Getting in and out of the District of Columbia will likely be more trouble than it’s worth until after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration with the Secret Service adding bridge closures to mounting restrictions. The Secret Service announced restrictions on seven bridges Jan. 18, with all but one restricting all access into the city. […]
The costs and consequences of the Russia-backed hack of government and private sector networks via a breach of SolarWinds Orion products are continuing to grow more than a month after the exploit was publicly disclosed, a senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published an updated doctrine on Jan. 13 that details new core security vetting principles for the government to use in managing security clearances. […]
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has officially named Jeff Seaton as the agency’s permanent CIO. […]
The Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) has issued guidance for Federal agencies to allow employees to telework and use all other “workplace flexibility” to keep employees out of downtown in the District of Columbia for the next week. […]
President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees to head the departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) are lined up for Senate committee-level confirmation hearings on Jan. 19 – one day before Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. […]
While the Department of Defense (DoD) has begun the process of compiling a list of acquisition programs, technologies manufacturing capabilities, and research areas critical for preserving U.S. military advantages, it still hasn’t determined how to communicate that list internally and to other agencies, according to the Government Accountability Office. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officially designated the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) to lead grant management process improvement efforts on a government-wide basis. […]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) named Oki Mek, a career public servant, its first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) in Dec. 2020, according to his LinkedIn. This is a new CXO-level position that puts Mek at the head of AI strategy for the agency. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has hired Kenneth Bible as its new CISO, a DHS management spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), along with the Department of Defense (DoD) 5G Initiative is looking to accelerate the development of an open 5G stack ecosystem to support DoD missions through a 5G Challenge. […]
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Gina Raimondo as his Secretary of Commerce and Don Graves as Raimondo’s Deputy Secretary at the Department of Commerce (Commerce). […]
The Federal Communications Commission on Jan. 6 called for comment on how the agency should proceed with deploying $249.9 million of new funding to support its existing COVID-19 Telehealth Program. […]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved the establishment of the Bureau of Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) within the Department of State on Thursday to lead diplomatic efforts to deflect cyberattacks from foreign countries. […]
The Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced last month that it will be conducting a review of the department’s cyber threat data sharing capabilities, pursuant to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 which set up structures for sharing threat data with government and private sector entities. […]
General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy has asked for the resignations of all agency political appointees in order to demonstrate GSA’s “commitment to a peaceful transition of power” to the incoming Biden administration following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol complex by a mob supportive of President Trump. […]
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen cybersecurity veteran Lisa Monaco as his nominee for Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department (DoJ), and according to a Politico report, is getting ready to name Anne Neuberger deputy national security adviser for cybersecurity on the President’s National Security Council (NSC). […]
A new audit report released by the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found deficiencies in the agency’s IT controls related to cash management and federal debt information systems. […]
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on how to best distribute $3.2 billion of funding approved by Congress late last month as part of combined FY 2021 government funding and COVID-19 relief legislation to help low-income Americans access internet services. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a new draft of its Polaris Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) on Dec. 31, 2020 and is seeking feedback from the small business IT community by the end of the month, according to an RFP posted on beta.SAM.gov. […]
The State Department has kicked off the new year with a bang. The Department announced on Jan. 4 that it has appointed Dr. Matthew Graviss as its first-ever Chief Data Officer (CDO). Graviss will lead the Office of Management Strategy and Solution’s Center for Analytics (CfA), which is the State’s enterprise data capability. […]
A Treasury Department official told House Ways and Means Committee members in a Dec. 23 letter that the agency has found no evidence that the suspected Russia-backed breach of Federal government systems via SolarWinds Orion products exposed U.S. taxpayer data. […]
A bill introduced on Dec. 11 by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would require Federal agencies to report to Congress within seven days about any cyber attacks they have faced that would cause significant harm to national security or agency operations. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO)has reviewed several Department of Defense (DoD) information technology programs and found that the agency’s IT development approaches and cybersecurity practices may be impacting cost and scheduling. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has outlined technical and policy options for creating database resources that can be used to identify chemical “fingerprints” and help investigators track down the sources of chemical weapon agents used in attacks. […]
A long weekend of deals and a late night of voting turned a nine-month stalemate into a 5,593-page COVID relief and omnibus measure to fund the Federal government through September 2021. The House and Senate approved the legislation late on Dec. 21, and sent the bill to President Trump for his signature. […]
The House and Senate were poised late Monday to vote on a $1.4 trillion omnibus Federal spending bill, that includes $25 million of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). […]
Federal employees in the D.C. area that were scheduled to work on Inauguration Day (Jan. 20) will get the day off, according to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]
After months with no movement and a weekend full of deal-making, Congress is expected to pass a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package as part of a broader Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) omnibus spending bill. The relief includes a new round of Payment Protection Program (PPP) funding, money for broadband deployment and emergency use, and money to remove banned Huawei and ZTE equipment. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report that four Federal agencies it examined are making progress on establishing data governance policies, but still have more work to do on some key milestones including assessing data and infrastructure maturity, and staff data literacy. […]