The Department of Justice’s Cybersecurity Unit–part of the agency’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section–has issued an updated best practices document for victim response and reporting of cyber incidents. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday issued a warning that cyber actors are increasingly exploiting the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to conduct malicious activity. […]
Whole-of-government collaboration on quantum computing appears to have kicked up yet another notch today with an announcement that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has reached a deal to establish a Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QEDC). […]
The Department of Energy’s new office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) has already begun work to provide support to the nation’s energy grid and critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and the head of the new office appeared in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday to discuss the role of CESER within DoE. […]
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday offered his 60-day report on the VA’s electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, among other agency priorities, and emphasized the benefits that a successful modernization push will yield. […]
The Office of the CIO of the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs sent an email on Thursday asking employees to stop streaming the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a HUD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) today announced that it awarded a 10-year, $2.5 billion blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that will modernize the Federal government’s civilian payroll, work schedule, and leave management systems. […]
With new guidelines on the horizon for the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative, the Department of Homeland Security is looking to design recommendations that allow for the employment of future technologies while maintaining acceptable levels of risk, said TIC Program Manager Mark Bunn during the FCW Accelerate GOV conference on Thursday. […]
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to approve a handful of bills that place a strong emphasis on cybersecurity, IT supply chain security, and the enhancement of digital citizen services. […]
As the Federal government shifts its cloud strategy from “Cloud First” to “Cloud Smart,” IT leaders at the Infor Government Forum described how their previous cloud migration efforts have shifted their agencies’ mindsets and brought new successes to their department. […]
The House late Tuesday voted to approve H.R. 6229, which would reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today approved by a 3-1, party-line vote a series of steps that its Republican-majority commissioners argue will speed the pace of infrastructure installations necessary for carriers to provide 5G wireless services, but which have drawn strong protest from states and localities in the run-up to today’s vote who object to restrictions on their ability to govern. […]
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has issued a request for public comment “on ways to advance consumer privacy while protecting prosperity and innovation.” The comment solicitation, NTIA indicated, is unlikely to lead to any rulemaking process at least in the near term. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Tuesday released new draft guidance that aims to address both the cybersecurity and privacy risks stemming from the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced they are partnering as part of the GSA’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) initiative. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General criticized the agency’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement organization for failing to make timely deliveries of IT equipment and arrange for proper IT support staffing in connection with growth in the number of state and local law enforcement agencies participating in ICE’s 287(g) program under which state and local agencies assist ICE in immigration enforcement missions in their jurisdictions. […]
The National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) at the Department of Homeland Security held its first in a series of webinars “on protecting enterprise network infrastructure devices” today. […]
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Friday that Ruslans Bondars, the operator of counter- antivirus service “Scan4you,” was sentenced to 14 years in prison. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) today announced that it awarded a $2 million contract to HackerOne for the facilitation of GSA’s bug bounty programs. […]
The general election in 2016 was a watershed moment for Federal, state, and local election officials. […]
As the FCC prepares to vote next week on an order that would make it easier for wireless service providers to deploy small wireless antennas and other infrastructure to speed the deployment of fifth-generation–or 5G–services, two of the agency’s five commissioners discussed the pros and cons of taking that course at an event organized by Politico. […]
According to a new study prepared for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the agency’s development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) has created an estimated $250 billion in economic impact over the last 20 years. […]
Jane Wiseman, senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, has authored a new report–published Tuesday by the IBM Center for the Business of Government–that finds an apparent lack of chief data officers (CDO) among Federal agencies. […]
Altaba, which holds Yahoo’s remaining assets following the purchase of the company’s internet assets by Verizon in 2017, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle consumer class action litigation relating to Yahoo’s disclosures in 2016 and 2017 of data breaches impacting three billion user accounts. […]
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today introduced the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act in the Senate. The House version of the bill (HR 6443), sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, passed the House earlier this month. […]
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen today swore in eight new members to the the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC): Jayson P. Ahern, Stewart A. Baker, Frank J. Cilluffo, Mark J. Dannels, Carol DiBattiste, Cathy Lanier, Wendy Smith-Reeve, and Chad Sweet. […]
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? […]