Tony Scott was the Federal government’s third chief information officer, serving the nation in that role from 2015 through early 2017. During his time at the helm of government-wide IT, Scott led the development of 2016’s State of Federal IT Report, which left a lasting roadmap for modernization progress in the Federal government. […]
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The Director of the Office of Personnel Management said this week that the Federal government should take cues from the private sector “gig economy” to leverage quick talent acquisition and short-term work, drawing forceful pushback from a government employees union. […]
Agencies are rolling out aspects of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program with varying degrees of speed and success, but the inherent benefits of the program are not being questioned. […]
Email is a core network application for both the private sector the and government, and has become an essential business communication tool. Since email is nearly ubiquitous and often poorly secured, it also has become a vector for fraud and data theft. Phishing emails can compromise not only Federal networks and databases, but also trust in government communications. […]
Office of Personnel Management CIO Dave Devries will be leaving his position effective Sept. 2 due to family considerations, an OPM spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. DeVries joined OPM in August 2016. […]
The Government Accountability Office found that the Office of Personnel Management’s cybersecurity posture is still lacking after the major hack of the agency in 2015. […]
The Office of Personnel Management released a memorandum last week that extended the deadline for agencies to submit their Agency Reform Plans on executive branch reorganization. […]
Federal agencies must identify and code vacant civilian positions with information technology and cybersecurity functions by April 18 to ease the hiring process of new cybersecurity professionals. The Office of Personnel Management will check in with agencies in May to confirm that coding procedures are established and in place. […]
Managers within some Federal agencies have demonstrated resistance to telework programs, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. […]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is not yet sure what the impact of the Federal hiring freeze will be on his agency. […]
Though lessons learned from the Office of Personnel Management data breach have resulted in many improvements in cybersecurity practices, the 2015 breach and subsequent cyber incidents led members at a House Oversight Committee hearing to question the pace of Federal data protection efforts. “Right now it is an uphill fight,” said Department of Defense CIO Terry Halvorsen. […]
The Office of Personnel Management report on the status of telework in 2016 found that the number of Federal employees who telework has continued to increase. From 2013 to 2015 telework participation increased from 39 percent to 46 percent of eligible employees. […]
After the OPM breach in 2015, what has the government learned? What would be done differently with today’s technology?
During a Federal News Radio interview, Aubrey Merchant-Dest, Federal CTO, Blue Coat, pointed to guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as ways for agencies to prevent another breach […]
The Office of Personnel Management needs to make its payroll data available through its Enterprise Human Resources Integration initiative, according a recent Government Accountability Office report. […]
News broke this week that the FBI in August had arrested another NSA employee for allegedly stealing and hoarding highly classified information in his home and car. Like Edward Snowden, the employee worked for Federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, raising questions about the efficacy of the security reforms put in place at the agency. […]
The Office of Personnel Management announced today that it has hired Dave DeVries, the principal deputy chief information officer at the Defense Department, to become the agency’s next permanent CIO. […]
Office of Personnel Management Director Beth Cobert announced the first Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy to address the pervasive problem that government agencies face in recruiting and retaining a sufficient cybersecurity workforce. […]
The 18 government agencies with high-impact systems constantly fend off cyberattacks from “nations,” which are groups of hackers sponsored by nation-states. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office security report, these attacks pose the most serious threat to the security of these systems. […]
The 2016 Symantec Government Symposium is coming up on Aug. 30, and its Cyber Awards deadline is June 1. The Cyber Awards recognize individuals who show excellence and leadership in government cybersecurity through individual contributions to programs that protect critical data and systems. […]
Catch up on some reading this weekend. Here are a few interesting items from around the Web. … […]
The Office of Personnel Management is relieved of the duties of conducting security clearances. Those duties instead go to a brand new agency, the National Background Investigations Bureau. […]
A new report by the Congressional Research Service found flaws in keeping track of the size of Federal agencies, and noted that the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security are having trouble recruiting and training cybersecurity professionals. […]
The Pentagon’s Defense Manpower Data Center may have problems with employees searching for their own personnel files on the Joint Personnel Adjudication System, a serious security concern. “Notifications will be emailed to users who have violated JPAS policy by querying and/or looking up their own record within the last 30 days as a warning to the user,” according to a notice posted to agency employees. […]
With new authority comes greater accountability. See how that applies to the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). […]
A new Federal agency is in the works to take over the security clearance process from the Office of Personnel Management, according to former intelligence officials with knowledge of the discussions. Word of the plan to create a new National Investigative Service Agency comes as security officials this week are scheduled to brief leaders of […]
Ashley Mahan can add “evangelist” to her resume. The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) named her its “agency evangelist” on Oct. 21. Mahan’s familiarity with Federal IT and cloud computing make her an obvious choice to spread the gospel of cloud computing and sing FedRAMP’s praises to an increasingly receptive congregation of Federal […]
No Category Set!
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 […]
The recent data breach at the Office of Personnel Management has put a spotlight on the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program. There have been articles and blog posts that call into question the usefulness and logic of CDM because it didn’t detect the attackers or block the exploit at OPM. […]
No Category Set!
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) didn’t realize hackers had stolen millions of records until nearly a year after they gained access to the agency’s network, but the agency moved quickly to address the hack once they discovered it, according to a timeline obtained by FCW. An official timeline of the breach prepared for Federal […]
— from my colleague Frank Briguglio at Dell Software… By Frank J. Briguglio, CISSP, Security Architect, Dell Software The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has stated that any government employee, contractor or military service member that has filled out the “Questionnaire for National Security Positions SF-86” since 2000 (and possibly prior) is at risk of […]