cybersecurity

Even for cybersecurity policy vets like Splunk’s Bill Wright, 2021 has taken the cake as the busiest year for Federal cybersecurity policy in the past decade – at least since 2012 when the big event was a mandatory cyber threat data sharing bill that Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., couldn’t quite push over the finish line. […]

FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) named Gregory Edwards to a new position as chief information security officer (CISO). […]

data privacy, people, personal data, binary

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated Federal government adoption of hybrid cloud as agencies endeavored to provide secure data access and data management for workloads and applications anywhere and everywhere. In a new MeriTV interview, Chad Martin discusses enterprise data management and security in hybrid cloud environments and what agencies need to consider as they prepare for employees to return to the office and for continued telework. […]

Emerging tech

The longer the coronavirus pandemic lasts, the further in the rear-view mirror fades the pre-March 2020 version of work-life as many of us knew it – and the less likely it is that workforces spanning both the government and private sectors will ever fully get back to what was normal before the public health crisis. […]

cybersecurity
CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week it’s launching a new center for public health data, known as the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics. […]

MerITocracy 2021

What would it take to make America work better for everybody? Perhaps convene bipartisan Congressional power structures, government agency secretaries, and America’s tech industry leaders to pick the most pressing problems for citizens in our democracy? Then figure out how to begin solving those problems with innovative technology and bold leadership? […]

While Federal cybersecurity leaders have prioritized detection, remediation, and zero trust policies due to the recent flood of cyberattacks, new research – “Containing the Cyber Threat Tsunami” – uncovers the desire to shift the current security mindset to a greater emphasis on breach prevention. […]

cybersecurity
AI

Federal IT leaders want to see their agencies achieve enterprise-wide artificial intelligence (AI) proficiency in the next three to four years, according to a recent survey from MeriTalk underwritten by Dell Technologies and NVIDIA, “From Pilots to Proficiency: Operationalizing Federal AI.” […]

Emerging tech

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president focused on digital issues, said today she’s “really encouraged” by recent tech-sector actions taken by President Biden to create greater competition, and is hopeful emerging technologies such as AI will create a bigger public sector market. […]

Cyber

MeriTalk recently sat down with Matt Trudewind, senior technical marketing engineer on security at NetApp, to talk about all things ransomware. During the discussion, Matt dove into the growing threat of cyberattacks targeting Federal agencies, and walked through the critical steps needed in ransomware remediation. With this ever-increasing threat comes a need for a robust cybersecurity strategy with solutions and technology in place to address attacks both before – and after – they occur. Today, Matt shares his insights on the best ways to get to those goals. […]

Suzette Kent
IT

For once, the biggest problem with engineering effective IT modernization may not boil down to a lack of money to tackle the job. That conclusion was a top-line takeaway from Republicans, Democrats, and private sector experts at a hearing of the House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing today on how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed state and local governments’ antiquated IT systems, and what governments should do about it now that pandemic conditions are easing in many areas. […]

security

While zero trust may be the latest buzzword in cybersecurity, the security principles behind a zero trust architecture aren’t new. Adoption across the Federal government has been slow as agencies deal with legacy systems, budget issues, competing priorities, and a shortage of security experts. […]

Innovation

The mission must continue – and that means networks must be up and secure, no matter what. Now more than ever before, networks can provide visibility at every layer, so agencies can identify and respond to service interruptions immediately. Network-as-a-sensor capabilities enable this deep awareness. […]

White House

The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), a technology trade group that aims to help shape government innovation, is asking the Biden Administration to consider seven recommendations on Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) that it says will better achieve IT and cybersecurity priorities outlined in the administration’s Build Back Better agenda. […]

security

As Federal agencies transition to all-Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) systems, having solid security policies and determining how security teams can monitor the IPv6 transition is essential to fully implementing steps to complete the transition, IT industry officials said on June 16. […]

Cybersecurity
cybersecurity

The SolarWinds software supply chain hack – disclosed in December 2020 – represented a new scale of nation-state cyber aggression, with thousands of organizations compromised, including at least nine Federal agencies. And just last month, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack further highlighted the national security risks created by cyber aggression. […]

Cloud security provider Zscaler and digital workflow service provider ServiceNow have announced new service integrations that the companies said will give joint customers improved visibility and data security for cloud data protection and security incident response. […]

COVID-19

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and General Services Administration (GSA) announced today that the 25 percent occupancy restriction for Federal offices has been lifted, and agencies will soon be able to increase the number of employees in their physical workplaces. […]

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