In today’s edition of Countdown to MerITocracy, we’re taking a look at what may change for the better in the near-term U.S. outlook – how about having the government help recreate the U.S. semiconductor sector that mostly drifted overseas a generation ago – plus billions in Federal R&D funding that stands ready to be put to work in pending legislation in Congress. That money would flow through the National Science Foundation – whose director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan is a featured speaker at MerITocracy. […]

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is in the process of updating its Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), it plans to hold a series of workshops and release at least one more draft for public comment before releasing CSF 2.0, according to a NIST blog. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking proposals to address challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and architectures that deeply integrate symbolic reasoning with data-driven machine learning to create robust, assured, and, therefore, trustworthy AI-based systems. […]

A new legislative “discussion draft” that aims to create a stronger data privacy and security landscape for U.S. consumers would put the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in charge of the proposed new rules and would preempt most existing state laws on data privacy and security. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting new contract proposals to advance and enhance machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies as part of the agency’s new Enabling Confidence (EC) program. […]

Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-N.V., and Todd Young, R-Ind., have introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the cybersecurity of medical devices, and requiring the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review and update its medical device cybersecurity guidelines. […]

As Federal agencies are working to make progress on President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) and implement zero trust security architectures, agencies and their leaders must have a tight handle on their zero trust implementation plans, an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said this week. […]

Before the Federal government flows new broadband support funding out to unserved and underserved areas of the U.S., it must know where the service is robust and where it’s not. […]

The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) is pressing congressional appropriators to provide more money in Fiscal Year 2023 budget legislation for primary sources of Federal agency IT modernization funding, including the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), along with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Federal Citizen Services Fund (FCSF). […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) still needs to address a pair of open cybersecurity priority recommendations related to cybersecurity coordination and implementation of a cybersecurity framework, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Organization (GAO). […]

Ransomware attacks have increased by 80 percent year-over-year, with a “nearly 120 percent” increase in double-extortion ransomware attacks this year, according to a new report put out by Zscaler entitled ThreatLabz 2022 Ransomware Report. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an alert on June 1 warning about the Karakurt Data Extortion Group which has been conducting online financial extortion exploits via cyber attacks. […]

Smaller state and local governments (SLGs) often do not have the resources to build a robust IT department, and IT experts say cybercriminals often target these smaller agencies because of that reason. […]

Can technology innovation pave the way for better citizen service? On July 21 – we’re going to find out. The countdown to MerITocracy 2022: American Innovation Forum is on. The in-person forum – taking place at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – will host bipartisan leaders from Congress, the Biden administration, and America’s tech industry to examine the most pressing problems facing citizens in our democracy, and map out creative solutions from the nexus of policy and technology. We invite you to register for MerITocracy today. […]

The Federal government’s Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) is falling short on information sharing regarding each participating agency’s current or planned spending for the whole-of-government initiative, and could use a shared database to make spending information more readily accessible, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has notified election officials of software vulnerabilities found in Dominion Voting Systems equipment deployed in several states, but also that the agency has found no evidence that those vulnerabilities have ever been exploited. […]

Congress is due to get a big influx of skilled technologists who will act as advisers to congressional offices courtesy of the TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellowship. […]

The enduring shift toward at least partial work-from-home arrangements for government employees is creating new workforce possibilities for many agencies, but also new challenges on the technology security front for both Federal and state and local governments, experts said this week. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is looking to set an “aggressive” pace to conduct the rulemaking proceeding necessary to implement recently approved cyber incident reporting legislation, but also indicated today that completion of a rulemaking could be a couple of years away. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is holding a series of public listening sessions aimed at using a community-based effort to advance the conversation around the technologies, policies, and processes required to implement Software Bills of Materials (SBOM), according to a Federal register post published today. […]

The Department of the Interior (DOI) has released a draft solicitation that would offer a single public cloud service provider up to $1 billion to support DOI’s transition to a single hybrid enterprise cloud cluster. […]

According to research from MeriTalk and AP-NORC, just 15 percent of American adults trust the Federal government to do what is right for them and their families all or most of the time. How can our governments at the Federal, state, and local levels regain the public’s confidence by delivering on the promises of major infrastructure programs? […]

Amid an overwhelming and fragmented amount of broadband programs, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is calling for a unified national broadband strategy. […]

The Space Development Agency at the Department of Defense (DoD) on May 26 announced the award of a $324.5 million contract to General Dynamics Mission Systems to “establish the ground Operations and Integration segment for Tranche 1 of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA)” that eventually will feature a constellation of 166 satellites. […]

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has finalized three awards as part of its largest-ever commercial satellite imagery contract effort, marking a historic expansion of NRO’s acquisition of commercial imagery on behalf of the U.S. government. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a supplemental special notice to go along with its request for information (RFI) on GSA’s intent to establish a multiple-award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) known as the Ascend BPA for commercial cloud services. […]

While the use of AI technologies is proving effective as a tool to help stop cyber criminals, the Federal government continues to faces an uphill road in deploying the technology, a U.S. Secret Service official said this week. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report this week that the United States Coast Guard needs to get a better handle on risk evaluations for some of its smaller IT acquisition projects. […]

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published a final rule in the Federal Register that restricts cybersecurity export controls in an effort to prevent foreign adversaries from accessing hacking tools. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has awarded $203.6 million in an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity Application Development Support Services Contract (ADSS) as part of the agency’s IT modernization effort, according to a notice on SAM.gov. […]