Automation is inescapable, but that doesn’t mean jobs will be lost, according to Cathy Engelbert, CEO of Deloitte. Engelbert said in a LinkedIn post that new types of jobs will arise from the adoption of autonomous vehicles. […]
A recent study by the IBM X-Force Kassel, a research team that operates “massive spam honeypots” to examine the trends in unsolicited emails, has found that most spammers keep normal business hours and operate predominantly during the usual work week. […]
The Federal Transit Administration’s Mobility on Demand Sandbox program will fund 11 projects that allow transit providers to try Internet of Things (IoT) enabled services. […]
A draft of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) Cyber Working Group report on securing the nation’s critical infrastructure has found that while the U.S. has the capabilities to defend against cyber attacks, it lacks the coordination to do so effectively. […]
Comodo Threat Intelligence Labs discovered a new strand of ransomware that was used in email phishing campaigns in the beginning of August and is being used in a current hacking campaign. […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) experts from around the world published a letter to the United Nations on Sunday, calling on the organization to address the danger posed by lethal autonomous weapons. […]
President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 18 that he directed United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) to be elevated to full combatant command. […]
Federal Communications Commission CIO David Bray will not be taking up the role of National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency chief ventures officer, as reported June 5, and will instead be moving to the private sector as senior fellow and executive-in-residence at People-Centered Internet, Bray confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The United States needs to invest more resources in the security of election systems, Cook County (Ill.) Director of Elections Noah Praetz told the Election Assistance Commission. […]
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials tapped IBM to bring Watson into their software. APCO recently announced that APCO International’s new guide card software called APCO IntelliCommä will use IBM Watson Speech-to-Text and Watson Analytics to improve the scripts used by 911 operators. […]
The National Security Agency gave Columbus State University in Georgia a $174,000 grant to develop a cybersecurity training tool. “We are building a tool that people across the nation can use to develop cybersecurity training, which guarantees compliance with government and industry standards for cybersecurity workforce development,” said Shuangbao “Paul” Wang, a professor in CSU’s TSYS School of Computer Science. […]
DHS S&T announced Aug. 14 that it was awarding Metronome Software nearly $750,000 to strengthen the security of first responder sensor systems. Metronome Software, a software research and development company focused on working for the U.S. government, is developing a technology to improve the security of first responders’ mobile device-based sensor systems. […]
Software patching can never be done quickly enough, but some initiatives are setting Federal agencies on the route to better patching policies, according to security experts. “The river’s gotten wider and deeper, and so as it’s moving more rapidly the problem is that a lot of the organizations haven’t been able to change how they’re structured to go with it,” said John Scott, president of Ion Channel. “Most organizations aren’t equipped to deal with it.” […]
Wipro announced that its big data analytics platform will be offered on Microsoft Azure. Wipro and Microsoft have collaborated on parts of the solution, including engineering, solution enhancements, and market strategy. […]
Demand for cybersecurity personnel is ever increasing, and cyber teams could benefit from a broad range of skills beyond the typical technical employees, according to experts who spoke at New America’s Embracing Innovation and Diversity in Cybersecurity event. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education recently released a Cybersecurity Workforce Framework that establishes a consistent vocabulary for recruiting and hiring cybersecurity talent. […]
The Air Force chief information security officer offered unusual advice to new security professionals: Don’t worry about every patch and vulnerability. “It’s OK if you can’t get to 800 controls,” said Peter Kim. “It’s OK if you miss a patch.” […]
The majority of Federal agencies are embracing converged infrastructure for their data center needs, and seeing improvements, according to a new MeriTalk report. “It amazes me that 72 percent of Federal IT managers are already stating that converged will become the central housing mechanism for their data center needs,” said Milo Speranzo at Tech Data. “That number is only going to increase and that increase will happen rapidly and in the near future.” […]
Following the Cybersecurity Executive Order, security professionals are focusing on risk management frameworks, and some agencies are turning to the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program. “Security is not something that you buy, it’s something that you do,” said Matt Conner of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. […]
The U.S. Cyber Command will begin to exercise its newly granted acquisition authority by the end of 2017 with its first industry day on Oct. 27. Congress gave CYBERCOM its own ability to purchase technology capabilities in order to keep up with the constantly changing nature of the cybersecurity sphere. CYBERCOM plans to hold its industry day at the Arthur Lundahl Conference Center in Springfield, Va. […]
Palo Alto Networks on Aug. 7 announced the formalization of their cooperation with the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation through signing a Data Exchange Agreement with Interpol. […]
The designation of the nation’s election systems as critical infrastructure will not infringe upon state and local authority to run elections. In a recent memo to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Members, Ranking Member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., relayed communications from the Department of Homeland Security that reiterated that fact. […]
The Federal Communications Commission announced Aug. 3 that it’s exploring ways to improve the quality of the data it collects on broadband service. The FCC released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on proposals to collect better data. The FCC in 2000 established its deployment data collection program, which requires Internet providers to file the information with the FCC twice a year. […]
A Senate bill introduced on Aug. 1 not only would establish security requirements for Internet of Things (IoT) devices purchased by the government, but also let researchers look for critical security flaws through vulnerability disclosure policies. […]
In order for Federal agencies to make the best decisions about moving to the cloud, they have to optimize their data centers, according to IDC researchers. The Federal government is moving to a cloud-first approach when it comes to IT infrastructure, which makes CIOs reluctant to invest in a Data Center Infrastructure Management solution to optimize their data centers to meet Data Center Optimization Initiative requirements. […]
The Department of Defense is following the Federal push to move toward an enterprise structure by using Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS), an effort by the Defense Information Systems Agency to acquire Software-as-a-Service at a DoD enterprise scale. DoD plans to move 4.5 million users to the cloud, using this approach. […]
Data analytics professionals in the Federal government advised new data analytics teams to earn credibility in their agencies by finding a real-life problem and fixing it. “Pick someone in the C-suite that has a solvable problem and go do it,” said Kevin Garrison, chief of analytics at the Department of Defense, at MeriTalk’s big data webinar. […]
The IEEE Standards Association recently announced that it will be teaming up with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop principles for cloud interoperability or federation. […]
Christopher Painter made the case for cyber diplomacy after stepping down as cyber coordinator for the State Department in July. Painter wrote a blog post saying that cyber issues continue to grow, which increases the need for global discussions on cybersecurity. Yet Politico reported that the State Department is considering getting rid of its cybersecurity department. […]
The Government Accountability Office evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command’s dual-hat leadership system and found that the system causes tension between the two agencies due to competing interests. […]