The Department of Defense (DoD) is steadily integrating robotic process automation (RPA) agency-wide through interdepartmental collaborations. […]
Several senators introduced legislation on Oct. 30 that aims to “strengthen local government cybersecurity defenses by switching to the .gov domain for websites and email addresses.” […]
Federal IT decision makers feel their agencies are holding onto outdated data centers for too long. According to recent MeriTalk research, a variety of cost and mission-focused factors are to blame. […]
The General Services Administration’s (GSA) chief financial officer said today that adoption of robotic process automation (RPA) technologies across Federal agencies is helping to reduce manual tasks performed by the Federal workforce, but without the worrisome byproduct of trimming Federal government jobs. […]
The Navy’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) said today that the Defense Department’s (DoD) highly anticipated joint data strategy between the Army, Navy, and Air Force will feature an emphasis on data protection and security. […]
The process of sharing datasets across Federal agencies is a complex one, and one Federal expert said today that pre-existing rules governing already-collected data can hinder interagency sharing opportunities. […]
In the last year, cybersecurity spending rose by 24 percent, but cyberattacks increased by 17 percent, according to a report from ServiceNow released Oct. 29. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided a glimpse into its vision for the organization’s Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STAA) team and Innovation Lab, at the Modernization in Action event on Oct. 29. […]
The Pentagon’s award late last week of its ten-year Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract for general purpose cloud computing to Microsoft took center stage on Capitol Hill today at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Dana Deasy as the Defense Department’s (DoD) CIO. […]
The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program has an important role to play in protecting Federal systems, but the adoption process can be downright scary for some agencies. On Halloween, MeriTalk will host a webinar to dig through the skeletons and challenges in CDM’s closet, shine a flashlight on the success stories of the program, and ultimately help demystify the CDM program for vendors and agencies alike. […]
Two Federal Trade Commissioners – one a Republican and the other a Democrat – agreed on Oct. 28 that the agency has the tricky task of balancing both consumer data privacy and business interests, and must find that balance even as the fast pace of technological advancement makes the value of prescriptive regulation uncertain. […]
In a Friday letter to President Trump’s acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., demanded answers about recent departures from the administration of key Federal cybersecurity officials. […]
The Social Security Administration did not remediate multiple known vulnerabilities for over one year, according to a summary of a report from SSA’s inspector general, released October 24. […]
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced updated Republican subcommittee assignments on Oct. 25. Among the changes, Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., will join the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is tackling managed service provider (MSPs) cybersecurity by developing a customizable reference model that MSPs can adapt to fit their program needs. […]
The FBI released new election security resources as part of its Protected Voices initiative on Oct. 23. […]
A spotty risk management strategy, along with poor security control assessment procedures, are undermining the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s ability to identify and detect network security threats, according to an FDIC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report released on Oct. 23. […]
A panel of Federal agency officials who are knee-deep in implementing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies explained critical steps to getting started with the technologies, and dealing with data-bias issues, at an event organized by ATARC on Oct. 24. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), along with the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), on Oct. 24 launched their Accelerate R2 Network Challenge. […]
Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Robin Kelly, D-Ill., today announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) initiative with the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). The initiative will create a bipartisan national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. The strategy is intended to guide Congress and the executive branch on how to best capitalize on AI. […]
Federal agency CISOs obviously have a lot to do – like securing networks, for one – but they’re also busy “selling” cybersecurity within their agencies to leadership across the organization, a panel of Federal security chiefs explained Oct. 22 at the ACT-IAC Imagine Nation 2019 conference. […]
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on Oct. 23 hailed a report from Google that the company’s Sycamore quantum computer has achieved “an experimental realization of quantum supremacy” for a specific computational task over the abilities of classical supercomputers, and thus “heralding a much-anticipated computing paradigm.” […]
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., on Oct. 22 reintroduced legislation in the Senate and House aimed at creating a voluntary system to certify cybersecurity protections for internet of things (IoT) devices. […]
Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., introduced the US SAFE WEB Extension Act on Oct. 22, which would enable the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect Americans from fraud, spam, and deception online. […]
Karen Dunn Kelley, principal deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce, said Oct. 22 she expects the final version of the year-one action plan accompanying the Trump administration’s Federal Data Strategy to be released next month. […]
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on securing elections, witnesses from law enforcement agencies were asked a litany of questions related to the security of U.S. elections for 2020, including what kind of new measures were being taken during this cycle. […]
Erica Thomas, a robotic process automation (RPA) Program Manager at the Department of Defense (DoD), said Oct. 21 that efforts to deploy RPA technologies in financial accounting systems are providing a boost in the morale of agency employees who are being freed from performing repetitive tasks. […]
Officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are bootstrapping an effort to further clarify and detail roles and career paths of the Federal cybersecurity workforce, the officials said Oct. 21 at the ACT-IAC Imagine Nation 2019 conference. […]
Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google and widely acknowledged as one of the “fathers” of the Internet for co-designing the TCP/IP protocols, said today he believes that technical issues preventing creation of “inter-clouds” between cloud networks are solvable. […]
At an Oct. 16 Bipartisan Policy Center event, Federal CIO Suzette Kent and Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, discussed the impact of artificial intelligence (AI)-based automation on the national workforce. […]