The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is poised to take action next week on a range of tech-related legislation including bills dealing with making available spectrum for 5G wireless services, and further action to rein in robocalling. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today the launch of its National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute (NAII) to coordinate veteran-specific AI initiatives. […]

Federal artificial intelligence (AI) technology leaders agreed today that a human-centered approach to data management and automation generates stakeholder buy-in and improves agencywide perceptions of AI projects. […]

Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and five major healthcare companies to “provide more information on how they are addressing bias in algorithms used in many healthcare systems.” […]

New research shows that email is still a weak link in U.S. election infrastructure, with only five percent of the nation’s largest counties protecting election officials from impersonation attempts. […]

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed Dec. 4 to create a $9 billion fund to support the deployment of 5G wireless services in rural portions of the U.S. The proposal would require approval from a majority of the full five-member commission, with a vote likely sometime in 2020. […]

Days after Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced data privacy legislation to the Senate, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing to examine legislative proposals to protect consumer data privacy. […]

Access to valuable data and the transition to cloud infrastructure could help the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) access life-saving procedures for patients across the country, according to a presentation by HHS CIO José Arrieta at FCW Workshop: Health IT on Dec. 4. […]

We sat down with ViON’s EVP of Operations Rob Davies, and Dan Fallon, Senior Director of Public Sector Systems Engineering at Nutanix, to discuss how to best manage high-performance applications that are part of a multi-cloud strategy, and the key considerations every agency leader should be evaluating in that equation. […]

The Cybersecurity Tech Accord (CTA), an international, industry-led effort by technology and security companies to combat cyberattacks, today announced a new contest to improve internet cybersecurity. […]

U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Thomas Hicks said on Dec. 3 that election security in the U.S. is “light years” ahead of where it was in 2016, but also emphasized there’s plenty more to do to ensure good security for the 2020 election cycle. […]

While many – if not most – Federal agencies are taking at least preliminary steps towards embracing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), they are moving with a degree of justifiable caution when it comes to relying on those technologies as part of their cybersecurity defenses, government tech officials said today at an event presented by Fortinet. […]

Co-Chair for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Air Force Captain Michael Kanaan explained the five principles guiding the agency’s AI strategy, and how each principle can be embraced by other Federal actors, at AI in Action on Dec. 3. […]

For Federal agencies, fostering innovation involves understanding when to be bold and where to put forth resources by communicating with other agencies as to what their needs are, while allowing for open communication channels within one’s own agency, said agency leaders today. […]

While most Federal agency IT decision makers say their agencies are already edging into using multi-cloud platforms, the learning curve to getting comfortable with multi-cloud appears to remain steep, and most say that managing the multi-cloud environment is likely to be a top challenge over the next five years. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced on Nov. 22 that the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is seeking out a cloud system integrator to support the procurement, implementation, and operation of a hybrid and multi-cloud platform. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking feedback on program objectives for implementation of a new cybersecurity-focused personnel system. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lacked the IT systems necessary to accurately track migrant families separated under the agency’s Zero Tolerance Policy, according to a DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report released on Nov. 25. […]

Federal government IT – and the ongoing effort to modernize the enterprise that serves 327 million citizen-customers – is a jewel with myriad facets. […]

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating whether the University of Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) properly reported contracts from foreign governments and IT-related companies. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released draft guidance for Federal agencies on vulnerability disclosure that would require clear vulnerability disclosure policies and create a Federal-wide strategy for implementation. […]

In a new semiannual report, the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says that ODNI must upgrade cybersecurity controls going forward to improve management and risk mitigation of trusted privileged users inappropriately accessing, modifying, destroying, or exfiltrating classified data. […]

The Department of Commerce released a draft regulation for a case-by-case process of banning Americans from buying IT equipment from companies controlled by foreign interests, a power granted by May’s executive order on supply chain security. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a draft version of Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 20-01, which would require Federal agencies to establish a vulnerability disclosure policy for internet-connected systems. […]

The United States Post Office’s (USPS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Semiannual Report to Congress lists infrastructure modernization, IT, and cybersecurity as some of the agency’s most critical management challenges. […]

Phishing activity increased 400 percent as consumers began their holiday shopping over the first two week of November, according to a new report by Zscaler. […]

A bill introduced last week by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., would direct that the Federal government spend $100 million per year for five years on a program to provide mobile broadband “hotspot” devices to schools and libraries. […]

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in a Nov. 21 report that the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act would cost very little to implement. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has increased its use of Other Transactional Authorities (OTAs) to bring prototypes into the department, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released November 22. […]

Air Force Chief Data Officer (CDO) Eileen Vidrine shared success stories from the implementation of the agency’s Visible, Accessible, Understandable, Linked and Trusted (VAULT) Data Platform in a panel discussion at ACT-IAC’s Data Driven Decision-Making Forum on Nov. 22. […]