Federal leaders agreed during a Feb. 18 Alteryx virtual event that the COVID-19 pandemic provided more opportunities for collaboration between agencies, especially when it came to sharing data across agency lines. […]

Scaling out cloud connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for some Federal agencies, but continuing to do so will accelerate the government’s pace of IT modernization and its ability to better serve citizens, Federal officials said at a Feb. 2 event organized by ATARC. […]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking for a contractor to serve as a “Trusted Broker” in purchasing data and streamlining the data acquisition process. […]

As data continues to drive the future of Federal IT, agency leaders looked ahead to their goals for 2021, while keeping data implementation and cybersecurity top of mind.  […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is updating its repository for enterprise data, which will now be able to support multiple information systems for the DoD’s defense business enterprise. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the Census Bureau to make a series of late-stage adjustments to the census design and these changes have opened risks to the “quality of data that the Bureau provides for apportioning congressional representation among the states.” […]

For the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to further narrow the pay gap for Federal workers, better quality data on promotions is needed as it is often incomplete. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should put a greater emphasis on data to best further advance category management and help leverage the Federal government’s buying power, save taxpayer dollars, and eliminate duplicative contracts. […]

The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is crowdsourcing for answers on how to apply differential privacy solutions to complex data sets regarding public safety, and is dangling $276,000 in cash prizes to jumpstart the effort. […]

In the wake of a data breach at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that exposed the personal information of 46,000 veterans, Deputy CIO and Principal Assistant Secretary Dominic Cussatt highlighted data security and privacy to serve the veteran community as a key tenet of the agency’s transformation efforts. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that an unauthorized actor entered its Financial Services Center database and accessed the personal information of 46,000 veterans. […]

Looking ahead to future IT modernization projects at the Defense Department (DoD), CIO Dana Deasy is predicting a bigger emphasis on data and sustaining telework capabilities in the long term. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) released a draft of the Data Ethics Framework – part of the Federal Data Strategy action plan – earlier this week detailing Fed standards for using data appropriately and government use cases. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is launching a new initiative to invest $25 million in research projects dedicated to foundational data science principles. […]

Reflecting on the last nearly six months of the coronavirus pandemic – and his two decades in Federal IT experience – Booz Allen Hamilton’s Vice President of Digital Transformation Dan Tucker is looking ahead to more government investments in open data architectures, cloud services, and human-centric digital products as Feds adapt to the shifting telework and service delivery landscape. […]

Reps. Scott Peters, D-Calif., Lucy McBath, D-Ga., Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, D-Pa., introduced legislation August 21 to streamline COVID-19 data collection and management through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). […]

According to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency doesn’t comprehensively analyze inspection or complaint information to identify trends, and doesn’t have assurance that complaints are addressed. […]

As the U.S. Air Force (USAF) continues along its data management journey, Chief Data Officer Eileen Vidrine said that the agency has implemented new tactics – such as datathons and academic efforts – to empower all service personnel to embrace data science. […]

ACT-IAC released its 2021 agenda today listing priority issues that government will face next year including the need for citizen-centric services, transforming national infrastructure, and creating an agile government. […]

Establishing a data-driven government, Federal officials suggested today, requires recognizing data management as a team sport, putting change “champions” into positions of responsibility, and educating the workforce to realize the value of the day they are collecting. […]

Since the COVID-19 pandemic brought new attention to the need for a “faster path to maturing data sharing protocols,” government leaders must look ahead to how data can continue to inform decision making as capabilities mature and improve, Deputy Federal CIO Maria Roat said today. […]

While the majority of Federal agencies are meeting completeness, timeliness, and accuracy benchmarks for Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) reporting, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that compliance with the legislation still varies across agencies. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its final Data Strategy – on the heels of its final Cloud Strategy – to most effectively accelerate data use across the agency. […]

The ability to generate new value through collaborative sharing and analysis of ever-growing data streams represents one of the holy grails of IT modernization. Now that government and private organizations are investing in the requisite infrastructure to make the data-driven future possible, what are the remaining challenges? […]

In selecting which exempt organization returns to examine, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should start using data and document the measurable objectives in using it to reduce errors and incomplete procedures. […]

While data management is becoming more intertwined with tech initiatives, two data officials at the May 27 Federal Data Strategy Conference said that communication and collaboration between chief data officers and other offices within Federal agencies are keys to their success. […]

As the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) activates its “fourth mission” duties to provide lifesaving aid during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Chief Data Officer Kshemendra Paul said at a May 27 Federal Data Strategy Conference that scaling telemedicine has been a “huge success story” of the agency’s capabilities. […]

The U.S. Air Force admitted in a May 20 request for information (RFI) that the agency lacks an Enterprise Data Loss Prevention Program (E-DLP) to protect sensitive information, but is now seeking a new approach to data protection with a proof of concept for an E-DLP at one of its bases. […]

A Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) national recruiter exposed sensitive information including locations, phone numbers, and emails of more than 1,300 American University students following a virtual job fair on May 15. […]

Ransomware accounted for 61 percent of malware-based data breach incidents over most of 2019, according to the Verizon 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, reflecting that financial gains are the top motivator for three-quarters of threat actors. […]