York Times and Washington Post. […]
Most industries are still vulnerable to fake emails and email addresses despite using Domain-based message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) protocols. […]
Federal agencies are remediating critical and high vulnerabilities in their IT systems within the allotted time frame only about half the time, according to figures within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year 2020 congressional budget justification. […]
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested information on how the Department of Justice (DoJ) is securing its offensive cyber tools in a June 5 letter to Attorney General William Barr. […]
Today was the deadline for wireless emergency alerts (WEA) to feature enhanced alerting support, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has informed the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau that the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) will not be able to support updates to WEAs at this time, the FCC said in a statement. […]