The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved by voice vote today the Harvesting American Cybersecurity Knowledge through Education Act (HACKED Act) (S 2775), which aims to boost the Federal cybersecurity workforce with new guidelines for agencies, clearer career paths for the workforce, and improved coordination between agencies. […]
The State Department is looking to develop IT professionals through the Foreign Affairs Information Technology (FAIT) Fellowship. […]
Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., introduced a bill in the House on Nov. 8 that would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact regulations requiring public inspection files to be available online in a machine-readable format. […]
Election security will remain an operational priority for the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) “for the foreseeable future,” a CISA official said at a Nov. 12 event. […]
A Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) interagency workgroup – focused at least in part on supply chain and control systems security issues – aims to have an executive committee meeting early next year to discuss cybersecurity challenges in both the public and private sectors. […]
Officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Defense (DoD) previewed their agencies’ latest efforts on supply chain security guidelines at the CyberCon 2019 conference today. […]
The results of the annual Federal Employee Viewpoints Survey (FEVS) show a continued discontent with the Federal government’s career advancement processes, and a negative impact on agencies from the partial Federal government shutdown that spanned 35 days and ended Jan. 25. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Nov. 8 providing updates and recommendations on the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). The report offered two recommendations for the Treasury Department. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) has begun the transition process of moving its solicitations from the FedBizOpps website to the beta.SAM.gov system, according to a November 7 press release from the agency. […]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Federal Register posting that it plans to develop a new system that will serve as its central Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) record repository for DOJ Identity Services. […]
A new study suggests that organizations should shift their cybersecurity focus to defending non-Windows infrastructure, such as Linux, while deemphasizing attribution of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) to any particular nation-state. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate has announced the award of a contract to Mavennet Systems to adapt its oil and gas industry blockchain security technology for use by DHS’s Custom and Border Protection organization to track cross-border oil imports. […]
As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) focuses on returning to the moon by 2024, cyber resiliency belongs in every step of the process, according to NASA CIO Renee Wynn. […]
One year after the relaunch of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official website, VA.gov, the agency praised streamlined citizen services, integration of veterans’ health data with an iOS app, and its virtual veteran services capabilities at the Veterans Digital Transformation Breakfast on Nov. 7. […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) supports legislative efforts in Congress to fund more investment in power grid cybersecurity nationwide, DOE Assistant Secretary Daniel Simmons testified at a Nov. 6 Senate Subcommittee on Energy hearing about current legislation. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today released its Cyber Essentials guide, which it describes as “a starting point for small businesses and government agencies to understand and address cybersecurity risk as they do other risks.” […]
The Federal government’s civilian, military, and intelligence agencies issued a statement Nov. 5 reiterating Federal support for election security at national, state, and local levels. […]
Two senior technology officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spoke in positive terms today about the benefits that cloud services are bringing to the agency, and counseled focusing attention on security responsibilities for other agencies also underrating cloud service adoption. […]
As part of the Federal Data Strategy, the Department of Commerce is looking for experts to help Federal agencies use their data for decisionmaking as part of the newly formed Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building, according to an upcoming Federal Register post. […]
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) endorsed S.?2749, the?DOTGOV?Act of 2019 on Nov. 4. The legislation, introduced by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., ranking member and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, respectively, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and James Lankford, Okla., aims to “strengthen local government cybersecurity defenses by switching to the .gov domain for websites and email addresses.” […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) today announced the award of its Second Generation Information Technology (2GIT) Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) that have an estimated value of $5.5 billion over five years. […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks the internal controls necessary to make risk-based decisions for the security of its budget systems, a report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported on Oct. 31 that the Energy Cybersecurity Act of 2019 would cost $832 million to implement over the next 10 years, with $355 million of that spent during the first five years. […]
Federal IT officials from a diverse range of agencies said on Oct. 29 they are taking initial steps to employ robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to streamline workflows, and expressed optimism that the technologies will make a big difference in agency efficiency over the next few years. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking at robotic process automation (RPA) technologies to help with determination of responsibility in agency IT contracts, according to a request for information released November 1. Responses are due by November 15. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced the kick-off of its annual Infrastructure and Security and Resilience Month running through the end of November. […]
The Treasury Department received mixed results on its fiscal year 2019 FISMA audit, with few weak spots identified but still falling below the level of effective, according to the audit released October 25 by the department’s inspector general. […]
Senators and Federal government officials sparred over the country’s 5G-readiness and supply chain security at a hearing today of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. […]
When thinking about robotic process automation (RPA), one might imagine advanced robotics assuming job functions alongside Tony Stark (of Marvel Comics Iron Man fame) in a lab, but the National Science Foundation (NSF) wants agencies to think of RPA as more of a software management project. […]
Federal agencies are making progress in assessing and articulating their IT staffing needs, but lag behind on developing strategies to tackle those gaps and keep track of progress in addressing them, according to a report released October 30 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]