The market for virtual reality headsets—like the popular gaming system known as Oculus Rift, or the many headsets that are now shipping with consumer drones—is poised for rapid growth starting this holiday season. In fact, Juniper Research estimates that global sales of VR headsets will hit 3 million next year and as much as 30 […]

MeriTalk caught up with Department of Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer Karen Neuman Nov. 19 at MeriTalk’s Big Data Brainstorm in Washington, D.C. Listen to the podcast. […]

With cybersecurity threats mushrooming across the Federal government, members of a House committee said this week that the Education Department is failing to protect the data of millions of Americans. DoEd’s systems have been penetrated many times by the inspector general, and the department has failed to correct many recommendations from the IG and General […]

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella took Washington, D.C., by storm Tuesday and detailed the software giant’s rapid transformation from being the target of choice for hackers because of poor security and coding practices to becoming one of the computing world’s leading information security and cyber intelligence firms. The distinction is an important one for […]

Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer LaVerne Council announced Nov. 6 that Brian Burns has accepted an offer to become the agency’s next chief information security officer. Burns takes over for Dan Galik, who has served as acting CISO since Stan Lowe retired in August. Burns will also continue in his role as deputy […]

With Internet security on everyone’s mind and secure cloud on everyone’s bucket list throughout the Federal government, Verizon is expanding secure access to cloud services for Federal customers on its private IP network. Federal agencies now can securely connect to a growing roster of FedRAMP-certified cloud providers via Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI) service. Featuring […]

Ron Ross, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, leads the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Implementation Project. He developed the first set of unified information security standards and guidelines for all Federal agencies. Ross recently participated in Q&A for Meritalk.com. MeriTalk: Please describe how you developed the first set of […]

The Office of Personnel Management got a wakeup call earlier this year when it discovered millions of files had been hacked, but its nightmare isn’t over yet. The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into the theft of 21.5 million security clearance files. OPM is still plugging the holes and millions of Federal workers, their […]

Despite the growing threat and success of cyberattacks on government and commercial sites, the information community around the world is failing to recruit talented women with the expertise to create a tougher information security wall, a new report says. The 2015 global report, “Women in Security: Wisely Positioned for the Future of InfoSec,” by (ISC)² […]

Greg Godbout, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the EPA since April, is bringing a new way of thinking to the Federal IT community. His goal is to create a more agile system and improve everyday processes, serving the customers, not the stakeholders. Formerly the Executive Director and Co-Founder of 18F at the General Services […]

The Father of the Internet sees the potential of the Internet of Things. But there are also risks associated with having billions of connected devices, Vint Cerf said at the Fourth Annual Cyber Security Brainstorm. “The headline I worry about is ‘100,000 Refrigerators Attack Bank of America,’” said Cerf, who helped develop the TCP/IP protocols […]

Preventing cyber attacks requires focusing on adversaries rather than the technology used to stop those adversaries, the retired deputy director of the National Security Agency (NSA) said Wednesday at MeriTalk’s Fourth Annual Cyber Security Brainstorm. “It’s about more than technology,” said Chris Inglis, who retired from the NSA last year and now teaches at the […]

There are two things that Defense Department Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen wants to change: The pace at which the Defense Department adopts cloud computing and the level of automation in today’s cyber defenses. Both are easier said than done, but not impossible. And Halvorsen is optimistic that the Pentagon can begin making real progress […]

The National Security Agency detailed “a significant amount of people and resources” to the Federal investigation of the data breach at the Office of Personnel Management, NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers acknowledged Tuesday at a public forum in Washington, D.C. The response, however, was largely an effort to help OPM understand how the breach happened […]

A group of cybersecurity and computer science experts backed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency began a long-term encryption research effort last month that could one day prevent hackers from being able to reverse engineer and steal software. The goal of DARPA’s Safeware program is to develop technology that can cryptographically obscure software code, […]

The Office of Personnel Management and the Defense Department Awarded a $133 million contract Tuesday to Portland, Oregon-based Identity Theft Guard Solutions LLC for identity theft protection services in the aftermath of the massive breach of the Federal government’s central security clearance database. “We remain fully committed to assisting the victims of these serious cybercrimes […]

Defense Secretary Ash Carter plans to announce an expansion of the Pentagon’s public-private partnership with Silicon Valley Friday in what is being described as a “major economic initiative.” The visit to the nation’s technology center of gravity is being billed by the Pentagon as a followup to Carter’s trip in April, when he released a […]

It’s only been one month since Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 to great fanfare and high expectations for a world of new and better user experiences. And while the initial focus was on the deep integration between the operating system and the Internet, much of that attention has now turned to security. And the timing couldn’t […]

Decades of funding shortfalls and tired legacy systems are to blame for the massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), says OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, who defended her agency and its staff under heavy questioning in Congress last week. Case in point: OPM was using the most basic version of Einstein, the […]