Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Cloud Connect
workforce federal workers industry-min

A Federal hiring freeze ordered in a January 2017 presidential memo resulted in “significant” staffing reductions across the State Department – including the inability to fill two Senior Executive Service cybersecurity positions, which then delayed implementing an enterprise risk management program for IT systems. […]

Ron Wyden Oregon
elections, election security, voting

In response to the 2017  Cambridge Analytica scandal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the Voter Privacy Act on July 31. The legislation would give voters greater control over how their personal information is used by political candidates and campaigns in Federal elections. Feinstein’s office said currently there is no Federal law regulating the collection and use of voter data by political organizations. […]

Microsoft HQ
Facebook

The Department of Justice (DoJ), along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced today that Facebook has agreed to pay a $5 billion fine regarding data privacy claims. The fine is the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the FTC. […]

Ron Wyden Oregon

Following the Federal government’s settlement with Equifax regarding its 2017 data breach, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pledged to renew his push towards passing data privacy legislation. In a statement on July 22, Wyden urged the passage of his Consumer Data Protection Act, which he initially introduced in November of 2018. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

The Defense Department on July 12 released its Digital Modernization Strategy, but for followers of DoD IT policy developments, the high points of the strategy cover already-familiar territory including cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and workforce development. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General has flagged cybersecurity and data management issues as top management challenges for the agency in FY2019 that need to be tackled. […]

White House flag at half mast

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a July 2 report that poor contract change data management and monitoring in the General Services Administration (GSA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) contributes to inconsistencies agency officials and industry representatives have found in the length of contract change processes. […]

Big Data Analytics

With initiatives like the Federal Data Strategy, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, and the President’s Management Agenda pushing agency use of data, a new study from the Partnership for Public Service and Grant Thornton examines the best practices for agencies looking to use their data to drive better results. […]

White House

The Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Action Plan to Leverage Data as Strategic Asset released June updates under the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) on June 20, which indicated movement in the Federal Data Strategy’s development, as well as strategies the CAP Goal team is taking to overcome data use and strategy challenges. […]

The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Office of Federal Procurement Policy Deputy Administrator Lesley Field explained how OMB is working on its category management, training procurement officers, and data use modernization to accelerate and sharpen Federal procurement at the Acquisition Innovation CXO Tech Forum today. […]

Now that the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been in place for about a year, managing big data and automating workflow are two significant challenges organizations face as they continue tackling data protection, International Data Cooperation European Security Research Director Martin Whitworth said. […]

ICAM

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials confirmed that no more than 100,000 photos of travelers and license plates were compromised in a data breach CBP identified on May 31, according to The New York Times and Washington Post. […]

As the reality of cyber threats and data breaches becomes closer to normal life for private and public sector organizations, a Nominet report finds that while executives know cyber risks are high, they still lack resources and accountability for handling breaches and information security. […]

capitol washington dc senate house congress-min
big data
USDA
EPA Environmental Protection Agency

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided an update on the 19 recommendations it made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made in March 2018 and of those recommendations, the EPA has taken actions to improve on five of the recommendations as of April 2019. […]

Google HQ

The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai on April 23 for a lengthy list of details about historical consumer location information that, according to recent media reports, the company maintains internally and refers to as “Sensorvault.” […]

Data Center Brainstorm

Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today she is “hopeful” that the Federal Data Strategy and guidance on the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act will be released “in the next 30 days” by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

data sharing

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is seeking to address data-sharing platform gaps that lead to inefficient dissemination of “knowledge” products, and updated a request for information (RFI) on a draft Statement of Work (SOW) for data management services from vendors. […]

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DoI) issued a solicitation today seeking a contractor to maintain, expand, and promote the production of National Archive Data and Culture (NADAC). […]

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