Across multiple cybersecurity programs and efforts, the Federal government is prioritizing protection for its high value assets (HVAs), said speakers at ATARC’s Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC) conference on Monday, April 29. […]

Cybersecurity and other IT-centric issues made cameo appearances at today’s House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s FY2020 budget proposal, but were quickly overshadowed by sharp questions about immigration and border protection policy. […]

With the release of a new memo by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on shared services today, a major revamp of how the Federal government approaches and acquires cybersecurity services, financial management systems, HR systems, and more is underway. […]

For the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and General Services Administration (GSA), acquisition of new technologies and methodologies requires making sure that all the right processes and controls are in place. […]

While the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program has been successful in driving security deeper into Federal networks, an agency program manager warned this week that without funding for agency IT departments, much of CDM’s progress could be set back. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program office is preparing to work with five Federal government agencies on data protection management efforts, CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox said today at an event organized by RSA and the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC). […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said today that cybersecurity-related spending is due to rise by five percent in FY2020 on a government-wide basis under President Trump’s FY2020 budget proposal. […]

Discussions this morning with a Federal agency IT professional and an IT acquisition professional revealed very different views of the Federal government’s security posture.

Shared on the condition of no attribution during an AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) Bethesda event Tuesday morning, the speakers’ varying opinions showed how the balance between security and effectiveness is an issue still up for debate. […]

The Consolidated Appropriations Act–the bill agreed to by House and Senate negotiators that could avert another partial government shutdown–features more cybersecurity-related funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), but also further obligations to report to Congress in the coming months on key security-related issues. […]

A former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Thursday she believes that while the agency’s core cybersecurity operations are holding up through the partial Federal government shutdown, other important IT security initiatives appear to be lying fallow until the agency receives funding to operate and pay its employees. […]

MeriTalk recently connected with Ted Girard, Vice President Public Sector, Okta, on how agencies can get the most out of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program to navigate on-premise, cloud, and mobile security. MeriTalk:  How does CDM align with the transition from legacy systems to the cloud? Ted Girard:  While the initial CDM phases […]

Federal agency demand for CDM (Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation) security technologies has plenty of room for continued growth based on a GAO report released in late December, which showed mixed progress on agency deployment figures for the first half of 2018. The report underlined the importance of CDM progress and chided Federal agencies for being slow to implement the government’s approach to network security. […]

The explosive use of mobile technologies by citizens and an increasingly mobile Federal workforce is driving the need for greater visibility and security in mobile environments. As a result, the government is looking to continuous diagnostic and mitigation solutions working in conjunction with mobile device management (MDM) solutions to give agencies better awareness into mobile application and devices. […]

A new GAO report released yesterday found that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made progress in implementing its information security program, deficiencies still put agency systems at risk. […]

DEFEND–the new acquisition approach for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program– will allow agencies to quickly bring in cybersecurity products and provide support throughout the lifecycle, said Jim Piche, homeland sector director for the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) within the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is looking to give agencies a cyber hygiene score, redesign its dashboard, and tie the program together with other cybersecurity efforts, said Kevin Cox, CDM program manager at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to run a pilot program to fulfill Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) requirements in the cloud with an innovative approach to meet CDM’s goals. […]

Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security, said today that the new update to Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) guidance will place even more accountability on department leaders and reflects an evolution in discussions between agencies and DHS. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its updated fiscal year 2019 guidance and deadlines for the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA), containing similar deadlines and requirements to the prior year but featuring new language on using Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) vehicles for acquisitions of monitoring tools. […]

Sanjay Gupta, chief technology officer at the Small Business Administration (SBA), discussed last week how his agency has aggressively moved to the cloud while keeping security at the forefront with new pilots to meet Federal requirements. […]

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today introduced the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act in the Senate. The House version of the bill (HR 6443), sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, passed the House earlier this month. […]

The House of Representatives today approved by voice vote HR 6443, the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act, which would codify the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program into law. […]

New Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) DEFEND task orders will allow the Department of Homeland Security to be “more surgical” and “more precise” about how it helps agencies get cybersecurity capabilities, particularly for CDM’s newly-expanded category of mobile devices, CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox said Thursday at an event organized by ATARC. […]

All 23 of the Federal civilian CFO Act agencies covered under the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program will be connected to the governmentwide cybersecurity threat dashboard by September, CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox said today. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent said today that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to update metrics for Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) reporting, and said that agencies are seeing progress in those metrics, which are being tracked in a newly added category in the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard. […]

The Department of Homeland Security is working with multiple Federal agencies to develop a new “risk radar” that will help agencies’ top executives contextualize cybersecurity risk and clarify where they need to apply focus and resources, according to Mark Kneidinger, director of the Federal Network Resilience division of DHS’ Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C). […]

Booz Allen Hamilton confirmed today its selection as prime contractor under the Federal government-wide Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) program for Group D Federal agencies. […]

The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Deputy CIO Guy Cavallo and CTO Sanjay Gupta said today at the FCW Cybersecurity Summit that their agency’s unorthodox approach to the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program is yielding a ton of practical benefits, even though it required a bit of a departure from CDM’s initial guidelines. Now, SBA is providing a new potential model for other agencies – many struggling with the first of CDM’s four phases – to use when considering how to achieve the outcomes the program intends. […]

Federal agencies must build “identity-aware” infrastructures to effectively monitor and manage user access to information and information systems across their enterprise for more secure and efficient operations, according to cybersecurity experts. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]