Congressional and White House mandates have put digital transformation at the top of to-do lists across the Federal government for many years now – from Cloud Smart strategies to the recent Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. These mandates, as well as agency-driven modernization, articulate critical goals such as improving cybersecurity and creating more efficiency. […]

Equitable service delivery is at the center of today’s government mission, with executive orders spurring a holistic evaluation of agency practices, programs, and policies. Leaders across Federal agencies are committed to providing value to all people when they need it most, but they also recognize that the journey requires new approaches and mechanisms to make a sustained difference. […]

The Biden administration is determined to improve trust in government, and as part of that goal has made equity a top priority. Agencies are at work responding to recent mandates with assessments about their programs and policies to uncover barriers to serving all demographics and communities. […]

President Biden’s executive order (EO) on improving the nation’s cybersecurity was a call to action to prioritize cyber safeguards in both the public and private sectors. […]

Almost two years ago, life fundamentally changed overnight. People of all backgrounds and communities found themselves needing government services to make it through challenging times, and the Federal government responded by authorizing initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and economic impact payments. […]

By now, Federal IT decision-makers are very familiar with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). […]

Federal agencies continue to confront the challenge of enabling and expanding telework as the need to protect against the spread of COVID-19 affects employees in a variety of roles nationwide. Last year, through technology and ingenuity, agencies rose to the challenge, deploying telework for many functions that previously did not seem suited to it. 2020 created a laboratory for experimenting with technical solutions, personnel management techniques, and security practices—and 2021 is pushing those same limits. […]

Across the U.S. government, Federal CISOs and CIOs are working to address potential vulnerabilities on the new “front lines” of defense: cybersecurity and the software supply chain. The SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline cyberattacks raised more widespread visibility and understanding of the impact of these threats, and in the months that have followed, a cadre of new mandates, draft legislation, and operational directives are taking aim at solving existing vulnerabilities and preventing new ones. […]

The recent Binding Operational Directive issued through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) requiring Federal agencies to immediately patch hundreds of cybersecurity vulnerabilities affirms the Biden administration’s prioritization on securing Federal government networks and reinforces that improved cyber hygiene is critical to protect against malicious adversaries seeking to infiltrate government systems and compromise data. […]

Top cybersecurity officials from the Defense Department (DoD), Federal civilian agencies, and the private sector laid out their developing strategies for zero trust security migration, cloud adoption, and meeting requirements of the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order at an October meeting of the Foundation for American Science and Technology (FAST). […]

We’re experiencing an evolution towards a cloud-native government, where capabilities are viewed as modular and shared like a commodity. To meet mission requirements into the future, this evolution will allow agencies to continuously adapt – flexing these modular, shared cloud-based capabilities to their changing needs. […]

When it comes to the financial impact of data breaches, the healthcare sector consistently tops the list of industries. Dollars and cents, however, represent only a fraction of the damage, especially when it comes to military healthcare networks and programs, which have an immediate and direct impact on national security. […]

With this year’s release of a major strategy policy on cybersecurity, the White House is sending a clear message to agencies: We must move toward the implementation of a zero trust architecture (ZTA) government-wide – and swiftly. […]

The past decade has seen significant data generation around the globe. Market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has predicted that the amount of data generated globally will grow from 33 zettabytes today to 175 zettabytes by 2025, for a compound annual growth rate of 61 percent. […]

Amid a rising tide of ransomware attacks against governments and schools nationwide accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, tech pros are prioritizing investments in core technologies to manage risk, including security and compliance, network infrastructure, and cloud computing. […]

Ransomware attacks are filling headlines. Now reaching unprecedented levels, the ransomware crescendo is part of the surge in cyber-attacks that became a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision addresses the five technology trends poised to have the greatest impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 5: From Me to We, which promises to place the ecosystem at the core of government operations. […]

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision looks at five technology trends likely to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 4: Anywhere, Everywhere, considering the implications of virtual work patterns across the Federal space. […]

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision examines the five technology trends poised to have the broadest impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we consider Trend 3: I, Technologist, which looks at how technology can unlock human potential. […]

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision highlights the five technology trends poised to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 2: Mirrored World, which promises to drive improvements across a range of Federal use cases. […]

The Accenture Federal Technology Vision addresses the five technology trends poised to have the most significant impact on how government operates over the next three years. Today, we look at Trend 1: Stack Strategically as it promises to be a game-changer for Federal agencies. If the COVID-19 pandemic proved anything, the Federal government needs to […]

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, technology was establishing itself as a driving force in government, with cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, and other advances changing the way agencies meet the mission. The pandemic accelerated all that. For the Federal government, COVID-19’s impact was far-reaching. “We are truly in unprecedented times in our nation,” Defense Department […]

Rather than focus on a single topic or recent news event in this column, let’s talk about a number of important Federal government management matters. Think of it as the good government version of Chris Berman’s complete NFL highlights coverage in 60 seconds… […]

As we have seen with recent security breaches – including the SolarWinds attack – it can be challenging for Federal security leaders to effectively detect cyber threats across their networks. In the last few decades, private sector organizations have established tools to help monitor for malicious activity, but until recently, the Federal government hasn’t had one centralized method. […]

The bipartisan infrastructure agreement announced with much fanfare by the White House and a handful of Democratic and Republican senators on June 24 remains a feel-good topic in the nation’s Capitol – after all, who doesn’t like the old-fashioned notion of agreement amidst partisan divides – but the longer the wait for nitty gritty details on the deal, the more questions that come to mind. […]

Like many before him, President Biden seems to recognize that a crisis presents both danger and opportunity. Facing a barrage of high-profile cyberattacks, the President’s recent Cybersecurity Executive Order also illustrates the profound opportunity in front of his administration to improve the Federal government’s cybersecurity posture by an order of magnitude. […]

Many of us are going back to work in person – and this includes the Federal government. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and General Services Administration (GSA) announced on June 10 that the 25 percent occupancy restriction for Federal offices has been lifted, and agencies will soon be able to increase the number of employees in their physical workplaces. […]

For decades, Federal chief information security officers (CISOs) focused on protecting a traditional perimeter and the users within. Today, however, they recognize that there are a seemingly endless number of third-party partners, vendors, and customer accounts, as well as service accounts – accounts which are either not directly tied to employees, or non-human accounts– which could result in compromises. […]

The old adage “consistency is key” rings especially true for Federal cybersecurity operations centers (CSOCs) today. Agencies who pay close attention to their operations center but lack visibility and control of cybersecurity blind spots – specifically applications and workloads – are ripe for attack. […]

Earlier this month, in a May 6 column, I offered up a President’s Management Agenda framework – PMA 46 – for the Biden-Harris Administration as we awaited the full FY 2022 budget proposal, which was publicly released today. While the so-called “skinny budget” released in April outlined plans for the discretionary part of next year’s […]