Data has become integral to Federal agencies and their decision-making process, and Federal officials are increasingly finding ways to upskill their workforce to help, officials said May 13. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has outlined 28 priority open recommendations for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in a new report, which include items involving information technology and timely COVID-19 data collection. […]
The Defense Department (DoD) is working to foster innovation in the information technology space, and is due to report findings of an assessment of its research engineering workforce later this year, a DoD official told members of Congress today. […]
Several House members expressed concern today over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) approach to managing cyber risks and the agency’s cybersecurity strategies, while the agency’s chief information security officer countered that VA cyber programs are on par with those at work in other Federal agencies. “VA prides itself as being the nation’s largest integrated […]
New legislation introduced in the Senate today would authorize $100 million of Federal spending per year, for a period of seven years, to help state and local governments take quick action on fixing pressing IT problems. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee voted May 18 to advance five bills that would look to improve the nation’s cybersecurity in several areas, including protecting pipeline infrastructure, testing cybersecurity readiness, and improving state and local cybersecurity, among others. […]
The Endless Frontier bill championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and set for Senate floor debate over the next several days has grown by leaps and bounds this week with the addition of semiconductor manufacturing and cybersecurity components and has even gotten a new name – the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. […]
In a new report of nearly 30,000 cyber incidents, roughly 70 percent of public sector breaches were found to be the product of social engineering campaigns—relying mostly on phishing attacks. […]
Federal CIO Clare Martorana today laid out her vision for civilian government-wide Federal IT improvements that match up broadly with many of the larger goals outlined in projects and spending priorities announced earlier this month for the recent $1 billion cash infusion into the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). In her first extended public policy address […]
Senators expressed concern that the Department of Defense (DoD) is not doing enough to support small businesses in the defense industrial base (DIB) to implement or subsidize cybersecurity protocols, including the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certificate (CMMC) at a May 18 Senate Subcommittee on Cybersecurity hearing. […]
Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) concepts are critical to adopting technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and building a DevSecOps culture will help ensure AI architectures are secure and national security maintained, military tech leaders said today. […]
An internal review of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program has been completed, according to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who said he understands that the DoD review will produce “significant” changes to the program. […]
Senators Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on May 18 reintroduced the Rural Broadband Financing Flexibility Act that would provide a boost in rural broadband investment to state and local governments. […]
Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., ranking member of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, urged the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a May 18 letter to bring Federal employees back to their pre-pandemic workplaces quickly, or explain how the Biden administration will deal going forward with the billions of dollars it spends on currently underutilized facilities if Federal employees continue large-scale work from other locations. […]
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., have announced a pair of AI-focused bipartisan bills to strengthen U.S. AI readiness and support long-term AI investments. […]
Following the recent ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Company, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., proposed a bill last week that would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to establish a National Cyber Exercise Program to test the United States’ cyber readiness. […]
To close the broadband divide in both urban and rural America, the Federal government must focus on providing significant funding, ensuring accurate data, and work to ensure equity is baked into broadband expansion plans. During a House Committee on Appropriations hearing today, telecommunications and civil rights experts shared their thoughts on what the Federal government, […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) May 17 released a blueprint on integrating Grid-Interactive Technologies into building renovation and improvement plans, along with the Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). […]
The Department of Education has launched an outreach campaign to alert K-12 and higher education students that they are eligible for a monthly discount on broadband internet service. […]
Fifteen members of the House Committee on Homeland Security reintroduced the Pipeline Security Act on May 14 in an effort to secure pipelines from nefarious cybersecurity or terrorist attacks, in the wake of the recent ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Company. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it has granted additional spectrum licenses for Tribal lands. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking for parties to help the agency create a request for information (RFI) that would look to examine China’s role in setting international standards around emerging technology, according to a May 12 sources sought notice posted to beta.SAM.gov. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on May 13 the formation of a new Space Systems Critical Infrastructure Working Group, in an effort to minimize risks to space systems by bringing together space system critical infrastructure stakeholders. […]
In a rapidly changing aerial-technology landscape in which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is increasingly overseeing flights of emerging technologies like drones, FAA needs to step up its processes to gather quantitative data on skills gaps in its current workforce, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released May 13. […]
With the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack adding to the count of high-profile cyberattacks to make news in the past six months, members of Congress focused in on how the United States can deter such attacks, as well as how to attract talent to the cyber workforce, at a May 14 House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. […]
While artificial intelligence (AI) can provide plenty of opportunities for Federal agencies to advance their missions, adoption doesn’t come without challenges, officials said this week. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the Department of Defense (DoD) is failing to properly prioritize the development of Global Positioning System (GPS) alternatives. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will pilot a program to assess the competencies of AI practitioners to ensure that the AI workforce at the VA is knowledgeable and capable of producing trustworthy results with the technology, according to Gil Alterovitz, director of artificial intelligence at VA. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Science (SC) Nuclear Physics (NP) program is seeking interdisciplinary applications for open scientific research on quantum information science (QIS) and quantum computing to explore all forms of nuclear matter. […]
The Government Accountability Office detailed in a recent report its findings that the Department of State should work to more proficiently assess the results of efforts to improve financial and program data tracking and reporting. […]