A trio of Republican senators is seeking information from the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) about its process for developing the two pipeline security directives it issued this summer, according to an Oct. 28 letter sent to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) Joseph Cuffari. […]
Cloud security provider Zscaler said that its Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) service has received a provisional authorization to operate at Impact Level 5 as published in the Defense Department’s Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide. […]
John Sherman, who has served as Acting CIO for the Department of Defense (DoD) and is the nominee to move into the position permanently, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at a confirmation hearing on October 28 that he wants to put in place a new strategy to develop DoD cyber talent, among other steps if his nomination is confirmed. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened the filing window for the $1.9 billion Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. In September, the FCC announced that the filing window would run from Oct. 29 to Jan. 14, 2022. […]
The Secure Equipment Act has now cleared both the House and Senate, and is expected to land on President Biden’s desk for his signature shortly. […]
The acting manager of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is hailing quick progress that the program and Federal agencies have made in signing new agreements mandated by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order to share object-level network data with the CDM program, rather than the summary-level data that was previously required. […]
On today’s episode of MeriTalking, MeriTalk’s Nicole Burdette sits down with Jay Boisseau, AI & HPC Technology Strategist at Dell Technologies, and Marc Hamilton, Vice President of Solutions Architecture and Engineering at NVIDIA, to explore the steps agencies are taking toward “digital first government” and what this means from a workforce, cybersecurity, and emerging technology perspective. […]
Over the past 20 years, government agencies have worked to shift from paper-based to digital operations. Early efforts, too often, went halfway. Agencies digitized the front end, but back-end operations largely remained the same. And on the front end, a digital customer experience was not as robust as it was in person. For example, early-stage digital government offered citizens access to forms online, which was convenient. But if someone had a question, there was no mechanism for in-person follow-up or an immediate response. […]
As Democrats in the House and Senate reconcile differences on the slimmed-down $1.75 billion budget reconciliation bill that funds “soft” infrastructure priorities, some tech and cyber-related provisions have fallen out of the bill or had their funding levels slashed, while others made new appearances into the latest draft of the bill, which has been cut down from its original $3.5 trillion price tag. […]
Legislative and Federal policy efforts are coming together to focus on protecting the top-most tiers of critical infrastructure in the United States, top officials from the House and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) agreed today. […]
Intelligent automation is quickly changing the landscape of healthcare, medical research, and health services by enabling the automatic classification, extraction, and enrichment of information. This is helping agencies provide a better experience for patients, cutting back on costs, and reducing turnaround time, according to Federal health experts at a FedInsider virtual event Oct. 28. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published cybersecurity guidance to securely build and configure cloud infrastructures in support of 5G. […]
The future of developing the Federal cybersecurity workforce could rely on apprenticeships to fill the talent pipeline and improve retention in cyber roles. […]
In addition to facing cyber threats from nation-states, both government and private organizations have been the victims of an increased volume of ransomware attacks from criminal organizations over the last two years. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official emphasized this week that organizations need to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity on their systems in order to guard against the uptick in ransomware attacks. […]
The threat landscape has shifted drastically amid the COVID-19 pandemic as more and more organizations and governments deal with emerging cyberattacks and ransomware threats. Pure Storage, an IT leader delivering a portfolio of modern data solutions and services, has continued to provide organizations with innovative solutions to mitigate these threats with its portfolio of data protection tools. […]
Chris Inglis, the nation’s first-ever National Cyber Director, is building out his office with an inaugural strategic intent statement, as well as the addition of Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha who will have a dual designation as the deputy national cyber director for Federal cybersecurity. […]
The Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 program office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently released its TIC 3.0 remote user case document, and a TIC 3.0 Cloud Use Case document is also in the works, program lead and CISA Senior Cybersecurity Architect Sean Connelly said today. […]
As Federal agencies approach the six-month mark since President Biden issued his Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) in May, Federal officials are pointing to the zero trust, supply chain risk management, and data aspects of the EO as the greatest opportunities to make a difference in shoring up security. […]
Five months after the debut of the Biden administration’s sweeping Cybersecurity Executive Order, Federal agencies are “highly engaged” in grappling with the order’s mandate for migration to zero trust security architectures, both on the planning and funding fronts. […]
The transition to zero trust security architectures is integral to the U.S. Department of the Army’s modernization efforts, said Army CIO Raj Iyer during an FCW virtual roundtable on October 27 where he explained security challenges that the service branch is facing and how the move to zero trust security concepts will help. […]
Routinely, data breaches demonstrate the pitfalls of relying on detection to identify malicious activities taking place on a network. Federal cyber experts discussed the importance of prevention over detection to combat cyber threats and how zero trust can enhance cyber solutions on Oct 28 at an event hosted by FCW. […]
In the face of increasing cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and growing service demands on the electric grid, members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Government Operations and Border Management Subcommittee discussed the need for greater Federal investments in protecting the grid and ensuring abundant power supplies at an October 27 hearing. […]
With an evolving cyber threat landscape and adversaries that are growing more sophisticated by the day, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Paul Nakasone – who also heads United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) – today pointed to partnership and collaboration as the best way to protect the nation from cyber threats. […]
The Defense Departments (DoD) Joint AI Center (JAIC) is looking to fill the position of the DoD Responsible AI (RAI) program lead to develop and promulgate policies, practices, guidance, and metrics for DoD for developing and procuring AI. […]
Long-time Federal government IT and cybersecurity leader Karen Evans is heading to the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI) – a New York-based nonprofit that aims to advance the cyber readiness of small and medium-sized businesses in order to improve the security of global supply chains – as the organization’s managing director. […]
The adoption of robotic process automation (RPA) technologies in business and management areas of the Defense Department (DoD) is “catching fire,” and RPA is firming up to become a gateway for the use of more sophisticated technologies such as artificial intelligence, a DoD official said on Oct. 26 at an online event organized by FCW. […]
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has gone in just a few short years from a few scattered pilot projects to an essential tool deployed by dozens of agencies. In the process, Federal agency IT leaders have found that automation at scale comes with challenges, and they shared some of their best practices for and lessons learned for integrating RPA into existing systems at an FCW virtual workshop on October 26. […]
After fits and starts reaching back over the last two years, the State Department has unveiled plans to establish a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, along with an envoy for critical and emerging technology, State Department spokesperson Ned Price announced at a press briefing this week. […]
Microsoft is warning that it has seen Nobelium – the Russian nation-state threat group responsible for the SolarWinds software supply chain hack – trying to recreate the same approach that allowed it to gain access to Federal government systems, according to an Oct. 24 blog post from the company. […]
The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) released a new paper on October 25 that details what it calls onerous implementation requirements of the government’s Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Program, and offered eight recommendations to improve the program. […]