With 2020 nearly in the rearview mirror, we surveyed the office to find everyone’s silver linings of the pandemic. From ditching the morning commute to logging more quality time with loved ones, we’ve done our best to make lemonade out of lemons. […]
A new survey released by MeriTalk and Splunk finds that public sector IT decision makers are increasingly planning around zero trust security concepts, with that thinking driven by current and future requirements for telework capabilities, among other security management needs. However, agencies face challenges in migrating to zero trust, including the need to invest in foundational technologies, according to findings from the survey of 150 Federal IT decision makers and 150 state, local, and higher education (SLED) IT decisionmakers on their agencies’ efforts around zero trust. […]
The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), a Washington-based trade group known for its advocacy for Federal government IT modernization, released a new set of recommendations Dec. 17 for the Biden administration and incoming Congress to improve Federal tech capabilities by learning from some of the lessons of the government’s rapid turn to telework during the coronavirus pandemic. […]
Senior executives with Google Cloud emphasized at their first Public Sector Summit on Dec. 8 the work that the company has been doing with a variety of public sector organizations during the coronavirus pandemic, and one emerging silver lining to the health crisis: a big leap forward in IT modernization that will help government and academia during the recovery. […]
While larger Federal government agencies had the resources necessary to facilitate a shift to large-scale telework earlier this year, some smaller agencies had a more difficult time mounting similar efforts, a State Department official said at a Dec. 9 AFCEA Bethesda webinar. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) released a cybersecurity alert on Dec. 7 warning that state-sponsored hackers based in Russia have been attacking remote workspaces and exploiting a vulnerability in a suite of VMware products. […]
As the coronavirus pandemic hits the nine-month mark in December – and infection rates soar across the United States – telework remains mostly in place for most of the Federal government workforce whose jobs can be done offsite. […]
A senior Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official said today that the coronavirus pandemic may turn out to have one silver lining – it has helped the agency and the Defense Department (DoD) to be more innovative and flexible with their use of technology to accommodate dislocations including telework requirements. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a November 20 memo to component agencies that will allow civilian employees with kids to continue working remotely until at least June 30, 2021, extending the COVID-related telework flexibilities issued by DoD in March. […]
As Federal agencies continue to keep a majority of their workforces teleworking – and may continue to do so for the longer term as the coronavirus pandemic heats up again – keeping identity management practices a top priority has been a key ingredient in Federal agency cybersecurity efforts. […]
Now that much of the Federal government workforce has eight months of pandemic-driven telework under its belt, government officials are examining how that experience has changed the future landscape of providing service to citizens, and how to incorporate lessons learned for what may be the longer haul of remote work. […]
Sean Connelly, who heads the TIC Program Office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said today that his office is aiming to release a remote-user use case for the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 security initiative that will build on interim TIC guidance the agency issued earlier this year to help Federal agencies migrate quickly to large-scale telework. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) component is looking for technology to enable remote exam proctoring, according to a Nov. 16 solicitation post on Beta.Sam.gov. […]
The Pentagon plans to continue use of its commercial virtual remote (CVR) capability – that has helped enable telework for the military during the coronavirus pandemic – until June of 2021, a senior Defense Department (DoD) tech official reaffirmed today. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) successful shift to telework at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the department to meet the mental health needs of veterans with its Veterans Crisis Line (VCL). […]
Amid a shift to telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is urging its Reserve Citizen Airmen to stay laser focused on Personally Identifiable Information (PII) breach reduction while working from home. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is working on a “more enduring” version of the Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) environment technology that it ramped up earlier this year to support telework for more than one million DoD personnel during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a senior Pentagon technology official. […]
Back in March, the Federal government pivoted to telework practically overnight and since then, Federal IT experts have been on the hunt for ways to improve the employee experience, maximize productivity, and strengthen remote environment security. […]
If you’re like most of us, you haven’t seen the inside of your old office in a while, and you’re spending a whole lot less time and money commuting for work. […]
A new survey finds that 82 percent of Federal IT decisionmakers expect the majority of the work week to consist of telework even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. The survey also finds decisionmakers still face challenges in managing systems and cybersecurity. […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has released results of a two-part survey that found most GPO employees were satisfied with IT support and top leadership’s communication in keeping them informed during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
Nearly six months into the COVID-19 pandemic impacting how nearly every organization operates, ServiceNow’s global “The Work Survey” offers insight into how executives and employees view the increased reliance on technology and the shift to telework. […]
Looking ahead to a post-pandemic future, Department of Transportation (DoT) CIO Ryan Cote said at MeriTalk’s October 7 CIO Crossroads webinar that the workplace structure will be forever changed as organizations and Federal agencies realize the value of technology implemented throughout the mass shift to remote work. […]
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) CIO Karen Evans said today she needs to make sure that the agency’s ability to conduct large-scale telework remains sustained as uncertainty continues over future developments with the coronavirus pandemic. […]
The three biggest linchpins for the Department of State’s successful implementation of telework across the enterprise each involve longer-term IT investments that the agency was able to make prior to the coronavirus pandemic, and each of those investments has paid big dividends in agency performance since March. […]
Six months into a highly successful make-or-break campaign to put the Federal government workforce on a remote-work footing to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the hard-won experience of that battle has paved the way for renewed action on broader IT modernization, government and private sector officials said on a recent MeriTalk webinar. […]
A new report from the Greater Washington Partnership revealed that employers in the National Capital Region that responded to their survey plan to have 72 percent of their employees return to the office by summer 2021, but a third of those respondents are still unsure of their reopening plans that far in advance. […]
A majority of the largest Federal agencies will have their inspector general (IG) offices involved in monitoring how agencies plan for and proceed with office reopening plans amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today. […]
Looking ahead to future IT modernization projects at the Defense Department (DoD), CIO Dana Deasy is predicting a bigger emphasis on data and sustaining telework capabilities in the long term. […]
MeriTalk recently sat down with Chip Carr, Senior Manager of Virtual GPU Technology at NVIDIA to discuss how Federal agencies have transitioned to telework environments while introducing new technologies, applications and collaboration tools – and what Carr sees going forward. […]