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Federal CISO DeRusha: OMB Zero Trust Strategy ‘Just the Beginning’
As both Federal chief information security officer and the deputy National Cyber Director, Chris DeRusha has a lot of visibility into Federal efforts to boost cybersecurity. At the AWS Summit in Washington, D.C., today, DeRusha expressed both pride in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Zero Trust strategy, while also acknowledging that the policy represents only the beginning of zero trust implementation across Federal civilian agencies.
  • All Eyes on Digital Assets EO for Crypto, Blockchain Policy Turns
    Experts from the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology sectors said today they are watching with deep interest for the outcomes of a Biden administration executive order issued in March on the risks and benefits of digital assets in order to gauge the whether the Federal government and Congress will undertake meaningful regulatory changes that would benefit the sectors.
  • ransomware Senate Report Blasts Lack of Data on Ransomware Attacks, Payments
    Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., along with the committee’s Democratic staffers, released a report today taking the Federal government to task for gathering insufficient data on ransomware attacks, and the use of cryptocurrencies as payments in those attacks where a ransom has been paid.
  • Customer experience CX-min CMS Improves CX on New Medicare Website
    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated its Medicare.gov website, creating an optimized customer experience (CX) and making it easier for millions of Americans to find providers and health and drug coverage plans.
Recent News
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  2. DoD Milancy Harris Nominated for DoD Security and Intelligence Post
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  3. NGA to Offer Free Access to Human Geography Population Data
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  1. Zeroing in on Application and Data: 2022 Federal Zero Trust Maturity Zero Trust Data, Application Pillars in Spotlight for June 1 Webinar
    Join MeriTalk and Merlin Cyber on June 1 at 10 a.m. for our complimentary Zeroing in on Application and Data webinar, where government and industry IT experts will put the spotlight on the data and application pillars of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Zero Trust Maturity Model.
  2. Five Tips for Navigating the Federal Return to Office
    According to the results of The Office of Personnel Management’s 2021 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, federal workers' engagement and satisfaction with their jobs has decreased from 2020. In an accompanied report, OPM predicted that some of the declines in engagement and satisfaction might be due to the fact that agencies were preparing – or had already begun – efforts to move Federal workers back to traditional work sites.
  3. DoD Pentagon Military DoD’s CUI Cyber Work Remains Work in Progress, GAO Says
    The Department of Defense (DoD) has taken steps to fully implement cybersecurity requirements for controlled unclassified information (CUI), however, none of the DoD components were fully compliant on that front as of January 2022, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
  4. TMF TMF Awards $13.5M to NARA, USDA for CX, Cyber Projects
    The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) today announced $13.5 million of new project funding to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to improve citizen service through better records delivery, and to the Agriculture Department (USDA) to speed cybersecurity improvement efforts.
  1. NCD Inglis: Cyberattacks Impact ‘Confidence’ as Much as Systems
    National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said he views the current cybersecurity threat landscape as an evolution that is increasingly impacting confidence in systems, rather than just focusing on critical functions or data.
  2. Loren Rodgers Named Data Modernization Coordinator at CDC
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  4. DoJ Changes CFAA Policy on Good Faith Hackers
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  5. Countdown to MerITocracy: Feds Facing Faster Cyber Attacks
    The in-person forum – at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – will host bipartisan leaders from Congress, the Biden administration, and America’s tech industry to examine the most pressing problems facing citizens in our democracy, and map out creative solutions from the nexus of policy and technology. Request your invitation today by emailing meritocracy@meritalk.com.
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    MeriTalk research – executed in partnership with RSA Conference, underwritten by Cofense, Keeper Security, Recorded Future, Secureworks, and SentinelOne, and capturing the viewpoints of 100 Federal and 100 private-sector security experts – shows that a whopping 93 percent of respondents believe that public-private partnerships are “vital” to national cyber defense.
  9. OMB’s Coleman Speaking on Workforce Policy May 24
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  10. Zscaler Says Two More FedRAMP Authorizations in Process
    Cloud security provider Zscaler said this week that it has two additional Federal Risk and Authorization Program (FedRAMP) authorizations in process, and expects to receive certifications in the coming weeks.