
While the term “cybersecurity is a team sport” has long been used to reiterate the importance of collaboration within and between agencies on matters of network protection, a senior California state official is pointing to how Federal, state, and academic entities in California are putting this mantra into action. […]

MeriTalk, a public-private partnership dedicated to improving the outcomes of government information technology, is pleased to announcement the appointment of John Thomas Flynn as Senior Advisor, Government Programs. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has dropped a legal challenge to California’s net neutrality statute – a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration in 2018. The withdrawal of the lawsuit to block the state law provides an opportunity for net neutrality rules to return on a Federal level. […]

California’s landmark data privacy law, which went into effect in January and gives consumers greater access and control over their personal information, will now be enforced, according to the state’s attorney general. […]

Verily Life Sciences plans to begin offering online COVID-19 coronavirus screening and information services to parts of the San Francisco area today, separate from virus information site efforts by its sister company Google. […]

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that took effect earlier this week will not only erect a higher data privacy bar for citizens of the state, but also may put an important policy stake in the ground for Federal lawmakers who are weighing nationwide data privacy legislation. […]

Microsoft said on Nov. 11 that it will “honor” throughout its U.S. operations the “core protections” contained in the California Consumer Privacy Act that is set to take effect in January 2020. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office Inspector General (OIG) discovered in a July 31 report that a VA healthcare facility in Long Beach, California, failed to adhere to VA and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) privacy and security policies in the midst of a patient electronic health record (EHR) complication. […]

California has agreed to delay enforcing its net neutrality law, signed in September, that put the state at odds with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and many telecommunications industry groups. The law reinstates Obama-era net neutrality rules and was scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019. […]

California may agree to delay enforcement of its new net neutrality law, which is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1 2019, according to Politico. […]

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 28 signed into law S.B. 327, which will ban companies from selling Internet-connected devices with weak or default passwords, such as “Password” or “1234567.” Instead, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, all devices must have a “preprogrammed password [that] is unique to each device manufactured.” A primary concern with weak pre-programmed passwords is that users don’t change them to strong, unique passwords after purchasing the device. […]

California Governor Jerry Brown on Sept. 29 signed S.B. 1001 into law. The legislation prohibits automated accounts–colloquially known as bots–from pretending to be human when attempting to “incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election.” […]

California’s state Senate pushed the Golden State one step closer to enacting the Obama-era Federal net neutrality laws that were gutted by the FCC earlier this year. On Friday the state Senate passed the controversial bill, called SB 822, in a vote of 27-12 that was largely along party lines. […]

California’s state Assembly is attempting to turn back time on net neutrality by voting yesterday to approve a controversial bill that brings the state closer to enacting the Obama-era Federal net neutrality laws that were gutted by the FCC earlier this year. […]

California lawmakers on Thursday passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, one of the toughest U.S. laws governing data privacy. The legislation specifically targets information companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and AT&T–many of whom are headquartered in California. […]

The Federal Aviation Administration will replace existing air traffic control procedures in Southern California with new satellite-based procedures as part of its Next Generation Air Transportation System. […]

California is the 16th state to join the U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen Initiative, which encourages educators to use openly licensed educational material. […]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that reinstated thousands of fired probationary Federal employees at six Federal agencies, saying that the unions who filed the lawsuit lack “standing.” […]

Witnesses urged lawmakers at a House Homeland Security joint subcommittee hearing on April 1 to implement legislation that ensures drone aircraft technology evolves within safe and adaptable guidelines that keep pace with growing innovation. […]

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., called out President Trump’s recent cybersecurity executive order (EO) today, asserting that it leaves states vulnerable to future cyberattacks. […]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is renewing plans to shrink the Department of Defense’s (DoD) civilian workforce, including reopening of the agency’s early retirement program. […]

President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) on Tuesday that aims to make sweeping changes to U.S. elections, and warns that states will lose Federal election grants if they do not comply with new requirements. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has cut nearly 21,000 civilian employees as part of its ongoing workforce reduction effort, with about 40,000 more cuts needed to meet its goal of trimming up to 8 percent of its civilian workforce, according to a Pentagon official. […]

A Federal judge in San Francisco issued an order from the bench today demanding the reinstatement of all probationary employees who were fired at six Federal agencies based on directives from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 24-4 today to approve the nomination of Michael Kratsios to become the next director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). […]

A Federal judge on March 6 clarified his decision about a temporary restraining order against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) based on its directives to fire probationary employees across several Federal agencies. […]

Union leaders and Democratic members of Congress are hailing a Federal court judge’s decision issued late Thursday to uphold a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its orchestration of Federal agency firings of their probationary employees – and language in the decision that finds OPM’s actions were likely unlawful. […]

A Federal court judge on Feb. 20 blocked a request from five Federal employee unions for a temporary restraining order (TRO) challenging the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force executive orders and “deferred resignation” program. […]

A Federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of the Trump administration on Monday, allowing the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to continue accessing student data at the Department of Education. […]

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is poised to rule on whether to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive records from nearly half a dozen Federal agencies. […]