The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) took the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to task in a July 22 report that finds “control weaknesses” in FirstNet’s handling of a $336 million payment it made to its contractor AT&T. Separately, FirstNet said it has taken action to resolve the issue. […]
The Department of Commerce issued a request for information (RFI) for the Commerce CIO, Solutions and Partners (S&P) requirement, that supports the Office of Enterprise Services and Solutions (OESS) whose priority is delivering IT solutions. […]
Alex Greenstein joined the Commerce Department today as director of the U.S.-European Union (EU) Privacy Shield – which helps companies comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the U.S. He was a senior advisor for international communications and information policy at the State Department. […]
Contradicting President Trump’s comments at the G20 Summit in Japan last weekend, the Department of Commerce has said today that Huawei Technologies remains on the Entity List and will continue to review licenses for exports to Huawei for their national security impacts. […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for people to serve on the National Medal of Technology and Innovation Nomination Evaluation Committee, which has 12 members who each serve for a minimum of three years and are ultimately appointed by the Commerce Secretary. Members are responsible for reviewing nominations and recommending “the […]
The Census Bureau did not implement security baselines and basic security practices for its cloud implementation, leading to “severe risks to 2020 Census cloud environments,” according to an audit from the Department of Commerce Inspector General released June 19. […]
The House Appropriations Committee released a second of five appropriations minibus FY2020 spending bills for Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. […]
The United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) did not properly manage its active directory, leaving multiple vulnerabilities and showing little improvement from previous audits of the agency’s cybersecurity posture, according to a Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General (IG) report released June 13. […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) extended a request for information on a potential enterprise data exchange to share weather observations across the globe. Responses are now due by June 17. […]
With less than a year until Census Day left, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the Census Bureau’s critical census IT systems and cybersecurity mitigation and contingency plans are high-concern areas among the 360 active risks for the 2020 Census that GAO identified in a report today. […]
China-based communications equipment maker Huawei said today that Google has begun the process of cutting off Huawei’s access to Android hardware and software services support. […]
The Department of Commerce announced that it will add Huawei to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List, preventing American companies from selling technology to Huawei without approval from the American government. […]
David Redl is resigning his position as administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – a component agency of the Commerce Department influential in a host of communications technology issues including 5G wireless spectrum – according to three Federal Communications Commission (FCC) leaders. […]
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the appointment of 30 experts to serve on the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) on April 18. […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a solicitation on April 12, looking for help with IT services at the National Ocean Service (NOS) across a wide range of IT infrastructure and technology. The solicitation is open until April 19. […]
After the partial government shutdown that stretched from mid-December 2018 and into January 2019, the Department of Commerce took a long look at its needs, according to Acting Executive Director for Commerce’s Enterprise Services Program Jamie Krauk. […]
The House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee adjourned its scheduled hearing today without reviewing the Trump administration’s FY2020 Department of Commerce budget request after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross declined to testify before the subcommittee. […]
With the U.S. decennial census set to begin gathering data in one year, the focus on new technology involved in the effort is increasing, along with security questions. The coming census has a reference date of April 1, 2020. […]
The question of the best way for transitioning to cloud infrastructures is a big one for Federal agencies. One approach to solve this issue is a slow, measured migration. Another approach is a more dramatic transformation in a shorter period that might be painful, but allows agencies to reap the benefits of cloud migration much sooner. The best approach for agencies to successfully transition depends on the agency itself, its mission, and what officials are looking to achieve. […]
Both the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) named new CIOs this month. Henry “Jamie” Holcombe will join the USPTO as CIO on Feb. 25 and Keith B. Vaughn has already begun his work with the USITC. […]
In a letter on Friday, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., questioned Steven Dillingham, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, over how nearly $5 billion in IT costs are being managed by the Bureau. His concerns come as IT costs grew by $1.56 billion between October 2015 and December 2017. […]
On the heels of the Senate voting down both competing Republican and Democrat funding bills to reopen the partially-closed Federal government, President Trump today suggested that he might be willing to accept a smaller “down payment” on funding the southern border wall. […]
In response to the Department of Commerce exploring new export restrictions for emerging technology, industry organizations stressed that export controls should be narrowly tailored to national security concerns, and not used to accomplish trade policy. […]
Rod Turk, the Commerce Department’s acting CIO who will be retiring next month, said in a wide-ranging discussion today that the Federal government is approaching the “tipping point” in its IT modernization efforts, and that requirements put in place in recent years to strengthen the hand of Federal CIOs in pushing modernization are resulting in less “rogue” tech projects at agencies. […]
The House on Wednesday approved by voice vote HR 6032, the SMART IoT Act, which would direct the Department of Commerce to study and report to Congress within one year on the U.S. Internet-connected device industry, including on voluntary and mandatory standards that are being developed around the world for the IoT sector, which Federal agencies have jurisdiction over the sector, and any regulations or standards those agencies have put in place that impact the IoT sector. […]
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on Nov. 19 seeking public comment on “criteria for identifying emerging technologies” that are essential to U.S. national security and that may be included in possible future export control regulations. […]
A new report from the Commerce Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) determined that the Census Bureau must improve the implementation of its risk management framework. […]
The Commerce Department will soon be releasing a draft “road map” on Internet of Things (IoT) security issues, an official with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)–which is part of the Commerce Department–indicated Tuesday during a panel discussion at the 2018 Symantec Government Symposium. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has scheduled hearings for this December, and February 2019, to examine the agency’s authority “to deter unfair and deceptive conduct in data security and privacy matters.” […]
Technology initiatives helped improve response rates for citizens and productivity for Census Bureau employees during the agency’s 2018 End-to-End Census Test, the Bureau reported during its quarterly program management review. […]