Department of Justice (DOJ) CIO Joseph Klimavicz spoke about the importance of how everyday citizens should be able to reach people in leadership positions in the Federal government and the soon-to-be-released IT strategy for FY 2019-2021. […]
As the first chief data officer of the Department of Defense (DoD), Michael Conlin described the challenges of approaching a vast mountain of data from numerous systems at the Pentagon, and making it actionable information for the department. […]
While much of the country was focused today on the testimony of Michael Cohen–President Trump’s former lawyer–before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, elsewhere on the Hill the House Committee on Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee was hearing testimony on election security. […]
Federal agencies are generating, collecting, and moving vast amounts of data into cloud infrastructures. […]
With growing interest in cloud, mobility, and zero-trust technology, industry leaders in the identity credential access and management (ICAM) space are seeing a divergence between the existing policy of Common Access Card (CAC) and personal identity verification (PIV) cards, and new technology. […]
Most private and public sector CIOs have, are, or will be increasing their spending on cybersecurity and automation software deployments, according to a survey released today by Grant Thornton and the TBM Council. […]
Privacy was the topic du jour on the Hill today. In its first hearing in the new Congress, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce heard testimony from privacy rights activists and technology industry groups on how to protect consumer privacy in the era of big data. All witnesses before the Subcommittee agreed that the Federal government needs to enact Federal data privacy legislation, though witnesses disagreed on what exactly the legislation should cover. […]
The move by government organizations to public cloud infrastructure is often motivated by a desire to provide better services to citizens, but an academic piece warns about the need to maintain public access to open data in the cloud. […]
Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 researchers announced on Friday that they have identified a spear phishing campaign from November 2018 that is targeting U.S. national security think tanks and academic institutions. Research indicates that the “threat actor might have interests in gathering intelligence related to not only North Korea, but possibly wider in the Northeast Asia region.” […]
As Federal technology managers increasingly operate in a hybrid, multi-cloud world, having a holistic view of their agency’s application landscape and architecture will help in mapping the right workload to the right type of cloud deployment. […]
On Thursday, the U.S. government released its Fourth U.S. Action Plan for Open Government that will work to making Federal government data more accessible, ensuring the grant-making process is more accountable, and Federally funded scientific research is more accessible. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is seeking feedback on proposed updates to the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) after being informed from 2018 baseline assessment results. […]
Katie Nickels, a threat intelligence expert for MITRE, released a grassroots compiled list of recent cybersecurity indictments of state-sponsored hackers earlier this week. […]
Yesterday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sent letters to various healthcare groups to seek information on ways to best improve cybersecurity within the healthcare industry. […]
In the 115th Congress, a new study found that 226 cybersecurity-focused bills were introduced which was an increase compared to past sessions, but only 10 had been signed into law. […]
President Trump in Twitter postings this morning called for the rollout of 5G wireless services in the U.S., and took it one “G” further by saying he’d also like to see deployment of “6G” technology – an idea that is still largely hypothetical. […]
The White House on Wednesday issued its new National Strategy for Aviation Security (NSAS) which calls for greater efforts to protect the U.S. “Aviation Ecosystem” from a range of threats including those posed by cyberattacks and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). […]
Defense Department (DoD) officials voiced sometimes conflicting ideas today about how the agency should migrate legacy systems to the cloud. […]
With the redesign of the VA.gov website for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency has made progress in providing a better customer experience. Now, alongside partners at the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), the agency is looking toward other areas to improve across the department, said officials from VA and USDS today. […]
The Department of Defense’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy puts the DoD on more of a fast track toward developing and employing AI and machine learning to support, as the strategy’s preface states, “a force fit for our time.” The strategy outlines an accelerated, collaborative approach with industry, academia, and allies toward new technologies that will “transform […]
Cybersecurity technologies provider Symantec reported that ransomware activity fell by 20 percent in 2018 on a year-over-year basis, but that the focus of attacks shifted sharply toward enterprises and away from consumers last year. […]
Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) found security flaws in several popular password managers. In a report released yesterday, ISE found flaws that expose user credentials in computer memory while locked. […]
The Department of Defense’s recently released Cloud Strategy covers a lot of territory, from an emphasis on the multibillion dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative as a foundation of its plans, to its description of seven strategic objectives it wants to achieve in the cloud. One of those objectives is to extend tactical support to warfighters at the network edge to give units in the field the technology and tactical information they need to operate in a battlefield where seamless communications are essential and where cyber operations and electronic warfare are an increasingly important factor. […]
Cybercriminals armed with ransomware technologies continued to ramp up their attacks in 2018, most notably those targeting large organizations, according to a report released today by cybersecurity technology provider Crowdstrike. […]
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) announced it will host a Proposers’ Day on Feb. 26 for its Secure, Assured, Intelligent Learning Systems (SAILS) program, and its Trojans in Artificial Intelligence (TrojAI) program. […]
A group of Federal lawmakers from Louisiana penned an op-ed in the Washington Times on Feb. 13 urging President Trump to increase funding for cybersecurity education. […]
The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) has announced release of a new toolkit for businesses to address Center for Internet Security Controls (CIS Controls) and reduce cybersecurity risks. […]
Discussions this morning with a Federal agency IT professional and an IT acquisition professional revealed very different views of the Federal government’s security posture.
Shared on the condition of no attribution during an AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) Bethesda event Tuesday morning, the speakers’ varying opinions showed how the balance between security and effectiveness is an issue still up for debate. […]
Panelists at a Brookings Institution event last week agreed that it’s more important to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and other “smart cities” technologies in a secure and responsible manner, rather than merely to win the race to be the first tech adopters on the block. […]
It turns out a little knowledge can indeed be a dangerous thing.
That’s something the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) discovered when testing the value of artificial intelligence (AI) as an aid to battlefield decision-making. Researchers from ARL and the University of California, Santa Barbara, found in a series of test scenarios that people trust their own judgement more than they trust an AI’s advice. This was true even when an AI agent provided perfect guidance, and when ignoring that advice led to negative results. People might trust an AI personal assistant to recommend a movie or the best way to drive to the theater, but not so much when they have skin–or their own skin–in the game. […]