While the Department of the Treasury’s USAspending.gov follows several best practices for reporting open data, the site needs to improve on security requirements, metadata, and an improved search function, according to a report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]
The newly-named Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been elevated within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and one of the biggest priorities for the agency will be responses to cyber threats from other nations, as a senior CISA official discussed on Sunday’s episode of Government Matters. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) came to an updated agreement continuing efforts to stop fraudulent practices that target U.S. service members, veterans and dependents who use military education benefits. […]
Federal agencies identified 26 long-range emerging threats to U.S. national security, including emerging technologies and foreign cybersecurity threats, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. […]
The State Department is looking to purchase phone hacking tools for Ghanaian police to help them investigate international crime. […]
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would like to offer up to $600 million dollars in loans and grants, through their ReConnect Program, to assist rural areas in building their broadband infrastructure. […]
What can the some of the most talented computer science researchers do with $10 million in funding over five years? As the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Expeditions in Computing program shows, they can explore the deep questions of computer science, and perhaps even create new industries. […]
An inspector general audit to review a cost-saving database migration project within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) found that inadequate governance of the project led to poor planning and significant delay, delaying cost savings of $12 million. […]
In today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the Committee dug into what it called “China’s non-traditional espionage against the United States.” During the hearing, senators heard from cybersecurity, and intelligence experts about China’s attempts to use cybersecurity attacks and intellectual property theft to advance its global standing. […]
Federal officials are looking at 2019 as the year of the hybrid cloud, as agencies shift from the Cloud First policy of moving pell-mell into as-a-service models to the Cloud Smart policy, which focuses more on making cloud work with legacy systems and serving agency missions. […]
In written testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard hearing on Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted areas where Federal agencies had not implemented recommendations from previous GAO reports. […]
The Senate unanimously approved the DHS Data Framework Act on Friday, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a data framework to integrate all existing DHS databases. […]
President Trump confirmed today that he intends to nominate William Barr as Attorney General and head of the Justice Department. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report Thursday highlighting the success of several Federal agencies in keeping information secure and private while sharing cyber threat indicators as part of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA). […]
The General Services Administration announced that Anil Cheriyan will be the new director of the agency’s Technology and Transformation Services unit and deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, replacing acting director Kelly Olson in early January. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a new telehealth initiative and new health application programming interface (API) this week, furthering the department’s commitment to caring for veterans with the help of technology. […]
The General Services Administration announced Thursday that it will extend the lifespan of legacy networking contracts up to three years, pushing back the deadline for agencies to move to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced on Thursday that they are granting $1.1 million to two projects aimed at improving data privacy for the department. […]
Rod Turk, the Commerce Department’s acting CIO who will be retiring next month, said in a wide-ranging discussion today that the Federal government is approaching the “tipping point” in its IT modernization efforts, and that requirements put in place in recent years to strengthen the hand of Federal CIOs in pushing modernization are resulting in less “rogue” tech projects at agencies. […]
Experts agreed today that Federal legacy network infrastructure are struggling to keep pace with the growing demands of agency cloud migrations and the continued push to modernize Federal IT systems. […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the General Services Administration (GSA) released its report on the agency’s biggest management challenges on Nov. 30, with the report highlighting OIG’s disagreement with GSA on the state of internal controls within the agency. […]
Microsoft today announced that it plans to expand its rural broadband initiative, dubbed the Airband initiative, to reach an additional 1 million rural Americans. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on Monday released NISTIR 8196, its draft report on the cybersecurity of mobile devices and wearables for first responders, and is seeking comment on the draft until January 7. […]
Emily Murphy, administrator at the General Services Administration (GSA), detailed the agency’s plan to consolidate 24 multiple-award schedules into one, and how the change will benefit both agencies and industry. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the topics for its Small Business Innovation Research presolicitation, with eight coming from the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). […]
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein voiced a forceful argument on Thursday for tech device and service makers to build into their products the means for law enforcement to legally access decrypted content, but offered little that was new in the way of solutions to the problem which the Federal government has complained about for years. […]
The House on Wednesday approved by voice vote HR 6032, the SMART IoT Act, which would direct the Department of Commerce to study and report to Congress within one year on the U.S. Internet-connected device industry, including on voluntary and mandatory standards that are being developed around the world for the IoT sector, which Federal agencies have jurisdiction over the sector, and any regulations or standards those agencies have put in place that impact the IoT sector. […]
When it comes to eliminating botnets, Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for Cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, stressed the importance of thinking differently and considering new solutions at the unveiling the 2018 International Anti-Botnet Guide today. […]
When it comes to customer experience in the Federal government, customers can be like your children: you love them and want to help them succeed, but you don’t get to pick them, and you have to work toward their high expectations. That was the message from Anahita Reilly, chief customer officer at the General Services Administration (GSA), during a speech today at Deloitte’s Creating a Future Forward event. […]
Dell said on Nov. 28 that it “detected and disrupted” unauthorized activity on its network on Nov. 9 that aimed to steal Dell.com customer information including names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, but not credit card or other sensitive data. Dell said “it is possible” that some data was stolen, but that “our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted.” Dell said its security measures in place–including hashing of customer passwords and a mandatory Dell.com password reset–are in place to limit the impact of any potential data disclosure. The company also said it has hired an digital forensics firm to conduct an independent investigate, and also has “engage law enforcement.” […]