Dr. Laurie Locascio, the White House’s nominee to be the next director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), told senators this week that she will prioritize cybersecurity of internet of things (IoT) devices, and bridging the cyber workforce gap if she is confirmed to head the agency. […]
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, are pressing the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to figure out a fix for the backlog of records requests at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), and suggested IT upgrades as a possible solution. […]
Nickolas Guertin, who President Biden nominated to be the Department of Defense’s (DoD) next director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), sees testing for cyber threats and building cyber testing into the test and evaluation process a priority for the next DOT&E. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken on a number of recent initiatives to build a diverse cyber workforce, which DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly outlined today during the third week of the CISA Cybersecurity Summit. […]
Data experts Eileen Vidrine, chief data officer (CDO) at the U.S. Air Force, and Jeremy Wilson, multi-factor authentication statewide program manager for the State of Texas, gathered on Oct. 19 at the Dell Technologies North America Forum to share their insights on data protection measures and the importance of keeping data secure. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced today that it has awarded $2 million to bring cybersecurity training programs to rural communities and diverse populations. […]
Government agencies continue to modernize IT environments putting data to work for employees, citizens, and the warfighter. During a webinar hosted by Dell Technologies on Oct 19, Federal chief intelligence officers (CIOs) shared best practices for selecting the right infrastructure for high-value workloads.
The Senate Appropriations Committee released the remaining nine fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding bills and included various funding bumps for cybersecurity, as well as funding for artificial intelligence (AI) and microchip development programs. […]
The Senate Appropriations Committee released nine appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2022 on October 18 including a Homeland Security funding bill that would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) a 30 percent budget increase over FY2021 levels, to $2.638 billion. […]
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said today that the Pentagon, as well as the rest of the Federal government, needs to adopt a problem-solving mindset in order to succeed in innovation in a rapidly changing technological landscape. […]
Agency (CISA) provides insight into what Federal buyers will be looking for in technology central to the Biden-Harris administration’s network visibility-focused cybersecurity executive order, specifically on network endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it will hold a listening session for Tribal leaders, staff, and outreach partners to inform participants about the commission’s efforts to increase Tribal libraries’ participation in the E-Rate Program. […]
The emergence of adversarial artificial intelligence (AI) requires special attention. AI users need to understand the threat space and organize responsible AI mitigations, said Pamela Isom, director of the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO) at the Department of Energy (DoE), on Oct. 18 at the AI World virtual summit. […]
The Defense Digital Service (DDS) is repurposing its automated background investigations prototype to focus on insider threats, which includes a name change from the System for Automated Background Evaluation and Review (SABER) to the System for Insider Threat Hindrance (SITH). […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development arm of the DoD, is working on an artificial intelligence project that goes beyond the simple augmentation of work process and is focusing on the symbiosis of human and machine, according to a DARPA official. […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) has wholly transformed the way employees are recruited, hired, trained, evaluated, and even fired. However, employers must find the right division of labor between AI and human resources personnel between using AI to improve human decision-making and delegating decision-making entirely to algorithms, said Keith Sonderling, commissioner for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), on Oct 18 at the AI World virtual summit. […]
The Treasury Department released a new report that found ransomware victims paid $590 million during the first six months of 2021, which is more than the value reported for the entirety of 2020 ($416 million). […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint advisory on Oct. 18 warning organizations that the BlackMatter ransomware group is targeting U.S. critical infrastructure entities. […]
In the new era of cyber defense, Ted Okada, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), stressed that IT leaders must take the right risks to lead their teams in risk management efforts. […]
The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its report on management and performance challenges for fiscal year (FY) 2022, which includes highlighting “significant” challenges in IT investment, system development, and security controls. […]
Democrats in both the House and Senate have introduced bills to fund a cybersecurity grant education program at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint cyber advisory Oct. 14 warning of an ongoing cyber threat to U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) facilities and gave the WWS sector recommended mitigations. […]
NASA officials predict that the agency’s latest state-of-the-art satellites – launching soon – will generate an unprecedented amount of data that will be difficult to manage and optimize with NASA’s current software. Therefore, NASA researchers have turned to cloud computing to make the most of that treasure trove of information. […]
Research from MeriTalk shows that 83 percent of government cybersecurity leaders say their organization operates on an “assume breach” model – assuming their networks have already been breached, or will be. However, cybersecurity experts stress that it’s equally important to put efforts into breach prevention, which involves crucial steps such as identifying all network assets. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for new solutions that incorporate biometric technology to help monitor its employees’ health and stress levels from work and at home, according to a request for information (RFI) posted on SAM.gov. […]
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Oct. 13 that Erie Meyer, a founding member of the agency’s tech and innovation team, will return to CFPB as its next chief technologist. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) hired Lt. Col. Jody Ogle, longtime cybersecurity and IT expert, as a cybersecurity advisor at the agency. […]
While Federal government cybersecurity dominates news headlines this year – from the Biden administration’s executive order (EO) to the spate of high-profile attacks on government and private sector targets – Federal government chief information security officers emphasized this week the importance of tried and true best practices, current tooling, and workforce education in the campaign to improve defenses. […]
The White House charted progress today following the conclusion of its two-day virtual Ministers and Representatives from the Counter Ransomware Initiative Meeting, and outlined several priority efforts to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks globally. […]
As the cyber threat landscape continues to morph for entities at the Federal level, so too does it change for governments at the state, local, and tribal level. For the state of Illinois, adding cyber into emergency management and working closely with counties has helped to better prepare the state for cyber threats. […]