Within the State Department, Information Systems Security Officers (ISSOs) in overseas posts have an unclear reporting system, a lack of management oversight, and not enough dedicated staff time, leading to deficiencies in ISSO performance, according to a report released Dec. 15 by the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). […]
With the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines making their way across the country, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued guidelines for keeping cold storage facilities safe from cyberthreat actors. […]
President Trump’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) released recommendations and an implementation plan in a Dec. 10 report to the President for the creation of a Critical Infrastructure Command Center (CICC) that would be pair government and private sector experts to improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure sectors. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is seeking a private sector partner to provide engineering, sustainment, technical and operational support for the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Cloud Storage programs. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is requiring all Federal civilian agencies to disconnect or turn off any SolarWinds Orion products by noon today, as a nation-state hack of the tools pose a significant cybersecurity threat and is linked to a hack at the Treasury and Commerce Departments. […]
The Department of the Navy (DON) Chief Information Officer is being directed to partner with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Director, and the Director for Office of the Chief Management Officer to take proactive measures to identify, assess, and eliminate redundant systems and applications throughout the organization. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking a real-time open source intelligence tool for gathering software licenses and with access to a minimum of 50 million unique websites. […]
Federal CIOs laid the groundwork for COVID-19-related telework by modernizing systems and moving to the cloud, responded to the pandemic with rapid modernization, and have the opportunity to maintain momentum for further improvements to government technology, said Maria Roat, deputy Federal CIO. […]
Federal government agencies are making consistent progress on going paperless and 97 percent of agencies believe they will meet the December 2022 deadline, set in Memorandum-19-21, to properly manage permanent files, according to a National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) report. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially adopted rules for identifying, removing, and replacing telecommunications equipment that could pose a national security threat to the United States. […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers about scams related to the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine, which could see distribution authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – after applications are reviewed by the third or fourth week of December 2020. […]
During the last weeks of the 116th Congress, H.R. 1250, a non-binding resolution to pursue a national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, has passed the House. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is thinking about how it can incorporate cloud computing into its high-performance compute capabilities and leverage the flexibility and scale of commercial cloud offerings, according to a request for information (RFI) released December 8 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. […]
Research and consulting firm Forrester is calling for the incoming Biden administration to create a permanent Chief Customer Officer (CCO) position that would have the stated goal of improving the customer experience (CX) of those interacting with Federal agencies. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) issued a Dec. 8 report on the agency’s progress moving its telecom services contracts from legacy Networx agreements to Enterprise Information Solutions (EIS) contracts. […]
Senior executives with Google Cloud emphasized at their first Public Sector Summit on Dec. 8 the work that the company has been doing with a variety of public sector organizations during the coronavirus pandemic, and one emerging silver lining to the health crisis: a big leap forward in IT modernization that will help government and academia during the recovery. […]
On Dec. 3, President Trump signed into law a bipartisan bill that would codify the Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence (CoE) Program, housed under the General Services Administration (GSA). […]
The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is building partnerships to spread artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge and projects throughout the Department of Defense (DoD) while acting as an advisor to interested components, said Colonel Robert Kinney, missions director at JAIC. […]
While larger Federal government agencies had the resources necessary to facilitate a shift to large-scale telework earlier this year, some smaller agencies had a more difficult time mounting similar efforts, a State Department official said at a Dec. 9 AFCEA Bethesda webinar. […]
State-sponsored hackers targeted cybersecurity firm FireEye in a recent cyberattack, company CEO Kevin Mandia disclosed in a Dec. 8 statement. The company said it is coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its investigation of the attack. […]
The United States and Australia signed a first-of-its-kind agreement in November to develop a virtual cyber training range to practice real-world defensive missions across boundaries and networks. […]
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., along with 16 House colleagues in a Dec. 7 letter, called on Senate and House appropriators to prioritize funding for broadband infrastructure projects and reject proposed cuts included in the Senate version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 funding bill. […]
Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Office chief Sean Connelly said Dec. 8 that his office remains on track to issue several additional use cases over the coming months for the TIC 3.0 security initiative that Federal agencies can employ to advance their security postures. […]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) released its request for proposals for the Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract, an $11 billion, 10-year contract that will be key to IT modernization and consolidation among the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Fourth Estate agencies. […]
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is soliciting public comment through Feb. 1, 2021, on a proposed rule for the permanent digitization of public records. The agency – which publicly posted the proposed rule on Dec. 1 – said the measure is integral to civilian agencies going fully paperless by December 2022. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) released a cybersecurity alert on Dec. 7 warning that state-sponsored hackers based in Russia have been attacking remote workspaces and exploiting a vulnerability in a suite of VMware products. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released draft guidance targeted at cloud service providers (CSPs) to help them protect application containers in multi-tenant environments, taking a hardware-based approach to security. […]
President Trump signed the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act into law Dec. 7. […]
Google today announced its Google Workspace for Government product, a cloud-based system that aims to meet the needs of public sector customers by providing Google Cloud collaboration and communication tools to Federal customers. The service will become available early next year. […]
Google Cloud said today it has reached an agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to modernize initial flight training for Air Force pilots through the use of cloud technology. USAF will host its immersive training devices (ITDs) on Google Cloud, which will help scale the project to thousands […]