The combined response of the Federal government and the private sector to the Russia-based cyberattack of government and business networks via SolarWinds Orion software is making for a promising use case for addressing major incidents in the future, said Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha on April 22. […]
The U.S. Army is looking for a contractor to provide a cloud-native, enterprise-wide data management platform. […]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is currently undergoing a digital transformation to better deliver enterprise IT focused on cybersecurity, resiliency, and cloud, an agency official said on April 22. […]
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate on April 21 would make it more difficult for Federal agencies to buy personal data on American citizens, and do more to protect citizens’ personal data from shady data broker sales. […]
Sens. Gary Peters D-Mich., and John Thune, R-S.D., have introduced legislation that would strengthen the Federal workforce through attracting experts in the AI field to public service. […]
The White House and a bipartisan group of senators are finding common ground in the Endless Frontier Act legislation introduced in the Senate today. […]
The Application Rationalization Playbook has been around since June 2019, yet not all IT portfolio managers have taken advantage of it. A Federal IT expert encouraged agencies to utilize this playbook, not only to help with cloud migration but also said it can help save costs and get chief information officers (CIOs) on “the same page.” […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is looking into how it could use AI and machine learning in nuclear power generation and is seeking comment from the commercial nuclear power industry to help in that inquiry, according to an NRC request for comment published April 21. […]
Reps. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., reintroduced the Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act in the House on Tuesday in an effort to ensure the security of existing wireless networks. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued Emergency Directive (ED) 21-03 that requires Federal civilian departments and agencies running Pulse Connect Secure products “to assess and mitigate any anomalous activity or active exploitation detected on their networks.” […]
As government agencies have increased their digital presence through social media, websites, or other online channels, they also have put themselves in position to be attacked outside of their traditional digital perimeters. These outside attacks can include social media impersonations, account takeovers, false or misleading information, or the disclosure of confidential agency information. […]
Witnesses at today’s House Agriculture Committee hearing agreed that involvement of the Federal government is a prerequisite to any successful expansion of broadband service access in rural areas of the United States. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is replacing its aging financial and acquisition systems with an integrated system after two prior attempts to replace the systems cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of several years to develop. In a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, GAO made recommendations to minimize risk of cost overruns and delays. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) – with help from industry and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA – is kicking off a 100-day effort to improve electric infrastructure cybersecurity, the White House and DoE said today. […]
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking input on evidence-building activities to inform SSA priorities – including priorities of the Biden administration – as well as input on future projects to advance SSA’s mission. […]
A bipartisan Senate bill introduced on Monday would help the United States to grow and maintain its global technology advantage against China and other competing nations. […]
Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced two separate bills that aim to boost United States leadership in quantum information science (QIS). […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Friday it will re-establish the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), with a focus on “improving 5G network security.” […]
As cyberattacks become ever-increasing, one thing is clear: the United States needs to strengthen its cybersecurity efforts. Federal government and private sector cyber experts sat down to discuss the future of the cyber conflict and how to prevent the next big cyberattack. […]
A handful of Democratic legislators have sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DoJ) seeking answers to what steps the agency takes to ensure predictive policing technology is effective, and whether it tests for bias and requires transparency in algorithms used in the technology. […]
The Federal government is curtailing its “surge” response to the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange hacks after seeing improvements in patching that have helped to remediate the impacts of the cyber attacks, the Biden administration said today. […]
In a request for information (RFI), the U.S. Army said it needs an enterprise scale contractual vehicle or agreement to modernize and migrate Army applications and data into commercial cloud environments. […]
The FITARA 11.0 scorecard released in December 2020 turned out to be a pretty good report card for Federal agency IT operations. The latest set of grades marked just the second time since the House Oversight and Reform Committee started measuring agency progress against Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA) and other key metrics that every agency received a passing score. […]
A 2019 tweak by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the definition of a data center – and thus how the Federal government proceeds with its Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) aimed at sharply cutting the number of data centers that Federal agencies operate – is having the effect of leaving the government more vulnerable to cyberattacks, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official concurred today. […]
The Department of Labor (DoL) recently released new guidelines on protecting $9.3 trillion in retirement benefits for over 34 million participants in contribution plans by making sure proper cybersecurity best practices are in place. […]
Running both the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command in an era of expanding cyberattacks pushes a lot of pressing issues to the top of a leader’s to-do list, but for Gen. Paul Nakasone – who heads both organizations that are key to U.S. efforts to operate in cyberspace outside of national borders – workforce development tends to rise above the rest. […]
With information warfare growing in the competition arena, a clear strategy and a joint force provider to usher in this strategy are necessary for the United States to combat influence operations by foreign adversaries, U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall said today. […]
Three Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplements (DFARS) related to the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) are set to become permanent rules shortly, Katie Arrington, the Pentagon’s CISO for acquisition and sustainment, said April 15. […]
A senior Biden administration official dropped significant hints today about the contents of the administration’s expected executive order (EO) on cybersecurity. The coming EO has been much talked about in policy circles in recent weeks, with a consensus view that it will be released soon, but without much firm detail about its expected content. […]
Rob Brown, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), today discussed the importance of data quality checks as well as what steps USCIS is taking to accelerate its digital modernization. […]