For the Department of the Interior’s (DoI) journey of moving to a completely cloud-centric organization, maintaining cyber posture and developing the workforce is key to the strategy. […]

Both Small Business Administration (SBA) CTO Sanjay Gupta and Eddie Tejeda, Director of Cloud.Gov at the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization,  agreed this week that a solid cloud foundation can enable future IT modernization or other technical transformation. […]

Anil Cheriyan is stepping down as Deputy Commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and Director of the agency’s Technology Transformation Services organization, effective July 17, the agency said today. […]

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at NASA blamed the lack of information security programs, missing contingency plans, and ineffective IT security handbooks for the agency’s Federal Information Security Modernization (FISMA) Act shortcomings in Fiscal Year 2019. […]

As Federal Deputy CIO Maria Roat steps down as president of the American Council for Technology (ACT), starting July 1 Internal Revenue Service Deputy Chief Procurement Officer Harrison Smith has been selected to fill the role, ACT-IAC announced June 30. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacks a “comprehensive strategic [plan] to guide spectrum policy for 5G deployment,” according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.  The government watchdog agency made recommendations to FCC to improve its strategic plan, but the FCC was luke warm on the reccomendations.  […]

The Open RAN Policy Coalition pushed hard in a recent filing to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that the group’s primary mission – promoting openness and interoperability in radio access networks for 5G wireless services – will boost U.S. national security as the U.S. and other nations increasingly roll out those networks. […]

The legislative effort to update the Federal government’s spectrum management processes got one step closer to becoming law when a bipartisan group of four House members introduced a bill identical to the version added to the Senate’s annual defense bill earlier this month. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Treasury Department have been formally designated as civilian human resources transaction services and financial management services Quality Service Management Offices (QSMOs), respectively, per a June 29 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) press release. […]

The Department of Justice announced that a Russian national was sentenced on June 26 to nine years in prison for operating two websites devoted to the facilitation of payment card fraud, computer hacking, and other related crimes. […]

A leader of the international cybercrime organization Infraud – a group responsible for more than $568 million in financial losses – pleaded guilty to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act charges on June 26. […]

Brodie S. Thomson, a former Virginia-based Federal contracting executive, last week admitted guilt for his actions in a $4.1 million fraud scheme that centered on soliciting bribes and receiving financial kickbacks in connection with prime government contracts and subcontracts awarded to a firm for which he served as senior vice president. […]

Federal IT has played a critical role in sustaining delivery of critical services to citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the government and the nation take the first steps toward recovery, MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories – and lessons – of Federal IT operations during three months of pandemic. In this latest chapter of CIO Crossroads, we explore cybersecurity operations at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

President Trump issued an executive order today that the White House said requires Federal agencies “to focus hiring on the skills job seekers possess, rather than focusing on whether they have earned a college degree.” The White House said the order will transform the Federal hiring process “to replace one-size-fits-all, degree-based hiring with skills-based hiring.” […]

The General Services Administration said today it selected three companies to test their e-commerce portals for up to a three-year period in an effort to increase transparency of government purchases and make it easier for agencies to make purchases of less than $10,000. […]

While the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently outlined key considerations for Federal agencies returning to work following the coronavirus pandemic, a GAO official said this week that the agency hasn’t yet seen a comprehensive and detailed plan from government that is comparable to some industry reopening plans. […]

The Federal government has worked to expand access to broadband across the U.S. through large investments in the sector and can continue expanding access in rural areas by improving data and broadband access maps. […]

As public and private sector organizations face a heightened threat landscape amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Driggers, deputy assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), explained how agency efforts have scaled to meet governmentwide cyber needs. […]

After a two-and-a-half-year tenure widely recognized for success in promoting Federal IT modernization – and superb performance in shepherding the government’s quick turn to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic – Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today she will step down from her post next month. […]

NSF’s CIO Dorothy Aronson said moving forward, lessons learned from the pandemic “can’t be unlearned.” “We probably will continue to be much more of a virtual organization in the future than we had been in the past,” she said. […]

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is tasked with protecting U.S. national security and protecting the nation’s borders. When it comes to the technology infrastructure needed to meet mission goals, Sonny Bhagowalia, deputy assistant commissioner with CBP’s Office of Information Technology, has turned to supported open-source technologies. […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Small Business Association (SBA) aimed warnings this week at six companies to cease potentially misleading marketing geared toward small businesses seeking COVID-19 relief loans. […]

As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to affect organizations across the United States, officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) warned of common trends and attack vectors that are being used by malicious actors for financial or informational gain. […]

The Federal Communications Commission said today that the total value of funding grants under its COVID-19 Telehealth Program rose to $157 million, after the agency approved $29.4 million of new grants.  […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) increased the ceiling of the 8(a) Streamlined Technology Application Resource for Services (STARS) II contract to $22 billion today. […]

While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has left a flurry of cybersecurity risks in its wake targeting healthcare and other sectors, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has scarcely missed a beat in carrying out its mission to protect the U.S. from cyber threats. […]

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs called the COVID-19 pandemic – and the quick switch to telework stemming from efforts to curtail the spread of the virus – one of the “biggest drivers” of IT and cyber modernization in recent times. […]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks (IOGAN) Act (S.2904) would cost $6 million between 2020 and 2025. […]

As the COVID-19 pandemic made it increasingly difficult for veterans to access in-person healthcare services, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) quickly scaled its existing telehealth capabilities to accommodate more patients. Now, per several VA officials, the agency is planning to continue investments in and accessibility to its virtual health services even after the pandemic winds down. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has updated its Insider Threat Program (ITP) to expand the program’s scope to include those with past or current access to DHS facilities, information, equipment, networks, or systems. […]