Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
FedRAMP

The General Services Administration (GSA) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) need to collect consistent cost data so they can provide a cost estimate to Federal agencies and cloud service providers (CSPs) pursuing Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) authorizations, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

New job hired workforce employee-min
GSA General Services Administration

The General Services Administration (GSA) has developed an emerging technology “radar” process to help it track the trajectory of emerging technologies from initial research and development to government experiments, according to the Assistant Commissioner of GSA’s Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) Laura Stanton. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) will soon operationalize its public-private pilot program which aims to secure critical energy infrastructure against threats as it also looks forward to improving security through work within industry sectors, a top DoE security official said on Sept. 17.  […]

healthcare cyber-min

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is issuing more than a dozen recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after it discovered that HHS has failed to implement all the key privacy safeguards for its pandemic IT systems that collect and store personally identifiable information (PII).  […]

House members vented their frustrations on Thursday over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) action to pause use of the agency’s troubled Program Integrity Tool (PIT) last year, which has resulted in the VA not being able to collect about $665 million in revenue since then and created potential financial impacts for veterans.  […]

Budget Federal spending

Members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide more transparency on its budget needs just as Congress bailed the agency out on Thursday with billions of dollars in supplemental funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024. […]

us passport government publishing office gpo
CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) unveiled a new plan Monday to align collective operational defense capabilities across the Federal government and drive down cybersecurity risks to more than 100 Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies. […]

Cyber-Defenders

Fresh off his induction into the 2024 class of Cyber Defenders, we were thrilled to grab a half hour with Paul Blahusch – who is director of cybersecurity and chief information security officer at the Department of Labor – for a wide-ranging talk about the security opportunities and challenges surrounding artificial intelligence, zero trust security, the coming quantum computing wave, and the importance of collaboration among Federal security leaders.  […]

data

Data can’t be perfect, but it can be managed using a “food label” approach that reflects who and what the data was created for – all of which can increase the useful of data for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) official said on Sept. 12. […]

electric grid

A senior Democratic lawmaker expressed concerns today about the United States’ ability to meet growing energy demands that are accompanying the surge of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, particularly when it comes to beating China in the tech race.  […]

State Department

The State Department’s Office of Cyber Monitoring and Operations is zeroing in on two AI use cases to better defend against cyber threats, with Director Manuel “Manny” Medrano announcing today that the agency plans to build a cyber data visualization for its analysts by the end of the year. […]

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving ahead with implementing its U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program for wireless internet of things (IoT) devices by seeking administrators to certify the use of the agency’s IoT security labeling by product manufacturers who demonstrate that they are complying with the labeling program’s rules. […]

The Department of Commerce this week rolled out its new SCALE supply chain risk assessment tool that the agency said will increase the government’s ability to be “more proactive and strategic” about assessing structural supply chain risks across the country.   […]

Budget Federal spending

Members of Congress are not happy with recent budget shortfalls at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as the budgets for its IT modernization projects continue to swell, with one lawmaker calling on the agency to “abandon” its electronic health record (EHR) system immediately. […]

Department of Commerce
data

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) wants more information on the challenges surrounding data center growth, resilience, and security “amidst a surge of computing power demand due to the development of critical and emerging technologies.” […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an update to the Federal Information System Controls Audit Manual (FISCAM), which provides auditors with a methodology and framework for evaluating information systems controls. […]

While it may seem like many Federal agencies are already using artificial intelligence, an official from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shared on Sept. 4 that the Federal government is really just in the beginning stages of deploying the emerging technology. […]

TMF

The U.S. State Department – which works with other countries to make sure that undersea communications cables are secure against meddling – is prioritizing the further development of “trusted undersea cables” as cybersecurity threats from China and other adversaries continue to grow, the agency’s top cybersecurity official said on Sept. 3.    […]

semiconductor chips

Since the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law in August 2022, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has hit the ground running to reach its goal of the United States being the only country in the world that invents, designs, manufactures, and packages leading edge chips by 2030. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has received $100 million in Federal funding to help pay for a new high-performance computer (HPC) system that will harness artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities to tackle advanced climate and weather research.   […]

USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded a $75 million contract to Accenture Federal Services (AFS) to scale the use of artificial intelligence and modernize the patent examination process.   […]

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