Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on March 31 offered some broad-brushed details about the Biden administration’s coming executive order on cybersecurity. […]
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on March 31 previewed six “sprints” planned by DHS and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) component throughout 2021 to bolster Federal cybersecurity across a range of areas including ransomware, industrial control system (ICS) security, and workforce development. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has added James Saunders to its CIO Office as Senior Advisor for Cybersecurity, OPM confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has extended Schedule A hiring authority for Federal agencies to hire personnel temporarily to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a March 29 OPM memo. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released supplemental directions to help agencies root out and mitigate vulnerabilities in their Microsoft Exchange on-premises products. […]
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) assigned inaccurate monitoring priority levels for some Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) grants from fiscal years 2017 through 2019, due in part to issues with the technical processes used to transfer data from the Grants Management System into the Grant Assessment Tool (GAT). […]
As agencies have continued to close data centers by participating in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), adapting to new technologies and cybersecurity must be front of mind for these closures, a Government Accountability Office expert said today. […]
The Biden Administration today proposed in its $2 trillion American Jobs Plan to invest upwards of $90 billion in Federal government-directed research and development (R&D) spending in a host of technology areas including AI. […]
The ongoing “Sunburst” cyber-espionage campaign that resulted in the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange breaches represents a strategic failure by the U.S., rather than simple IT inadequacy, according to a report by the Atlantic Council. […]
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) official said today that while the Federal government could require all Federal employees to have a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to offices, it might be counterproductive to do so in a very strict way given the expectation that some of the workforce won’t want to, or be able to, receive the vaccine. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information on a contractor that can provide cybersecurity research, development, and implementation support services and subject matter expertise on task areas of various priority levels. […]
The White House said March 26 that President Biden plans to nominate Brett Holmgren to become assistant secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded a $453 million contract to support and modernize the GI Bill benefits processing system to Accenture Federal Services (AFS). […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft guidance to help local election officials reduce the risk of cyberattacks on election systems, and is seeking public comment on the draft. […]
A group of bipartisan senators wrote a letter to Jennifer Granholm, Department of Energy (DOE) secretary, to voice their support for keeping the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy, Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) released a new report this week that highlights the twenty most search topics across government websites in 2020. […]
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Criminal Investigations (CI) division is looking to upgrade its legacy law enforcement Management Information Systems (MIS), according to a March 23 sources sought notice on beta.SAM.gov. […]
A group of ten tech-sector trade groups led by the Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) is asking the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make some big changes to Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) rules and policies, including those covering repayment obligations. […]
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the Data Care Act in the Senate on March 23, leading a pack of 17 senators looking to protect user data from hacks and hold companies liable for misuse. It is Schatz’s third time introducing the bill, having introduced similar versions in both the 115th and 116th Congresses. […]
Thirty Democratic senators and House members are asking newly confirmed Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in a March 23 letter for the agency to focus its efforts to help states improve their unemployment insurance (UI) systems along the lines of legislation introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic “exponentially accelerated” the pace of change in government IT – including the move to hybrid cloud infrastructures – and increased data sharing at Federal agencies like the State Department, government and industry officials said. […]
After a year of moving IT heaven and earth to enable a huge jump in telehealth services for veterans during the coronavirus pandemic, officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said March 23 that one of the biggest remaining obstacles to delivering telehealth is a lack of sufficient and/or affordable broadband service in areas where some veterans live. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is awarding the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (UW-APL) $959,305 to bring together experts to develop digital contact tracing (DCT) application testing criteria. […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is requesting information on a potential requirement for its new Enterprise Development, Operations Services (EDOS) contract worth up to $2.6 billion. […]
The Senate confirmed Boston mayor Marty Walsh as the Biden administration’s new Labor Secretary on Monday night, in a 68-29 vote. […]
As the Census Bureau prepares for its planning of the 2030 Census, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending that the Bureau assess data collection challenges. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is pausing its electronic health record (EHR) modernization program for up to 12 weeks to allow for a thorough “strategic review” to ensure program success. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) F-35 Lightning II Fighter program is DoD’s most expensive program and continues to face significant schedule delays including the indefinite delay of its full-rate production decision, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking comments on an Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to allow DHS to assist executive branch agencies in collecting cybersecurity vulnerability information and post the information on their own agency websites. […]
The Department of Energy’s (DoE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) said it is rolling out three new research programs aimed at energy supply chain security, protecting infrastructure from electromagnetic (EMP) interference, and cybersecurity education. […]