Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

Rep. William Hurd, R-Texas, stressed at IBM’s Think Gov event today that America needs to lead the world in developing 5G wireless networks and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, especially with China on the rise as a voracious international competitor, and said successful development and application of the two technologies are inextricably linked. […]

The Cybersecurity Skills Integration Act introduced in the House last week to jumpstart development of career and technical education training initiatives that incorporate cybersecurity into the curriculum–appears to have one major unresolved issue: competing for qualified instructors in the white-hot market for cybersecurity professionals. […]

Christopher Krebs under secretary undersecretary DHS Department of Homeland Security National Protection and Programs Directorate NPPD leader CISA cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency

Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security, provided an update to Congress today about how CISA is working to secure election infrastructure ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. […]

AI Cyber World machine learning-min

Artificial intelligence (AI), following on the heels of its older sibling RPA (robotic process automation), is no longer waiting to be born, but remains more of a toddler on the Federal IT scene–still learning to walk before trying to run, but bulking up from an appetite for serious Federal government tech interest and investment. […]

facial recognition

Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, issued a statement on Tuesday urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “pause” activities to spread the use of facial recognition technologies and develop policy that will further inform U.S. citizens about the technology and what happens to the data that it generates. […]

T Mobile T-Mobile-min

John Legere, CEO at T-Mobile U.S., told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee at a hearing on Tuesday that the carrier does not use equipment provided by China-based Huawei or ZTE in its network, and pledged to “never” use gear from the two Chinese firm in T-Mobile’s 5G network. […]

Air Force

In what it calls a “strategic decision” that will allow its personnel to concentrate on cyber operations and its warfighting mission, the Air Force is trying to get out of the business of providing end-user services, such as device management, help desks, and the underlying network infrastructure. Instead, it is contracting those jobs out to industry as part of a network-as-a-service (NaaS) experiment. […]

Army DoD military Defense AI

Representatives from the Defense Department (DoD) presented the department’s artificial intelligence (AI) program initiatives and need for collaboration with the private sector to accomplish them in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. […]

Successfully implementing DevOps methodology requires a maturation process and cultural shift for organizations, experts from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advised today. […]

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology met today to hear testimony on H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act, which would roll back net neutrality rules to their 2015 level. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) industry consortium have come up with validation software that can be used with any device and could go a long way to securing the supply chain for computing devices. […]

Washington DC capitol federal government-min

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick , R-Pa., on March 7 introduced H.R. 1612, dubbed the “Nonpartisan Bill For The People.” The legislation is the GOP’s answer to the Democrat-backed H.R. 1, which cleared the House last week. Both bills include measures to increase voter participation and election security, among other election-related measures. The House bill does not currently have a companion bill in the Senate. The GOP-backed House bill includes measures to: […]

ransomware

Jackson County, Ga., paid cybercriminals $400,000 to remove ransomware that infected its IT systems. The ransomware, known as Ryuk Ransomware, hit the county on March 1 and impacted multiple county agencies, including the Sheriff’s Office. […]

Machine learning AI modernization

Federal and private-sector officials discussed the benefits of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into Federal agency operations during a panel discussion at this weekend’s Dell Experience at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas, as well as ethical and technical challenges that come with developing AI applications. […]

Controlling cloud costs in today’s hybrid and multi-cloud environments can be a challenge for many Federal technology managers after a migration or cloud-native application deployment. There are so many variables to consider, from operational to contracts and licensing issues, that if the process is not well managed costs can spiral out of control. […]

Government-wide security clearance processes, and the half million-plus backlog in the clearance applications pipeline, made the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) High-Risk report last week as a contributing factor to the larger problem of ensuring IT security, generally. […]

Even though the broad category of U.S. cybersecurity has spent more than ten years on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) High-Risk List, it appears there’s still plenty of work to be done in improving cyber defense, according to GAO’s update to the list issued earlier this week. […]

Intel

In response to the Trump administration’s American AI Initiative, Intel released its recommendations for a national strategy for artificial intelligence that hashes out the goals and actions needed to advance the AI industry. […]

BSA The Software Alliance

Software-maker trade group BSA sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Thursday urging modernization of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) supply chain security and software acquisition approach in the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. […]

FCC

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said this week they are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may be violating the Federal Records Act (FRA). […]

Cyber America Connected Internet of things

As technology and public policy continue to meet at a crossroads in American society, Bruce Schneier, fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, proposed that the United States needs more public-interest technologists at the RSA Conference yesterday. […]

World globe trade

The Cybersecurity Tech Accord announced yesterday that it has added 11 new companies to its pledge, bringing its total to 90 signatories. AnchorFree, Domain Tools, Flowmon Networks, MarkMonitor, NTT, Paladion, Percipiet.ai, Silent Breach, Tanium, Telecom Italia, and Unisys all signed on and pledged to “defend customers everywhere from malicious attacks by cybercriminal enterprises and nation-states.” […]

Machine learning AI-min

The Department of Defense’s many artificial intelligence programs–currently over 600 and counting–generally share one stated goal: the blend of humans and machines working as a team, in which AI systems become “partners in problem-solving,” as opposed to our new overlords. Whether in jobs such as cybersecurity, analyzing reams of data, images, and video, operating swarms of drones, or disaster assistance, the idea is to have AI and machine learning systems that augment and improve what personnel can do. […]

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