The Office of Personnel Management is outlining its data goals for fiscal years (FY) 2023-2026 in its first-ever Data Strategy to bolster the Federal workforce’s data analytics skills. […]

One of the Federal government’s top cybersecurity officials said today that the Biden administration is requesting roughly $12 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2024 funding in connection with efforts to roll out zero trust security across the entire government, and voiced concern about the fate of the security push if Congress acts to roll back government funding levels to FY2022 levels. […]

Close public-private collaboration between the government and the private sector is helping to serve as a “force multiplier” in building cyber resilience, and has helped organizations to proactively respond to cyber threats, according to new research from RSA Conference and MeriTalk. […]

The key to combating adversaries in cyberspace and building out more cyber-resilient infrastructures is creating stronger partnerships for those efforts between government and industry, a top Defense Department (DoD) official said on April 24 during the Carahsoft Public Sector Day event at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. […]

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco closed out day one of the RSA Conference in San Francisco by detailing the recent shift the Justice Department (DoJ) has taken to prioritize disruption when fighting cybercrime, and in the process to put victims at the center of its efforts.   […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) has four of the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world, and the agency’s investment in supercomputing is crucial to fighting climate change and bolstering the electric grid, according to DoE Chief Information Officer (CIO) Ann Dunkin. […]

The White House is targeting June to release its implementation plan for the National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) unveiled early last month, and private sector technology leaders are eager to see the Office of the National Cyber Director’s (ONCD) public strategy that aims to charge Federal agencies, the private sector, and civil society with specific cybersecurity action items. […]

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced late last week the formation of a task force that will examine negative repercussions of the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. […]

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking to improve its customers’ experiences by adding machine learning tools to screening technologies at airport checkpoints nationwide. […]

The State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) has hired Adam Segal to lead the development of a U.S. International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy. […]

President Biden has nominated Tanya Bradsher to serve as deputy secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to a White House statement released on April 19. […]

The Federal government is facing a workforce crisis, especially with skilled technology talent. Retention, recruitment, and retirement issues are hindering hiring managers, who are looking to fill critical open roles in order to meet mission objectives and new Federal mandates. MeriTalk recently sat down with Craig McCullough, senior vice president for public sector at Pluralsight, a technology workforce development company, to discuss how the government can overcome the skills gap by creating talent and building a culture of learning within Federal agencies. […]

A panel of cyber experts gathered by the Atlantic Council last week discussed the outcomes of modern warfare and pointed to the likelihood of increased coordination between cyber and kinetic forces. […]

Security experts duked it out last week over the question of whether the United States should create a cyber force that would function on its own as a U.S. military service branch, distinct from the current structure of U.S. Cyber Command, which is one of 11 unified combatant commands of the Defense Department (DoD). […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD) U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is looking to advance its abilities in AI and cloud technology with the recent hiring of Andrew Moore, the former director of artificial intelligence at Google’s cloud business. […]

Federal agencies have increasingly made improvements in solving challenges the Government Accountability Office (GAO) features in its “High Risk” list, but more long-standing challenges still need to be addressed, U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said on April 20 before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to clarify some of its cybersecurity policies when it comes to the department’s acquisition programs. […]

If you’re heading to the RSA Conference in San Francisco in person, or even if you’re staying home in hopes of getting the latest cybersecurity intel from keynotes that will become available from the conference, here’s our curated run-down on what the MeriTalk newsroom is watching for news breakers. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that it is pausing all future deployments of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program – with the exception of one planned for 2024 – while it focuses on improvements at the five sites where the EHR system is currently deployed, as part of a “larger program reset.” […]

President Biden on Thursday announced his intent to nominate Cara Abercrombie as assistant secretary of defense for acquisition – a Pentagon post that has lacked a permanent leader since 2021. […]

If you’re already in the geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) community and you don’t know about the GEOINT 2023 Symposium taking place May 21-24 in St. Louis, we’re happy to send out a rescue party to wherever you are trapped without comms gear… […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is seeking $425 million of fiscal year 2024 funding to put into motion a giant technology leap forward in how the agency analyzes the ever-growing volume of cybersecurity data that it needs to sift through to identify threats and vulnerabilities. […]

MeriTalk recently sat down with Gerald Caron, chief information officer (CIO) at the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) component agency, to talk about how he’s settling into his new post, and some key takeaways from his more than 20 years in Federal IT. […]

The IT landscape is rapidly evolving and can often present new and unknown challenges to chief information officers (CIOs). André Mendes, CIO at the Department of Commerce (DoC), joined the General Services Administration’s (GSA) High-Performance Computing Summit today to offer advice for CIOs as they navigate the new landscape. […]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a new hybrid contract to Rothe Ares Joint Venture – worth upwards of $814 million – to manage digital communication services, as well as information technology services. […]

Reps. Katie Porter, D-Calif., Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., reintroduced legislation on April 18 that would codify into law parts of President Biden’s 2021 executive order (EO) that directs Federal to make citizen-focused improvements to government services. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) this week announced that it will remove the COVID-19 governmentwide operating status on May 15 – meaning the pandemic will no longer drive how and where Federal employees work. […]

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told members of the Senate Finance Committee at an April 19 committee hearing that he the agency is aiming to complete an overhaul of its key Individual Master File by 2028. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) today announced plans to develop and establish its own version of the Logging Made Easy (LME) tool – an open-source project that provides basic logging of security information on enrolled Windows devices.  […]

Lawmakers have offered several proposals to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program, but VA officials and an official from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) expressed their opposition on April 19 to many of those bills during a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee legislative hearing. […]