The State Department confirmed that its unclassified email system was breached, putting some employees’ personally identifiable information at risk. […]
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted today to approve the nomination of James Gfrerer to serve as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ chief information officer and the assistant secretary of the agency’s Office of Information and Technology. Gfrerer’s nomination will now move to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. […]
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) CTO calls out the department and its individual agencies for keeping their data in silos, and calls for a department-wide data governance framework. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology today released a new draft publication that takes a deep dive into the issue of trust: how can we trust that the products creeping into every aspect of our day-to-day lives are secure, safe, respect user privacy, and are ultimately tools we can depend on? […]
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Monday calls on the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) to improve the consistency of its oversight of lending partners to better protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of students. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) is warning users “to remain vigilant for malicious cyber activity seeking to exploit interest in Hurricane Florence.” Alongside these recommendations, the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released a cyber intel advisory on Sept. 14, which notes an uptick in internet activity related to Florence. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday voted to approve S. 1281, the Hack the Department of Homeland Security Act, that would establish a bug bounty pilot program within DHS. […]
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) today announced awards to five research organizations as part of a new program aimed at identifying network and internet disruptions that could “significantly impact critical infrastructure systems” and “other essential systems on which society is dependent.” […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sees innovative products every day, but now it’s looking for one of its own: an innovative solution that can help determine if a patent application is truly unique. […]
During a congressional hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ $10 billion electronic health records (EHR) modernization effort and the Department of Defense EHR effort–called Military Health System Genesis–House members voiced concern about who is in charge of interoperability efforts. […]
A new bill in front of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Health Subcommittee would put pressure on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to make its websites and digital tools more accessible to the visually impaired. […]
Tim Ruland, the CISO at the Census Bureau, announced his retirement via LinkedIn, with his last day scheduled for September 27. […]
A new report published today by the Government Accountability Office is calling attention to persistent agency difficulties in complying with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), as well as difficulties with finding skilled acquisition professionals across the Federal government. […]
A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday questioning the State Department on what they called its failure to meet Federal cybersecurity standards, including a “near total absence of multifactor authentication (MFA).” […]
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General recommended in a new report that the Food and Drug Administration pay even more attention to medical device cybersecurity during the process in which it evaluates products for approval to market in the U.S. […]
The Government Publishing Office has named Sam Musa GPO’s new CIO. Musa previously served as chief of IT services for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and information systems program manager at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. […]
As the list of primary threats to the United States continues to evolve, the Department of Homeland Security is evolving to meet them with new operations such as the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) the agency announced in July, said Matthew Travis, deputy under secretary for DHS’ National Protectorate and Programs Directorate (NPPD), today at an event organized by the Professional Services Council. […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today it awarded $225 million of contracts to three companies to help the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) improve its medical review tools. […]
As Federal agencies migrate applications to cloud environments, a major impediment to broader adoption of cloud technologies is the ability to protect information and virtual assets, and to gain enough visibility to ensure that both the agencies and cloud providers are complying with legal and business requirements. […]
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) is the latest in a string of organizations to release its recommendations on how Federal, state, and local officials can best secure U.S. elections, including the use of paper-ballot components. […]
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that Federal agencies have not made progress on using performance information to make decisions since GAO’s last survey in 2013. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released an updated version of a report it issued in July detailing major cybersecurity challenges facing the Federal government and critical actions needed to address them. […]
The Department of Justice (DoJ) said today it charged Park Jin Hyok, a North Korean citizen and computer programmer, for conspiring in several high-profile cyber attacks including the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures, the 2018 WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attacks, and the 2016 theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is focused on modernizing its mindset to tackle a host of pressing issues including reducing its reliance on legacy systems, competing to attract cybersecurity talent, and combating supply chain threats, said DHS CIO Dr. John Zangardi today at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. […]
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) portal maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released personal information to the public, including Social Security numbers. […]
Karen Evans was sworn in Tuesday as assistant secretary of Energy for Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)–a newly created position at the agency, after the Senate confirmed her nomination last week. […]
Along with a slew of IT-related bills concerning the Department of Homeland Security and addressing supply chain risk and cyber monitoring, the House of Representatives also voted on Tuesday night to approve the establishment of a chief data officer (CDO) at DHS. […]
The House of Representatives on Tuesday agreed by voice vote to approve HR 6430, the Securing the Homeland Security Supply Chain Act of 2018, which grants the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary authority to exclude certain contractors from doing business with the Federal government to address “urgent national security interests” and curb supply chain risks. […]
Bob Kolasky, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recently created National Risk Management Center (NRMC), said today that DHS is taking action this month to boost the level of communication and data exchange among state and local election officials in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections in November. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is taking the first steps to develop a privacy framework that balances risk and protections, the agency announced on Tuesday. […]