Esri has deployed the CrowdRescue Puerto Rico Infrastructure Map, which displays crowdsourced reports about damage from Hurricane Maria affecting the U.S. territory. The map enables a visualization of closed roads, collapsed bridges, flooding, mudslides, areas where communication is unavailable, areas that don’t have power, areas without drinking water, and areas with downed power lines. […]
The Commerce Department is asking for public opinion on its Next Generation 911 Grant Program, which would modernize 911 services so that citizens can use IP-based, broadband-enabled technologies to coordinate emergency responses. […]
Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., plan to announce legislation that would pave the way for increased innovation in self-driving vehicle technologies. “Ultimately, we expect adoption of self-driving vehicle technologies will save lives, improve mobility for people with disabilities, and create new jobs,” they said in a statement. […]
Cybersecurity standards for Internet of Things devices need to be improved in order to secure medical devices that have created the “Internet of Bodies.” Terrell McSweeny, commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, said that more regulation needs to be written before connected medical devices become commonplace. […]
Agencies have begun to focus more on how to leverage shared services after the release of the Cybersecurity Executive Order, which advocates for agencies to share platforms for common operations like human resources and finances. […]
Government doesn’t take the dangers of metadata security seriously enough, members of industry said at an Institute for Critical Infrastructure event on Sept. 26. They cited the passage of SJ 34, which reduced regulations on Internet service providers’ use of metadata generated by their customers. […]
In order to get more government agencies to transition to the cloud, agency experts said that the procurement process has to become easier and clearer. […]
The Department of Health and Human Services is distilling cyber threat intelligence for a health care audience, according to HHS CISO Chris Wlaschin, who spoke at an Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology Briefing on Sept. 26. He said the Healthcare Cybersecurity Communications and Integration Center is not meant “to replace current capabilities or functionality or services provided by” the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Communications and Integration Center. […]
The working capital fund created by the Modernizing Government Technology Act is the acquisition tool that agencies need to meet Data Center Optimization Initiative goals. […]
The Deloitte data breach that compromised the confidential emails and plans of some of its clients affected Federal agencies. Deloitte serves clients in finance, media, and government, which all had data in the breached email system. The affected organizations include major companies and U.S. government departments. […]
Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., sent a letter requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attend a briefing with the Energy and Commerce committee on pharmaceutical companies affected by malware, such as the recent NotPetya malware’s impact on pharmaceutical company Merck. […]
President Donald Trump will sign a memorandum today to strengthen computer science education in schools, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced during a press briefing on Sept. 25. The memorandum will mandate that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos provide $200 million per year in grants for science and technology education to strengthen STEM programs in schools, and to add computer science to the curriculum in K-12 schools. […]
Department of Homeland Security officials told 21 states on Sept. 22 that their election systems were breached by Russian hackers. This is the first instance that the Federal government told states whether they were targeted. […]
A memorandum issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan establishes an initiative to move many DoD IT systems to the cloud, a move that members of industry are applauding for its potential to open the department to faster innovation. […]
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a total of 132 airspace authorizations to drone users as of Sept. 15 to assist in Hurricane Irma recovery efforts, and 137 authorizations to assist in Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts. The Air National Guard used drones to assess disaster-stricken areas quickly and decide where to send resources. […]
Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., reintroduced legislation this week that would require companies that experience a breach to notify affected individuals within 30 days of the breach’s discovery and that they coordinate with the Federal Trade Commission to do so. […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a statement on Sept. 20, which said that it learned in August 2017 of a cyberattack previously detected in 2016 might have allowed illicit gain through trading. In May 2017, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton initiated an assessment of the agency’s internal cybersecurity risk profile and approach to cybersecurity. […]
The Internet of Things has spawned many changes within the Federal government, including new methods of data collection at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), new policy considerations at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and a realignment of the Office of the CIO (OCIO) at the Department of Commerce. […]
Information sharing about cybersecurity threats has to go beyond fulfilling requirements and instead include informal relationships and discussions between agencies, according to government experts who spoke at the MeriTalk Cyber Security Brainstorm on Sept. 20. […]
One of the most important aspects of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program is making sure that the dashboard is flexible and able to display metrics that the specific agencies want to track. […]
A report with information from all of the agencies’ risk management reports will be sent to President Donald Trump to review by Oct. 8, even though the government still lacks a Federal CIO. Barry West, senior adviser and senior accountable official for risk management at the Department of Homeland Security, said that the goals of the Cyber Executive Order in May could still be met without a Federal CIO. […]
Comodo Threat Intelligence Labs investigated the Equifax data breach and found Equifax executives’ passwords available for sale on the Dark Web. Comodo found that more than 388 instances of Equifax user and employee endpoint data available for sale. This information includes usernames, titles, passwords, and login URLs, and the dates on which they were stolen. […]
The Army’s cyber soldiers in the 17C military occupational specialty are highly likely to stay on for their entire first term of service, but they are far less likely to re-enlist after the first term, according to a recent RAND Corp. study. […]
The CIO Council is hosting a governmentwide cybersecurity hiring event Nov. 6-7. The Federal government is seeking information technology and cybersecurity professionals to fill hundreds of positions needed to modernize legacy IT and strengthen the cybersecurity of Federal networks and critical infrastructure. […]
Though officials working on the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program have been aware of the importance of cloud from the beginning, Phase 3 of the program will shift to include cloud concerns, according to Kevin Cox, CDM program manager at the Department of Homeland Security. […]
About half of government IT professionals think that regulations make it more difficult to achieve an optimal cybersecurity posture, according to a study released Sept. 18 by SolarWinds. […]
The Treasury Department announced sanctions against 11 entities and individuals involved in cyberattacks by Iranian actors. The sanctions include two Iran-based networks that are responsible for cyberattacks against U.S. financial systems. […]
Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass, Richard Blumenthal D-Conn., Sheldon Whitehouse D-R.I., and Al Franken D-Minn., introduced a bill on Sept. 14 to require accountability and transparency for credit report companies that are collecting and selling personal information about consumers. The legislation follows the Equifax breach, which affected 143 million Americans. […]
The Federal Trade Commission issued a warning on Sept. 14 to consumers to be on the alert for phishing scams related to the Equifax breach. The FTC said people might call asking to verify consumers’ account information due to the Equifax hack. “Stop. Don’t tell them anything,” the FTC said in a statement. […]
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said that he expects his Modernizing Government Technology Act to pass the Senate within the next week as an add-on to the Senate’s 2018 National Defense Authorization Act deliberations. “Buying IT goods and services in the Federal government is pretty silly,” said Hurd, criticizing the fact that agencies must use all of their IT funding for the year or risk losing it. “That is an insane way to purchase things to defend our digital infrastructure,” […]