The Federal government is curtailing its “surge” response to the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange hacks after seeing improvements in patching that have helped to remediate the impacts of the cyber attacks, the Biden administration said today. […]
In a request for information (RFI), the U.S. Army said it needs an enterprise scale contractual vehicle or agreement to modernize and migrate Army applications and data into commercial cloud environments. […]
The FITARA 11.0 scorecard released in December 2020 turned out to be a pretty good report card for Federal agency IT operations. The latest set of grades marked just the second time since the House Oversight and Reform Committee started measuring agency progress against Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA) and other key metrics that every agency received a passing score. […]
A 2019 tweak by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the definition of a data center – and thus how the Federal government proceeds with its Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) aimed at sharply cutting the number of data centers that Federal agencies operate – is having the effect of leaving the government more vulnerable to cyberattacks, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official concurred today. […]
The Department of Labor (DoL) recently released new guidelines on protecting $9.3 trillion in retirement benefits for over 34 million participants in contribution plans by making sure proper cybersecurity best practices are in place. […]
Running both the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command in an era of expanding cyberattacks pushes a lot of pressing issues to the top of a leader’s to-do list, but for Gen. Paul Nakasone – who heads both organizations that are key to U.S. efforts to operate in cyberspace outside of national borders – workforce development tends to rise above the rest. […]
With information warfare growing in the competition arena, a clear strategy and a joint force provider to usher in this strategy are necessary for the United States to combat influence operations by foreign adversaries, U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall said today. […]
Three Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplements (DFARS) related to the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) are set to become permanent rules shortly, Katie Arrington, the Pentagon’s CISO for acquisition and sustainment, said April 15. […]
A senior Biden administration official dropped significant hints today about the contents of the administration’s expected executive order (EO) on cybersecurity. The coming EO has been much talked about in policy circles in recent weeks, with a consensus view that it will be released soon, but without much firm detail about its expected content. […]
Rob Brown, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), today discussed the importance of data quality checks as well as what steps USCIS is taking to accelerate its digital modernization. […]
As promised in President Biden’s executive order today that sanctions the Russian government for the SolarWinds Orion cyberattack and other transgressions, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies published a list of five active Russian Foreign Intelligence Service cyberattack vectors that they say need network operators to defend against urgently. […]
President Biden today issued executive orders (EO) that blame, shame, and sanction the Russian government for perpetrating the SolarWinds Orion supply chain cyber attacks, and interfering with U.S. elections, among other transgressions. […]
Amid a strategic review of the deployment of its new Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials told Congress on April 14 that the agency will not begin EHR system deployment at a second VA site until the current strategic review is completed. […]
A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced legislation this week that would create a cybersecurity personnel rotation program to help grow and retain a highly skilled Federal cyber workforce. […]
Federal Inspectors General have the crucial task of agency oversight, often handling that job for large agencies while operating on relatively small budgets. To keep up with their responsibilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, IG offices have had to leverage new technologies – and old technologies in new ways – over the past year-plus, IG officials explained today. […]
In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the U.S. Army should work to ensure its new online system, that assists with logistics management, operates in all situations and that soldiers complete necessary training to operate the system. […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned in an April 13 report that the United States and its allies face “a diverse array” of threats to national security, including increased cyber threats from adversaries. […]
President Biden intends to nominate Robert Santos as the next director of the U.S. Census Bureau, the White House announced Tuesday. […]
Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, released a statement today requiring all Federal agencies to apply Microsoft’s new set of Exchange patches “immediately.” […]
As Federal agencies are increasingly utilizing AI in their processes, it’s important that they approach AI using the mindset of understanding the technology as tools to help workers, rather than technology that will replace workers. […]
More security incidents were detected by the intruded organizations last year, a positive trend in the cybersecurity sector as cyber threat actors are increasingly exploiting the remote work setup, a 2021 trends report by Fire Eye and Mandiant – both cybersecurity firms – found. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) launched its “JAIC 2.0” effort six months ago to focus on accelerating AI enablement across the DoD. However, JAIC Director Lt. Gen. Michael Groen says the effort needs to move much faster. […]
Defense officials hinted at positive developments by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with quantum information science work at a Senate hearing today, and told senators that the agency is kicking off its Innovation Steering Group under Defense Department (DoD) Secretary Kathleen Hicks to improve adoption of new technologies for DoD agencies. […]
Have you ever wondered just how fast your broadband service really is? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a press release today reiterating that it wants the public to find out the answer to that question by downloading its “FCC Speed App.” The app allows consumers to measure the speed of their mobile and in-home broadband networks, while also contributing data to the FCC’s Measuring Broadband America program. […]
President Biden intends to nominate John “Chris” Inglis to serve as the first-ever National Cyber Director, according to numerous published sources. […]
President Biden will nominate Jen Easterly, a cyber veteran who helped stand up U.S. Cyber Command, to be the next director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) component, the White House announced Monday. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) improved its cyber resource readiness between the years 2017-19, but its cyber mission capability readiness decreased over that same span, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]
The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Office of Online Services (OLS) is looking for a FedRAMP compliant Customer Feedback Management (CFM) cloud-based solution. […]
President Biden is proposing $2.1 billion of funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with large scoops of cyber funding for other Federal agencies, according to the White House’s FY 2022 request for discretionary funding released today. […]
The U.S. Department of Treasury released a new document this week to clarify its TCloud enterprise cloud contract, stating that the $1 billion contract will most likely be awarded to a single vendor to meet the Treasury’s needs of rapid cloud adoption. […]