Fed Gov Today

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Salesforce. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command features six major commands. One of them is Fleet Weather Center Norfolk . Capt. Erin Acosta , Commanding Officer of Fleet Weather Center Norfolk, says her command is a sister command to Fleet Weather Center San Diego . Readiness is still top-of-mind for the military, including the se...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Nightdragon. The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan, says her service is in a race for talent . RDML David Barata , Commander of the Coast Guard’s Personnel Service Center,tells me how the Coast Guard competes for that talent. Industry will play a bigger part than ever in solving problems for the sea services, according to le...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft. The U.S. Naval Observatory says its mission is to “define and apply the physical environment, from the bottom of the ocean to the stars.” The Observatory is only a few years away from its 200th birthday. At Sea-Air-Space 2023 this week, Geoff Chester, Chief Historian of the Naval Observatory, tells me about the unique place the Observatory h...

The Chief Information Officer of the Defense Department says the Pentagon now has enterprise cloud computing capabilities at all three security levels. John Sherman told Congress last week that capability will be a key tool in implementing its zero trust strategy. Brig. Gen. Paul Fredenburgh (USA ret.), Executive Vice President for the National Security and Defense Engagement Department for AFCEA...

Government leaders should - and can - move faster to deploy artificial intelligence solutions, according to a group of industry leaders . Those leaders tell me generative AI will enable government to do a lot more than it’s doing today. Angela Sheffield , Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence at Raft, and former Senior Program Manager for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Nation...

This program is sponsored by Carahsoft and NVIDIA. The Director of the Office of Personnel Management will release a cyber talent management plan soon , according to testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. That commitment is one of several Kiran Ahuja made in testimony that you heard in part on Fed Gov Today recently. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of Anandalife, former Chief Human...

The new National Cybersecurity Strategy aligns with the Defense Department’s key cyber initiative. The Chief Executive Officer of the organization partnering with DOD on that initiative calls the strategy a rebalancing of cyber responsibilities. Matthew Travis , CEO of the Cyber AB , explains how the CMMC program intersects with the strategy. The Defense Department is extending a pilot program tha...

The new Defense Department Cyber Workforce Strategy includes four pillars for the department to focus on. The Department says an implementation guide is coming soon. Brig. Gen. Greg Touhill (USAF ret.), Director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and former federal Chief Information Security Officer, explains how to get the strategy from docume...

This program is sponsored by Denodo. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. The VA’s transition to the Cerner health record system is on hold now. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Jim Gfrerer, found...

This program is sponsored by Denodo. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Roger Baker, consultant at Roger Baker Consulting, former Assistant Secretary for Informa...

This program sponsored by Denodo. Brig. Gen. Denise Brown is in her seventh month as the Director of the Army’s Networks and Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Services and Integration . One of her primary jobs is to move the Army’s Unified Network Plan forward. At AFCEA DC’s most recent luncheon event, BG Brown explains her team’s role in strategic competition. The E-Gov Act is 20 yea...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. A lot of the focus at West 2023 was on the Pacific. But the war in Ukraine was top of mind too. Maj. Gen. Erich Staudacher (GEAF ret.), General Manager of AFCEA Europe , says the similarities in the Pacific and in Europe should inform the way industry works with governments. Navy leaders are shifting the way they look for solutions to proble...

Fact sheet about the new National Cybersecurity Strategy from the White House The complete National Cybersecurity Strategy (PDF) State Department statement on National Cybersecurity Strategy The new National Cybersecurity Strategy is out from the Biden Administration. It updates the last National Cyber Strategy that came out in 2018. It’s built on five pillars: defending critical infrastructure; d...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. SEAL teams around the world are just one group that gets its comms support from Naval Special Warfare Tactical Communications Command One. The command supports other special operations forces and conventional forces too. Commander Blythe Blakistone , commander of TCC1, tells me about her command’s mission. The Navy is using unmanned systems...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. Three weather operations provide data for the Navy. Those operations include Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk, VA and San Diego , and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Oahu. Captain Kate Hermsdorfer, Commanding Officer for Fleet Weather Center San Diego, tells me who her command’s customers are, and what her command does for them. The Depa...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft and Infoblox. The Defense Department is part owner of the effort to modernize the “ Public Safety Communications Ecosystem. ” It shares that work with the Department of Homeland Security. Sridhar Kowdley is Program Manager in the Office of Science and Engineering… in the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Securit...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft and Forescout. The Navy’s Cyber Defense Operations Command is demonstrating capabilities that other services, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, say they want. The Navy’s Chief Information Officer, Aaron Weis, says NCDOC has shown those capabilities off to leaders at the military’s highest levels. You can hear more about that from Aa...

The General Services Administration’s calls its new OASIS+ contract “next generation Best-in-Class Multi-Agency Contracts for complex non-IT services.” The agency says it's learning some lessons from its other big contracts to make OASIS+ work better for both agency customers, and the vendors that will sell through it. Tiffany Hixson, Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Professional Serv...

Dr. Raj Iyer's last day as the first civilian Chief Information Officer of the Army was Sunday, February 12. He leaves after a two-plus-year tenure as Army CIO. He took the job after former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy split the former CIO/G-6 job when Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford retired in 2021. Raj reviews the progress he believes the Army has made under his tenure, and where his successor shou...

Reinvestment in the G Fund in the Thrift Savings Plan is on hold for now. It’s because of a debate in Congress. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains why TSP participants shouldn't worry. (0:59) The leader of the Defense Information Systems Agency is asking industry to "be invested" in working with his organization. Lt....

The passwords of 5% of employees at the Interior Department include the word "password." That’s one of a number of issues the Interior Inspector General’s office found on the department’s network. Kate Ledesma is Senior Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs at SecurityScorecard, and former Senior Advisor at CISA. She covers some tools agencies have to protect themselves agains...

The Navy is three months into execution of its Cyberspace Superiority Vision . The Navy's Principal Cyber Advisor, Chris Cleary, signed out the vision at the end of October. The vision includes three core principles: Secure, Survive, and Strike. Cleary describes how he and his Navy colleagues devised the vision, how they're implementing it, and how they'll measure its success. Read...

The newest edition of the FITARA scorecard shows seven agencies increased their scores, 17 agencies held steady, and no agencies went down. The latest edition of the scorecard includes new cyber metrics. Federal CISO Chris DeRusha, USAID CIO Jason Gray (whose agency was the only one to get an A on the scorecard) and GAO Directors Carol Harris and Jennifer Franks testified about the new scorecard a...

The Defense Department will use four vendors to provide cloud services through the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability contract . The Department made the announcement Wednesday afternoon; the official rollout was at a news conference Thursday with DoD CIO John Sherman; DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner; DoD Deputy CIO for Information Environment Lily Zeleke; and the Director of DISA's Hosti...

The Defense Department is launching an investment office to channel money to the technologies it needs for the future fight. The Office of Strategic Capital will live inside the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu. Michael Brown led the Defense Innovation Unit for four years; he’s a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University now....