With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the work landscape, potentially forever, cybersecurity officials are advising that workplaces prepare to build resiliency into these hybrid work landscapes and make sure they are working strategically to secure the connections. […]
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COVID-19
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Aug. 13 to include most Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees, volunteers, contractors, or anyone who comes in contact with VA patients and healthcare workers as part of their job, the agency announced today. Additionally, the National Guard, part of the Department of […]
The COVID-19 pandemic allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to accelerate its digital transformation efforts in a way that wasn’t possible before the public health crisis, a VA official said this week, while explaining how the agency quickly adapted to become more agile and take advantage of previous investments in digital transformation solutions. […]
The White House has issued new guidance in a series of questions and answers regarding COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements for Federal employees, contractors, and visitors. […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created a new data system in April 2020 to deal with collecting data on whether hospitals have enough beds and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, during the pandemic, HHS changed its data collection methods and requirements—making it difficult for hospitals to report data. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) confirmed yesterday that all military members and civilian personnel will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, or face regular testing and social distancing requirements. […]
The Biden Administration today announced much-anticipated requirements for all Federal employees and onsite contractors to get COVID-19 vaccinations and confirm their vaccination status. […]
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced Federal employees will need to wear a mask inside of Federal buildings once again, in light of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suggesting those who are fully vaccinated wear a mask indoors in areas of substantial or high transmission. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued new guidance on Friday evening to assist agencies in their office reentry plans and policies, offering answers to frequently asked questions surrounding telework and reentry personnel policies. […]
Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Ben Cardin, D-Md., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, reintroduced the Chai Suthammanont Remembrance Act on July 14, which requires government agencies to establish COVID-19 safety plans to protect Federal workers returning to the office. […]
The Biden administration announced expanded telework options for Federal employees on Thursday, creating a huge cultural shift for the Federal government that will allow agencies to offer flexible work-from-home and hybrid schedules to employees. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and General Services Administration (GSA) announced today 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. […]
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, led by the White House COVID-19 Response Team, announced this week that Federal agencies “generally” cannot require employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or require employees to disclose their vaccination status. […]
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) wants to build on its current transformational period, catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, to accelerate change and position the military to win, and the service branch’s CIO spoke on June 8 about tech strategies that the Air Force and the Defense Department are putting in place to get to that goal. […]
Over the years, many government agencies have undergone significant digital growth. But while they were “doing digital” and leveraging digital technologies to enhance their capabilities, they still primarily relied on traditional operating models. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Federal agencies to work remotely almost immediately, but Federal CIOs and CTOs agree that this shift to teleworking has enabled agencies to undergo a transformational cultural shift within the agency and provides more opportunities for innovation. […]
Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated mask guidance released last week, the White House said fully vaccinated Federal employees, onsite contractors, and visitors to Federal buildings no longer have to wear masks. […]
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a record number of citizens to interact with the Federal government, constituents are still worried about their data safety in interactions with the government and believe the government still needs to modernize its systems, according to a Carahsoft study released May 6. […]
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has recovered over $1.1 billion in funds paid through the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) that were initially granted based on false application information, SBA OIG said in a report released May 6. […]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on April 30 released a draft of a proposed order for the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, which would reimburse schools and libraries for their purchases of devices and broadband connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
The United States was once a leader in the collection and utilization of public health data. As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, the United States must resume its leadership in this domain. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has extended Schedule A hiring authority for Federal agencies to hire personnel temporarily to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a March 29 OPM memo. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telehealth dramatically, but there is still a long way to go in terms of broadband and infrastructure, experts say. […]
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) official said today that while the Federal government could require all Federal employees to have a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to offices, it might be counterproductive to do so in a very strict way given the expectation that some of the workforce won’t want to, or be able to, receive the vaccine. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is seeing good results on a program that uses AI combined with commercial off-the-shelf wearable-devices to identify if the wearer has contracted COVID-19 up to two days before symptoms show. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is awarding the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (UW-APL) $959,305 to bring together experts to develop digital contact tracing (DCT) application testing criteria. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the adoption of AI technologies to accelerate, but a recent report shows industry leaders and government decision-makers say it may be moving too fast for comfort, especially when considering security risks. Nonetheless, government decision-makers remain confident in AI’s ability to improve bureaucratic efficiency. […]
Federal leaders agreed during a Feb. 25 virtual conference organized by GovExec that the Federal government needs to change its mindset and culture to allow for more telework in the future, even after the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
A group of House Democrats is urging the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to allocate COVID-19 vaccinations for the Federal workforce, many of whom are considered essential workers. […]
It has been nearly a year since the Federal workforce had to shift to telework practically overnight. While the Federal government was already working to increase telework capabilities, COVID-19 forced agencies to modernize at warp speed. After making sure employees had the devices they need, agencies had to ensure that cybersecurity capabilities remained strong even though employees were now working on their home networks. […]