Brian Harrell, assistant director for infrastructure security at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is leaving his current post to take a role in the private sector, an agency spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the USDA is not properly disciplining employees or contractors for improper uses of IT resources. OIG found that a lack of clear policies and procedures were to blame for the lack of accountability. […]
As the final weeks of the nation’s first census conducted primarily online conclude, a Census Bureau official said the website of the 2020 decennial survey has experienced no downtime during peak operations as a result of a move to the cloud. […]
At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) offices responsible for managing emergency communications, the coronavirus pandemic has required officials to adapt natural disaster plans to the unique challenges of the public health crisis, government officials said today. […]
According to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency doesn’t comprehensively analyze inspection or complaint information to identify trends, and doesn’t have assurance that complaints are addressed. […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is embracing a new cybersecurity routine after the ongoing public health crisis placed a new target on the agency and malicious actors boosted their efforts to infiltrate the agency and access sensitive data, HHS CISO Janet Vogel said this week. […]
Cybereason, a Boston-based cybersecurity firm, has held a series of election security events over the past couple of years in order to provide law enforcement with opportunities to think proactively about ways to ensure that elections are safe and secure. They held their latest event August 19 by Zoom, including officials from the FBI and CISA. […]
Department of Energy CIO Rocky Campione has named Emery Csulak Principal Deputy CIO, effective August 31, according to an agency email obtained by MeriTalk. […]
The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled a Forum on 5G Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN) for September 14. […]
The National Science Foundation has awarded $10 million in grant funding to the cloud computing testbed Chameleon, which enables systems and networking innovations by “providing thousands of computer scientists with the bare metal access they need to conceptualize, assemble, and test new cloud computing approaches.” […]
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that it needs to do a better job to verify wireless device identity, although it said that based on audit results IRS was employing effective strategies and protocols to authenticate network user identities. […]
The Department of Energy and Microsoft are leading a new consortium using AI to improve the first responder experience based on a prototype from the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). […]
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Indian Health Service, and Small Business Administration (SBA) are using security tools given to them by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they’re intended: to identify hardware and software on their networks that may have vulnerabilities and insecure configurations. But GAO said the agencies have more to do manage their network in order to optimize the value of the tools. […]
Guy Cavallo is taking over as Principal Deputy CIO at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) effective Sept. 14. […]
As state and local leaders continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an update to its Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers Guidance. Version 4.0, released today, provides guidance for jurisdictions and critical infrastructure owners to ensure that essential workers can work safely while supporting ongoing infrastructure operations across the nation. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) is funding $37 million in artificial intelligence and machine learning research and development (R&D) to improve data and operations at the agency’s scientific user facilities. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is proposing four principles to determine the degree to which decisions made by AI are “explainable,” and hopes that effort helps to jumpstart debate on what should be expected of decision-making technologies. […]
The Census Bureau hired a deputy director for data to help ensure “the 2020 Census data products are of the highest quality.” As of August 16 statistics, the Census Bureau’s Total Self-Response Rate for the 2020 Census was 63.8%. […]
Small Business Administration Deputy CIO Guy Cavallo said today that the agency’s extensive use of cloud-based IT has brought about what he called a “new miracle” of allowing the agency to tap a larger pool of workforce talent that is untethered from geographical limitations. […]
An April decision by the Federal Communications Commission to grant wireless service provider Ligado permission to operate in a spectrum band adjacent to spectrum that the Defense Department says is critical for GPS services is not reviewable under the Congressional Review Act, said the Government Accountability Office in an August 13 finding. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is leaning into the benefits of working remotely and planning tech advancements to adapt to the new operating model as it moves forward, Deputy CIO Beth Cappello explained at MeriTalk’s Lessons from DHS: The Mission Can’t Stop webinar on August 12. […]
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced today that he has appointed Tip Osterthaler as chair of the FirstNet Authority Board. […]
Jose Arrieta is resigning his positons as CIO and interim chief data officer (CDO) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agency spokesperson has confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking software to help members of NIH communications offices to monitor, distribute, and analyze social media mentions of the agency. […]
Master’s degree candidates at the University of Indiana at Bloomington has published a review of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. […]
Reflecting on the seventh iteration of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) National Cyber Storm Exercise that concluded late yesterday, Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security Brian Harrell is warning that many organizations fail to understand the security of third-party services that they rely on. […]
From 2017 to 2019, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that homelessness in the United States has grown increasingly, but an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found that HUD likely underestimates the count due to poor data quality. […]
The Federal Procurement Data System’s (FPDS) reporting function will complete its transition to beta.SAM.gov by October 17, according to an August 3 update from the General Services Administration (GSA). […]
Dr. Jane Pinelas, Chief of Testing, Evaluation, and Assessment at the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said on August 12 that the Centers of Excellence engagement between JAIC and the General Services Administration is paying dividends at the organization’s product testing needs ramp up. […]
Officials from the Marine Corps (USMC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) credited laying the mobility groundwork and hosting remote work drills, respectively, for helping the agencies prepare workers for the telework transition during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]