Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

Federal government agencies must work on improving mobile device security, as people are increasingly attached to their devices and attackers can wield a variety of new threats that can expose agencies’ passwords, personal information and networks, industry officials said this week.   […]

While many Federal agencies focus intensely on cloud migration, one critical (and often overlooked) component of IT modernization is the API [application programming interface], said Pamela Wise-Martinez, chief cloud and enterprise data architect at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), in a MeriTalk webinar “Modernizing the Monolith.” […]

Industry leaders and business advocates in the ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT) sector said Tuesday they support the aims of new draft legislation in the House directing the Secretary of Commerce to undertake comprehensive research on the IoT industry with an eye toward regulating it. […]

cybersecurity

It’s not exactly the heist of the century, but the FDIC has stirred up a bit of controversy. Departing FDIC employees downloaded their family photos, personal emails, and the sensitive data of over 100,000 bank customers–oops. Instead of reporting to Congress, the agency stayed mum for months. This earned the agency a strict chiding from their IG in the form of a special inquiry issued on April 16. Fa    […]

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee raised a few eyebrows recently when he put forth draft legislation dated April 16 and aimed at cutting defense spending by eliminating seven Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, including the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). […]

The flagship model for organizational cybersecurity policies just got a new coat of paint. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on April 16 released version 1.1 of its Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity , which updates the agency’s original voluntary cybersecurity framework for critical infrastructure sectors issued in 2014. […]

cybersecurity

Because spending plans make for informative policy documents, an April markup of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offers an outline of the Department of Defense’s plans for its cyber operations and the development of new technologies. […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week raises concerns that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) isn’t properly protecting its IT systems. The agency spends about $1.5 billion annually on IT investments to support its missions. […]

A challenge many Federal managers face as they embark on IT modernization initiatives is how to identify and strategically prioritize systems for IT modernization in a way that helps them further their mission. […]

As part of its accelerated push toward commercial cloud services, the Defense Department has ordered more than 100 data centers in what DoD calls its “Fourth Estate” agencies to migrate their applications to milCloud 2.0, a commercially run cloud hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). […]

An official with data storage technologies provider Pure Storage told MeriTalk that issues holding back Federal government adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies include the high cost of super-computing resources and the continued reliance of government agencies on legacy IT systems that were not created with AI applications in mind. […]

Advances in hybrid cloud environments and specialized vendor offerings in the space have led to a dramatic shift in the way Federal agencies are planning and executing their cloud migration agendas, according to a private sector leader and government official involved in Federal cloud procurements. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced today that a Federal jury convicted Ruslans Bondars, a resident of Latvia, on three counts related to his operation of “Scan4you,” an online counter-antivirus service. […]

The White House’s planned advisory committee on artificial intelligence may or may not help keep the country at the forefront of technological innovation, but it is another sign that the government is getting more serious about the importance of AI and the potential threats of falling behind in the “AI arms race.” […]

The Federal government has a massive data center footprint: 6.76 million square feet, to be precise. Of its total portfolio, an astonishing 62 percent of all floor center space goes unused. To add insult to injury, it’s extremely expensive to maintain all that unused space. […]

Immediately following National Security Advisor John Bolton’s decision to eliminate the post of one of the President’s top cybersecurity advisors, lawmakers pushed back with legislation aimed at reinstating the position and requiring Senate confirmation for it under a newly established National Office for Cyberspace. […]

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen emphasized at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing this week the importance of shoring up United States cyber defenses, and said that effort would be helped by adequate funding and reorganization of a key DHS department. […]

Improving user experience on Federal websites so that they rival leading private sector sites requires a better allocation of government resources rather than significant new cash outlays, said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., during a press gathering at Adobe’s Digital Government Symposium in Washington on Tuesday. […]

This month marks the first anniversary of President Trump signing his cyber executive order (EO), formally titled the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. […]

How do you spell the future of government IT? AI. While that’s not going to get you too many points on the triple word score in Scrabble, the technology and applications will unscramble massive dividends in cost savings, service enhancements, and breakthroughs. […]

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