The State Department is saying goodbye to its first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley. […]
The State Department is looking to expand its cloud-based systems overseas, and is working to address some of the challenges that come with that effort, a State Department technology official explained on May 9. […]
The State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) has hired Adam Segal to lead the development of a U.S. International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy. […]
On the one-year anniversary after its inception, the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy at the State Department is on track to accomplish its goal of having a trained cyber and digital officer in every U.S. embassy around the world by the end of 2024. […]
The State Department has named Laura Williams as the deputy chief information officer (CIO) for foreign operations. […]
The State Department has unveiled details of its plans to use $100 million of funding provided under the 2022 CHIPS Act to improve semiconductor supply chain security and international information and communications technology security. […]
The government watchdog agency is calling upon the State Department to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of capacity building efforts to aid foreign nations in combatting cybercrime. […]
Kelly Fletcher, chief information officer (CIO) at the U.S. State Department, outlined some of her key priorities for 2023 this year during a Feb. 16 online event organized by Billington Cybersecurity. […]
The State Department, in conjunction with other endorsing nation states, unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) guidelines for military usage on Feb. 16. […]
The U.S. Department of State is preparing to roll out a minimum viable product (MVP) to digitize its procurement forecasting tool as a way to innovate internally for its customers and increase engagement with industry partners, an agency official said during a virtual event hosted by AFFIRM on Feb. 15. […]
The U.S. Department of State established a new office charged with understanding the critical and emerging technologies reshaping the world and its integral part of the conduct of U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy. […]
As the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane in many places around the world, Federal agency leaders are sorting through lessons learned from remote work that can be combined with more traditional ideas with the aim of boosting efficiency overall. […]
The Department of State has given industry the green light to start working on proposals for a potential seven-year, $10 billion enterprise IT services contract vehicle, the department said in the final solicitation released Friday. […]
The State Department today named Dr. Kelly Fletcher as the agency’s new chief information officer (CIO). […]
The State Department has awarded Verizon a $1.6 billion contract to modernize communications infrastructure and provide IT services for the agency’s nearly 260 embassies, consulates, and other facilities across the globe. […]
Government officials from the Department of State (DOS), Energy (DoE), and Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed their visions for the future and top priorities pertaining to modernizing information technology (IT) within the Federal government. […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of State (DOS) said that the agency has not been complying with the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (GDA) in its latest report from late August. […]
The U.S. Department of State (DoS) on August 29 imposed administrative debarment under the International Traffic and Arms Regulations (ITAR) upon three former U.S. private sector cybersecurity employees, according to a Federal Register notice. […]
The State Department is offering a cash reward of up to $10 million for information that can help link cybercriminal activities to foreign governments targeting American infrastructure, and in particular is looking to match a published photo of an as-yet unnamed individual with the “Conti” hacking group that operates in concert with the Russian government. […]
Implementing leading workforce practices is essential to successfully recruiting and retaining IT experts, and the U.S. Department of State has more work to do on that front, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated in a new report. […]
The Department of State is seeking feedback on its EVOLVE IT contract update, a contract vehicle for IT products and services, via a revised draft request for proposals on SAM.gov that sees the contract ceiling raised to $10 billion. […]
The State Department is seeking feedback from industry on requirements for building a procurement forecasting application that would provide vendors with status updates on potential future requirements and acquisition activities. […]
President Biden has announced his intent to nominate Nate Fick as the ambassador at large to lead the State Department’s newly established Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP). […]
The Federal government’s Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) is falling short on information sharing regarding each participating agency’s current or planned spending for the whole-of-government initiative, and could use a shared database to make spending information more readily accessible, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]
Keith Jones, the State Department’s chief information officer (CIO), will be stepping down from his post after 16 months to return to the private sector, a department spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Department of State is looking to hire up to about 50 data scientists to work in different agency offices and portfolios, as well as support data-driven diplomacy. […]
The Department of State’s newly established Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) has hired Ruth Berry as its acting deputy assistant secretary for international information and communications policy. […]
The Department of State is inviting Federal employees and contractors to renew their passports online before the agency opens that new capability to the public later in 2022. […]
The State Department announced today that it has officially launched its long-awaited Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP), which will “address the national security challenges, economic opportunities, and implications for U.S. values associated with cyberspace, digital technologies, and digital policy.” […]
Information security remains a prevalent concern for the State Department based on numerous previous recommendations regarding fundamental information technology-related issues that still require close attention, according to a recent agency Office of Inspector General (OIG) report.
The report assesses 107 unclassified, open OIG recommendations from 19 reports addressed to the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) as of July 30, 2021. OIG found that IRM had addressed three of the 107 recommendations and closed one duplicative recommendation related to risk management, one related to data protection and privacy, and one related to general IT policies. Additionally, OIG closed 14 recommendations in August 2021 as part of its normal compliance process.
However, the remaining 90 recommendations – 57 percent of which dated back to fiscal 2019 or earlier – remain relevant and require “close attention to close them,” the report read.
A larger number of the recommendations involve configuration management of products and systems to ensure information security. The other unaddressed recommendations pertain to several areas including as risk management, IT investments, contingency planning, and shared services.
To facilitate closing the remaining recommendations addressed to IRM, OIG made two recommendations to Carol Perez, the agency’s under secretary for management. OIG recommended her office develop a method for periodically reviewing IRM’s efforts – and indicated that step has since been taken.
OIG also recommended that Perez’s office verify IRM plans of action and milestones (POA&M) documented for all 90 recommendations. However, Perez disagreed with that recommendation, explaining that if the end goal is for IRM to solve open recommendations, developing an individual action plan for each recommendation is “overly cumbersome.”
“IRM’s staff, time, and resources are better spent working on compliance-related activities, maintaining a high standard of day-to-day operations, and communicating directly with OIG,” Perez wrote in her response to OIG.
However, OIG argued that under guidance from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, agencies are required to develop a POA&M, and that Perez must submit a POA for the recommendation. […]