A group of bipartisan legislators led by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., sent a letter on Jan. 10 to Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai to thank him for his December 2019 vote to “modernize the 5.9 GHz band.” […]
The Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Energy are the first three agencies to begin paying back Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) grants, representatives from each agency confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is seeking a contractor to assist IT support services for the Office of the CIO’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and to provide support for OPM’s Cybersecurity Program (CSP). […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wants to make it easier for grantees and contractors to report on Federally-funded technological inventions through updating the Interagency Edison System (iEdison). […]
At least one low-cost phone model of the type used to access voice and broadband services provided to low-income Americans through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline Program has been found to be pre-installed with foreign malware, according to research released by Malwarebytes on Jan. 9. […]
In a nearly three hour hearing, the Committee on House Administration heard expert testimony regarding U.S. election security, with a specific focus on voting system security. […]
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joseph Simons said at the Consumer Electronics Association’s CES event on Jan. 7 that creating a new Federal privacy regulator would be a “huge mistake.” […]
The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has invited eight companies to participate as technology collaborators in the Securing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Cybersecurity for Distributed Energy Resources Project (DERS). […]
President Trump appointed Bryan Ware as new assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Jan. 8. […]
With data collection for the 2020 Census beginning this month, the U.S. Census Bureau is turning to Internet content creators to help the Census go viral. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new guide detailing best practices and techniques for conducting technology readiness assessments (TRA) at Federal agencies on Jan. 7. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is conducting market research for potential vendors and industry feedback on a governmentwide vulnerability disclosure platform (VDP). […]
With the D.C. and Northern Virginia areas expected to see the season’s first significant snowfall this afternoon, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is telling Federal agencies to prepare for the weather and send employees home early today. […]
The Department of Energy has taken the steps necessary to implement the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, the department’s inspector general (IG) said. […]
Rising political and military tensions between the United States and Iran have led to renewed calls for securing government and private-sector critical systems in the event that the conflict leads to malicious cyber activity against U.S. assets. […]
The present and future state of Federal IT has monumental challenges to address – modernization, data utilization, and automation just to name a few – but none are so critical, or enduring, as cybersecurity. It’s the threat that will never fully go away – and where eternal vigilance, and innovation, are the price of liberty. […]
While the Department of Labor (DOL) has consistently complied with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) standards, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reported on Dec. 23 that the agency’s information security program is, overall, ineffective. […]
A privacy impact assessment of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program’s Shared Service Platform has raised no big privacy concerns, according to a report dated Dec. 19, 2019, and reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Acting Chief Privacy Officer. […]
Matthew Cornelius took over last month as Executive Director at the Alliance for Digital Innovation, a Washington-based trade group focused on enhancing technological innovation within the Federal government. […]
Industry leaders shared their predictions for 2020 and beyond with MeriTalk, indicating the path to progress will often track uphill, and around plenty of curves. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) announced it will host two townhalls on electronic rulemaking (eRulemaking) early in 2020, according to a Dec. 31 announcement in the Federal Register. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released volume one of its draft Cloud Interface Reference Architecture for the National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS) on December 12, aimed at enabling greater cloud adoption while keeping security concerns at the forefront. […]
For the first time in the history of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard, three agencies received “A” grades and set the bar higher for the 24 CFO Act agencies going forward into 2020. […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has delayed the deadline for mandatory electronic filing of trademarks from December 21 to February 15 after receiving feedback from the public, the agency announced in a Federal Register post. […]
In November 2018, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its CIO’s office were in the news for all the wrong reasons. […]
A new study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revealed that data, algorithms, and application processes are the biggest determinants of facial recognition software’s ability to identify sex, age, and racial background. […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced new cloud contracts with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft to provide easier access to environmental data sets. […]
The recent approval by the House of Representatives of two bills to improve the Federal government’s efforts to assemble and maintain accurate nationwide broadband service maps is adding weight to an ongoing push by the Federal Communications Commission to do the same in order to direct funding and other regulatory help to bringing more broadband options to underserved areas. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released several draft guidance documents for version 3.0 of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative today, taking a less prescriptive and less boundary-focused approach in its updated policies. […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Dec. 19 that David Bottom will be starting as the agency’s new CIO in January 2020. […]