We’re all looking for guidance in these uncertain times. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., will join MeriTalk for an online Town Hall Meeting this Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. to discuss Federal workforce, telework, and IT modernization issues in the COVID-19 pandemic. Connolly will speak to all Federal employees and contractors – so tune in and bring your questions. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is asking Federal agencies to consider reimbursing paid leave to Federal contractors to keep them in position to mobilize in a timely manner, as needed to complete government missions. […]
The Department of Education has implemented three priority open recommendations that were identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in April 2019, including improving information security. […]
While the sudden transition to mass telework may have created some initial hurdles for Federal agencies, Federal CIO Suzette Kent said that the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) IT modernization initiatives remain in full swing. […]
Diverse factors – such as a growing mobile workforce, emerging technologies (artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, etc.), increased field operations, and hybrid IT environments – are all driving Federal networks to the edge. And, as the definition of the edge expands, so does the attack surface. […]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken social distancing directives to heart and achieved a 100 percent employee telework rate, the agency told MeriTalk. […]
In collaboration with the Army Medical Research and Development Command, the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) is seeking cloud tech to provide tele-critical care to COVID-19 coronavirus patients. […]
MeriTalk recently connected with Infoblox’s Ralph Havens, President, Federal, and Chris Usserman, Principal Security Architect, on the current government-wide shift to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic. Havens’ expertise lies in DDI, DNS security, and network automation solutions, while Usserman is proficient in cyber and intelligence operations, offering a vast background to discuss the common cybersecurity challenges and solutions happening daily during this time. […]
Several IT trade groups called on House and Senate leadership to boost funding for Federal tech in the next COVID-19 coronavirus relief legislation and speed modernization of government functions “in this new era of remote collaboration.” […]
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said this week they launched the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC)-COVID program to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyze a new dataset of machine readable COVID-19 scholarly literature. […]
Anil Chaudhry and Krista Kinnard from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center of Excellence (CoE) within the General Services Administration (GSA) reminded attendees at an April 16 AI in Government webinar to continuously put people first during AI implementation at the Federal level. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today he is continuing to push hard to include a $3 billion Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) budget increase in future Federal government COVID-19 relief legislation. […]
In a letter to House leadership, Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Cedric Richmond, D-La., Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., wrote to request funding for state and local governments to support cybersecurity efforts in the next COVID-19 relief package. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is teaming up with the American Red Cross and Facebook to provide Portal video calling devices to veterans, caregivers, and families as social distancing guidance remains in place. […]
General Electric (GE) Research is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on a $4.9 million project to develop on open source cybersecurity toolkit for military and industrial systems. […]
The Defense Department’s (DoD) award to Microsoft of its 10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract for general purpose cloud computing in October 2019 was not influenced by pressure from the White House, according to a report issued today by the DoD’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). […]
The majority of Americans consider the spread of disease and cyberattacks to be among the top international threats facing the country, according to a Pew Research Center report released April 13. […]
The Departments of State, Homeland Security, Treasury, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are raising awareness of the cyberthreat posed by North Korea (DPRK) and reminding the public to stay vigilant. […]
The Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) is seeking a cloud-based tool for managing new talent recruitment and event management, according to an April 15 request for information (RFI). […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and “innovators across the globe” are testing 3D designs of medical equipment used by healthcare professionals in the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]
In a move to further secure mobile devices, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced April 14 that it is developing a new Cloud-Based Root-of-Trust (CRoT) technology. […]
As election officials adapt to voting during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, fellows at the Brookings Institution are calling for a return to paper ballots to keep elections secure. […]
A group of Democrat senators urged Congressional leaders to include $1 billion in funding for the Lifeline program, which provides a discount on phone services for low-income consumers, in a future COVID-19 relief package. […]
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking proposals for a $40 billion, 15-year IT contract – including health, biomedical, and general services – as it integrates its medical systems with the agency’s broader IT infrastructure. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeing a “dramatic jump” in use of its virtual mental healthcare services as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic makes it difficult for veterans to travel to VA facilities for care. […]
Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. asked House and Senate leaders to include in the next Federal coronavirus relief bill a lengthy list of protections for the Federal and government contractor workforces, including measures to further promote telework. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) looked into concerns in a recent report about data and technology security in connection with Federal agency telecommunications and call centers contracts where work is performed by subcontractors, and in overseas locations. […]
In interviews with defense reporters last week, the Department of Defense said it is using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to look for patterns or give advance notice on possible hotspots for the spread of the novel Coronavirus. […]
Egon Rinderer, global VP-enterprise services and Federal CTO at Tanium, hasn’t missed much in his 28 years in the IT world. Before joining Tanium six years ago, he notched engagements all along the industry spectrum as CIO, entrepreneur, chief technical liaison to the intelligence community at Intel, plus an eight-year hitch in the U.S. Navy & JSOC. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeing rapid user ramp-up with its new Commercial Virtual Remote Environment (CVR), launched in late March to accommodate the massive shift to telework caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]