Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

The events of 9/11 – and more recently, the SolarWinds cyber incident – have illuminated a vital lesson: seamless collaboration across the intelligence community, Federal agencies, industries, academia, and international partners is essential for a comprehensive understanding of national security threats, a senior intelligence official said this week. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report this week saying that Federal agencies are hitting the requirements set by President Biden’s October 2023 AI executive order (EO) so far. However, GAO officials are letting agencies know that they expected this outcome and will be watching to make sure agencies continue to get it right. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) component is declaring victory in a long technology modernization journey marked by the completion of its transition to modern cloud-based systems.    […]

State Department

The State Department’s Office of Cyber Monitoring and Operations is zeroing in on two AI use cases to better defend against cyber threats, with Director Manuel “Manny” Medrano announcing today that the agency plans to build a cyber data visualization for its analysts by the end of the year. […]

Army

The Defense Department (DoD) is gearing up to launch the 12th chapter of its Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) and this time around, the spotlight is on the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) network – particularly related to joint kill chains, global integration, and allied partner sharing – a senior DoD tech official said today.   […]

As voters prepare to head to the polls this November, the Federal government and other influential people – most recently, Taylor Swift – are warning voters about the risks of artificial intelligence and the emerging technology’s role in election-related misinformation. […]

Defense Information Systems Agency, DISA

With 40 out of 60 planned sites slated for fiscal year (FY) 2024 now operational, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is aiming for full deployment of its Thunderdome zero trust network initiative by FY 2027, according to a senior agency official. […]

General Services Administration GSA

The General Services Administration (GSA) said it is moving “full steam ahead” with its new ASCEND governmentwide cloud computing initiative, as it released two requests for information (RFI) last week that offer additional details about the program. […]

In a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week, a group of 142 organizations are calling on DHS to suspend the use of AI technologies for immigration enforcement that do not comply with Federal requirements for responsible AI by Dec. 1. […]

cybersecurity

Senior U.S. defense leaders offered a blunt message at last week’s Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington: no matter how high-tech your security is, it’s only as good as your basic cyber hygiene that surrounds it. […]

As Federal agencies begin their transition to quantum-resistant encryption, Federal officials on Thursday stressed that creating cryptographic agility – meaning the ability to operate agile systems where cryptography elements can be easily changed as needed – will become an even bigger technology issue than the coming changes in post-quantum cryptography (PQC) itself. […]

While it may seem like many Federal agencies are already using artificial intelligence, an official from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shared on Sept. 4 that the Federal government is really just in the beginning stages of deploying the emerging technology. […]

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is launching a new program designed to elevate the standards and reliability of artificial intelligence (AI) models in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). […]

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology
Army

The U.S. Army aims to introduce new regulations by February – or potentially sooner – that will require comprehensive ingredient lists for nearly all newly acquired or developed software that the service branch uses. […]

White House

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) today released its Roadmap to Enhancing Internet Routing Security, offering more than a dozen recommendations to network operators and service providers as well as the Federal government to secure the internet ecosystem. […]

Federal agency officials said on Tuesday that foundational learning, hands-on experience, and emphasizing the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are among the issues topping their priority list when it comes to training government employees on the integration of AI tech into agency operations.   […]

The U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI), housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), announced today it has signed first-of-their-kind research and testing agreements with Anthropic and OpenAI – a key step in allowing the government to access and assess the companies’ latest AI models. […]

Federal officials said this week that international collaboration and better sharing of actionable security guidance are needed to help meet the challenge of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks from China and other adversaries who are making the ability to attack critical infrastructure industries part of their military strategies.   […]

Intelligence officials across the Federal government are raising concerns about the escalating challenges and implications of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly regarding data authenticity. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a new vulnerability to its known exploited vulnerability catalog following a warning last week from Lumen Technologies that Chinese state-sponsored threat actor Volt Typhoon is actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in network management platform Versa Director. […]

The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) announced during its quarterly meeting today that the group plans to study the government’s national preparedness for its transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). […]

The Department of the Navy’s Neptune Cloud Management Office (CMO) launched its first mission owner into the new Flank Speed Azure IL6 cloud environment, and they’re already prepping a second mission owner for takeoff, according to an Aug. 22 announcement on LinkedIn. […]

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