While contact tracing applications for COVID-19 can reach more people than traditional contact tracing methods, policymakers will still have to weigh the benefits and challenges of utilizing the new technology, including privacy and security issues. […]
Technologists responsible for the website of the Department of Veterans Affairs and other government websites emphasized the need for accessibility, ensuring that no one is excluded from access. […]
Congress is looking to hammer out its next COVID-19 relief bill in the coming weeks and it looks like it will be a contentious negotiation. As part of its opening salvo, Senate GOP leadership released their policy proposal on July 27. […]
The Departments of Veteran Affairs (VA), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Energy are partnering on a new initiative to share COVID-19 health data to enable the research and expertise on the virus. […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Enforcement Bureau announced today that it has selected the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group as the Official Consortium for coordinating industry-led efforts to trace back the origin of unlawful robocalls. […]
Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., introduced the We Need Eviction Data Now Act (H.R. 7743) on July 23 to direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to create a database of eviction records. […]
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) Board has awarded $15 million of funding to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) organization to transform its Collections platform into a modern, cloud-based system. […]
ACT-IAC released its 2021 agenda today listing priority issues that government will face next year including the need for citizen-centric services, transforming national infrastructure, and creating an agile government. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched an investigation to see how well facial recognition algorithms could identify people wearing face masks and found that it does so with “great difficulty.” […]
Federal IT has earned the status of lifesaver in the COVID-19 pandemic for its ability to deliver vital services to citizens in times of crisis. MeriTalk is chronicling those successes – along with lessons for the future as agencies turn to the next generation of service improvements. In this edition of CIO Crossroads, we examine the Department of Energy four months into the fray. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking a wide range of COVID-19 technologies, including ways to secure contact tracing and open source virus reporting, per a July 24 other transaction solicitation (OTS). […]
The Department of Energy (DOE) on July 24 announced America’s Blueprint for the Quantum Internet to further quantum research in the Federal space with private sector collaboration. In February 2020, DOE’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research hosted the Quantum Internet Blueprint Workshop where representatives from DOE National Labs, universities, industry, and other U.S. agencies […]
The Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is seeking a third-party provider for data center colocation services, per a July 23 request for information (RFI). […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released a list of AI ethics and principles to guide the intelligence community (IC) on its use and development of AI and AI tools. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is starting its first mid-band 5G spectrum auction today, marking a key step toward opening up 5G spectrum for the commercial marketplace. […]
How does an entire Federal government agency turn on a dime to fight the impact of a once-in-a-century pandemic and preserve vital citizen services? In the new age of IT supremacy, it pays to check in with the CIO first. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced today that it has added two cybersecurity experts to support the agency’s COVID-19 response efforts. […]
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved by voice vote today several tech-related legislative measures including S. 4200, which would direct the General Services Administration (GSA) to establish an IT modernization Centers of Excellence (CoE) program that would facilitate adoption of modern technology by executive branch agencies. […]
Small Business Administration (SBA) Deputy CIO Guy Cavallo assured members of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight, and Regulations today that cybersecurity at SBA is much stronger than metrics like those reflected in the FITARA scorecard may lead them to believe. […]
Establishing a data-driven government, Federal officials suggested today, requires recognizing data management as a team sport, putting change “champions” into positions of responsibility, and educating the workforce to realize the value of the day they are collecting. […]
A July 21 report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) prioritizes enhancing IT to combat cyberthreats as one of EPA’s top Fiscal Year 2020-2021 management challenges. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced July 20 that CIO James Gfrerer swore in Todd Simpson as deputy assistant secretary for DevSecOps. […]
As the General Services Administration’s 18F stepped up to help agencies with the quick technical shift to telework, two officials from the program shared their top tips for helping the workplace culture adjust to a remote environment. […]
Federal IT has proven its value as the vital lifeline between government and citizen service during the COVID-19 pandemic. MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories of how Federal IT is getting the job done – and lessons for the road to recovery. Our latest chapter of CIO Crossroads explores IT operations at the Department of Education. […]
The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against two Chinese nationals for hacking into computer systems and stealing intellectual property and business information over more than a 10-year period. […]
President Donald Trump has nominated John Gibbs, who currently serves at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as the next director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for a term of four years. […]
IT leaders across the Federal government are reviewing lessons learned from the past few months. Most acknowledge that agencies have significantly accelerated modernization efforts as part of their work to effectively support (and secure) mass telework environments. […]
Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Christopher Krebs is saying that the 2020 election “will be the most secure election in modern history,” but continued to advocate for backup paper ballots to ensure an accurate count. […]
The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t slowed the government’s progress on managing the Federal background check inventory, which has returned to a stable state of roughly 200,000 cases, according to a quarterly report on the Security Clearance, Suitability/Fitness, and Credentialing Reform Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal action plan from the President’s Management Agenda. […]
Per a July 16 inspector general (IG) report, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) saw use of VA Video Connect increase from 79 calls per week to over 1,100 per week at just one of its facilities during the coronavirus pandemic, despite some bandwidth and scheduling issues reported by facility leaders. […]