How can technology transform the often-difficult citizen experience with government into the streamlined and intuitive interactions that the best private-sector companies offer? On July 21 – we’re going to find out. The countdown to MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum is on. In the lead-up to the in-person forum in Washington, D.C., we are table-setting a host of big issues that will get serious attention at MerITocracy 2022. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the first group of winners from its six-year quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithm competition.
The first group of four winners designed encryption tools to withstand assaults from future quantum computers. They will become part of NIST’s post-quantum cryptographic standard, which is expected to be finalized in two years. […]
NASA plans to increase engagement with commercial communication and navigation services providers to support robotic spacecraft and human exploration near-space missions with an upcoming contract, according to a draft request for proposals (RFP). […]
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that most government agencies have been slow to move on the watchdog agency’s existing recommendation to them regarding their use of facial recognition technologies (FRT) from non-Federal government systems. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 30 committed nearly $159 million to the Emergency Connectivity Funding (ECF) program to help close the “homework gap” for students that don’t have access to reliable broadband service and devices. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) has resumed operations of the Polaris governmentwide acquisition services solicitation and extended the due date for bid proposals to August 10. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced 22 new awards for its NSF Research Traineeship Program which will invest in training graduate students to become future tech leaders. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program offers a wide range of security benefits for Federal agencies. Still, a CISA official wants to help agencies unlock the program’s full potential. […]
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the National LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that aims to improve access to GSA contracting opportunities for LGBTQI-owned small businesses. […]
U.S. military veterans are now able to access online services using the same login and password across a variety of Federal government websites and portals, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) needs to improve its communications around data breach reporting in order to enhance health care delivery. […]
Enduring success in the drive to foundational improvements in IT systems and infrastructure seldom comes fast, cheap, or easy – or without plenty of lessons to share for the next agency in line that is driving toward similar goals. […]
The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity Infrastructure Protection and Innovation was given recommendations by experts to mitigate the problems that deep fakes and quantum computers pose for the United States. […]
In the lead-up to the July 21 forum, we are table-setting a host of big issues that will get serious attention at MerITocracy 2022. The overarching question we are asking is this: can technology innovation – coupled with the boldest kind of leadership – work together to start fixing the most intractable problems facing America? […]
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on June 22 unanimously approved the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2023 to authorize funding, provide legal authorities, and enhance congressional oversight for the U.S. intelligence community (IC). […]
Fifteen years after Congress approved legislation requiring the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a public health situational awareness network to facilitate information sharing about public health threats, the agency has made little progress toward making that project a reality. […]
President Biden on June 23 signed into law the VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act that aims to increase the transparency of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) problematic Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program through regular reporting requirements. […]
The State Department is seeking feedback from industry on requirements for building a procurement forecasting application that would provide vendors with status updates on potential future requirements and acquisition activities. […]
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly is considering a big basket of recommendations delivered this week by the agency’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, including suggestions that the agency boost its workforce development and acquisition efforts and establish a new chief people officer position. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is currently piloting customer experience (CX) courses within its agency for its new Customer Experience Institute (CXi), a VA official said at a June 22 FCW and Carahsoft event. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is pressing the departments of Treasury and Homeland Security (DHS) to assess whether a further Federal response is needed to address the government’s existing terrorism risk insurance program, which may not cover losses from cyber and other attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) confirmed it will delay the rollout of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program at four sites until 2023, due to unanticipated system outages and a lack of system reliability. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded the third and final cohort of the $50 billion 8(a) STARS III Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) to streamline procurement for purchasing IT solutions from prime contractors. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has outlined 11 priority open recommendations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including to improve IT management, according to a new report from the watchdog agency. […]
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on June 15 released its National Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) Strategy that focuses on providing a framework for engineering, training, tools, and practices against cyber threats to the energy sector and the electricity grid. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a report that warns against the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) to fight against online problems and relying on it as a policy solution. […]
Jaime Noble, CISO and Director of IT Security at the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), explained this week how the organization is moving away from legacy systems as well as integrating ICAM systems for government grant funding at the (DoJ). […]
As many U.S. technologies rely on critical minerals, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is recommending Federal agencies update the national strategy for ensuring secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals to align with recent advancements. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is winning rave reviews from cybersecurity practitioners who are working to improve Federal civilian agency security. CDM has the potential to become even more crucial to the cyber fight once its latest generation of technologies are fully leveraged. […]
A Federal judge in D.C. on June 7 gave preliminarily approval to a $63 million settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by victims of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breaches in 2014 and 2015 that rocked the government cybersecurity community and exposed data on millions of Federal employees to Chinese state-sponsored hackers. […]