A software upgrade gone wrong caused widespread system outages across the Veterans Affairs Department, officials confirmed Tuesday. The agency’s main website, VA.gov, as well as Vets.gov, associated websites, and apps were temporarily affected, a VA spokesperson told MeriTalk. […]

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A new report released by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers reveals states are unprepared for the IoT movement: Only one out of five state CIOs say their state has moved to the formal discussion phase–and zero states have adopted policies and developed an IoT road map. […]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. (Photo: INSA)

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers issued a “planning guide” to help states deal with a cyber disruption. Cyber disruption response planning is essential, the report said: “Ignore at your own peril.” […]

It has become so tough for Federal agencies to find skilled technical talent that the National Security Agency is collecting resumes from “former civilian affiliates” who have the necessary skills, experience, and security clearance to help the agency “augment the existing work force on high priority projects or programs.” … A pilot program is underway to demonstrate the use of federated online identity technologies for use by hospitals and patients. … And DOD continues to make significant progress on its insider threat detection program and the intelligence community’s new continuous evaluation effort. […]

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence plans to hire its first chief information officer to take charge of IT programs across the ODNI’s 20 component offices, particularly the effort to retire legacy IT systems and migrate users to the cloud. […]

For FITARA to reach its full potential, Federal agencies must dissect the real problems and attract stronger CIOs, Dave Powner, Director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, told MeriTalk’s FITARA Forum in Washington, D.C. […]

MeriTalk introduces a regular new feature, a Q&A with prominent IT leaders. The initial installment highlights David Bray, CIO of the Federal Communications Commission. […]

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has begun its search for a new Chief Information Officer, two months after HHS lost its previous CIO, Frank Baitman, who worked to establish HHS within the 2014 FITARA guidelines. […]

A group of senior IT executives and former CIOs are attempting to direct the presidential candidates’ attention to the urgent needs of IT policy in the Federal government. They released a report, titled “Tech Iconoclasts – Voting for America’s Success in a Network World,” an open letter to the candidates that outlines five key needs in Federal IT and recommends policy to address these needs. […]

DoD

On Nov. 4, I testified before the joint subcommittees on Information Technology and Government Operations of the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform. The hearing was titled “FITARA’s Role in Reducing IT Acquisition Risk, Part II–Measuring Agencies.”  The other witnesses included Federal CIO Tony Scott, Treasury CIO Sonny Bhagowalia, General Services Administration CIO David […]

Richard Spires, the former chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, has been named CEO of Learning Tree International Inc., a Reston, Virginia-based IT and management training provider. Spires, who left DHS in 2013 to lead San Francisco-based security firm Resilient Network Systems, had been an independent member of the board of directors […]

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