The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and several Federal agencies are planning more collaboration with the tech industry on innovative responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, as discussed today in a meeting between public and private sector representatives. […]
A senior official speaking Feb. 26 at the RSA Conference clarified recent steps by the State Department to publicly attribute and condemn acts of cyber aggression on the part of Russia, calling the actions of the Department part of a deliberate attempt to establish a framework for appropriate nation-state behavior in cyberspace. […]
State Department CIO Stuart McGuigan shared today how an IT oversight council and increased emphasis on data strategies are helping the agency improve effectiveness and efficiency of its services. […]
A new report from the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says that the agency made some headway on addressing IT problems in Fiscal Year 2019, but not enough to quell the internal watchdog’s concerns that lingering issues are leaving the agency exposed to major cybersecurity vulnerabilities. […]
The Department of State announced the establishment of a Center for Analytics (CfA) that will be the agency’s first official enterprise-level data and analytics hub. […]
The State Department is looking to develop IT professionals through the Foreign Affairs Information Technology (FAIT) Fellowship. […]
The State Department is making progress in its IT modernization effort, but not meeting the goals it set for fiscal year 2019 as part of the President’s Management Agenda, an update to the agency’s priority goals shows. […]
A Federal hiring freeze ordered in a January 2017 presidential memo resulted in “significant” staffing reductions across the State Department – including the inability to fill two Senior Executive Service cybersecurity positions, which then delayed implementing an enterprise risk management program for IT systems. […]
Embassy Nassau, the American embassy to the Bahamas, has IT issues that are largely a result of embassy understaffing, according to an August 5 report from the State Department’s Inspector General. […]
Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., introduced new legislation on July 30 that would require the State Department to investigate the potential benefits of establishing a cooperative U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The bill, dubbed the U.S. -Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence Act, has garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has already introduced a companion bill in the House. […]
General Dynamics Information Technology announced it won a new $2 billion, five-year contract to continue managing the State Department’s global technical security supply chain. […]
Federal agencies are unprepared to confront and mitigate cyberthreats today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affair Committee Investigations Subcommittee determined in a report released today, recommending that agencies give CIOs more authority to make decisions on cybersecurity. […]
The State Department is making progress on its IT modernization effort, but is still lagging behind some of the goals it set as part of the President’s Management Agenda, as a June 20 update to the agency’s priority goals showed. […]
Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced the Hack Your State Department Act on June 12. […]
A bipartisan group of Federal legislators wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on May 20 urging “greater scrutiny and regulation of private companies providing highly advanced surveillance capabilities to governments with troubling human rights records.” […]
One of the biggest hurdles to Federal agency adoption of Technology Business Management (TBM) practices may be the degree of cultural change necessary to get everyone – including IT, finance, and top leadership – on board for the effort, said Ken Rogers, deputy CIO at the State Department, on Wednesday, May 15, at the Apptio Federal TBM Summit. […]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that a cyberattack could, “in certain circumstances, constitute an armed attack under Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty,” and that the United States would defend Japan in that circumstance. […]
Over the past year Karen Wrege, CIO, Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, (DDTC) led a major “cloud first” IT modernization effort to improve efficiency and security for DDTC employees and external customers. […]
The State Department now has its first permanent CIO in more than a year. Stuart McGuigan was announced on Tuesday as the new CIO and head of the agency’s Bureau of Information Resource Management. […]
The Cyber Diplomacy Act, H.R. 739, was scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday and the CBO found it would not have a material impact on government spending. […]
The House Foreign Affairs Committee marked up the Cyber Diplomacy Act yesterday, signaling the overall approval of the legislation by the committee. […]
The State Department is in the planning phase to create a cyber bureau within the department, a State Department official noted during a panel Q&A session on Thursday. […]
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would not be able to partner or share information with countries that adopt Huawei technology. […]
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Dan Sullivan, R-Ark., reintroduced legislation on Tuesday that would “establish an international information sharing program on election administration and security at the State Department.” The Global Electoral Exchange Act, which had been introduced in the last Congress, would enable the United States to work with its international allies to strengthen election security by sharing best practices on audits, disinformation campaigns, and voter database protections–among other pertinent issues. […]
The chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs have introduced H.R. 739, the Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2019, which would establish an Ambassador for Cyberspace in the State Department. […]
By a vote of 377-3, the House passed the Hack Your State Department Act late Tuesday evening. […]
The State Department is looking to secure its mobile devices and protect against malicious apps–with an app. The department released a request for information on Dec. 20, asking vendors for information about an endpoint protection platform for mobile devices. Responses are due by Jan. 18. […]
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on Wednesday it took a series of actions against Russian operatives for election interference and other malicious cyber activities. […]
The State Department is looking to purchase phone hacking tools for Ghanaian police to help them investigate international crime. […]
The State Department is standing up a cloud program office and taking the opportunity to modernize both systems across the department, according to Brian Merrick, deputy director of cloud program management at the State Department. […]