National Cybersecurity Strategy: Building a More Secure Future

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In March, the Biden Administration released the latest guidance aimed at improving the cybersecurity practices of Federal agencies. The National Cybersecurity Strategy builds on the Executive Order for Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity that makes cybersecurity a strategic focus of every agency. This latest guidance drills further into the actions needed to ensure that government systems and citizen data are protected against the ever-evolving threat landscape.

The goal of the strategy is to "rebalance the responsibility to defend cyberspace" and "realign incentives to favor long-term investments." To do this, the responsibility for cybersecurity must be shifted to the organizations that are most capable and best-positioned to reduce risks. It points out that, "a single person's momentary lapse in judgment, use of an outdated password, or errant click on a suspicious link should not have national security consequences." While security is the responsibility of everyone, small businesses, small localities, and individuals simply do not have the resources to support the security needed to protect systems and data. Instead, the guidance proposes new incentives to favor long-term investments in security, resilience, and new technologies. Continue reading →

New Dimensions for 3D Printing

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While most people are familiar with 3D printing as something your engineer neighbor messes around with in their basement to produce small models, the applications of the technology can be much more significant than a hobbyist's weekend activity. The technology is being used in some mission critical and massive scale projects across government.

Construction

An early, small-scale application of 3D printing in the construction industry was recreating historical fixtures for renovations. Historical buildings, many of which house government agencies and government-run museums, have light fixtures, molding, door knobs, etc. that may need replacing. Finding actual replacements for centuries old materials is incredibly difficult and building them from traditional materials is time consuming and costly. 3D printing has proven to be a valuable solution to maintaining the historical look quickly and at a much reduced cost. Continue reading →

How the Federal Government is Implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices

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Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key focus areas of the Biden administration's President's Management Agenda (PMA). Additionally, the administration issued an executive order in June 2021 directing agencies across government to implement more diversity training, rethink the use of salary history as a basis for pay determinations, and supply gender non-conforming and nonbinary and transgender employees with credentials that reflect their current names, pictures and pronouns. Finally, in November 2021 the administration offered a strategic plan to help guide agencies in diversity efforts, asking for the submission of agency-specific Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) plans by March 2023.

Diversity Today

This focus is starting to show results. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a first-ever report on the diversity of the federal workforce. It looked at hiring and retention across agencies and gave a snapshot of the administration's efforts to remove barriers for applicants from underrepresented communities. The report finds small but encouraging gains in racial diversity between 2017 and 2021 with Black employees rising from 18.15 percent to 18.19 percent of the federal workforce. Latinx made a much larger jump rising from 8.75 percent to 9.95 percent. Women's representation grew from 43.38 percent of the workforce in 2017 to 44.44 percent in 2021. Future reporting will look at nonbinary workers. Continue reading →

The Metaverse in Your Neighborhood

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State and local governments tend to be the early adopters of emerging technology in the public sector. Smart city projects, grant management, and regional collaboration have driven localities to implement emerging technology to meet the real challenges of serving citizens. Today, states and localities are experimenting with how virtual reality, and more specifically the metaverse, can help further real-world connections in communities.

Trained by Avatars

Virtual reality has long been used as a tool for training in government - think flight simulators - but today, the technology is being used for more than just tactical training. Virtual reality is helping to introduce scenarios to improve the empathy and understanding of public servants. In the metaverse, public safety professionals can safely simulate responding to dangerous situations (without the real-world risks) while also adding in realistic interactions with "people" behaving as they would during a crisis. Continue reading →

Understanding Barriers to Zero Trust

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Two years following the "Cyber EO" naming zero trust as the security architecture of the future and after one year of implementing the Federal Zero Trust Strategy, federal agencies have made important progress predicting and identifying roadblocks. With the first major deadlines coming at the end of 2023, this year is critical for figuring out how to overcome identified barriers.

Resource Issues

A survey found that 35% of federal CIOs say they have "intermediate or advanced" zero trust capabilities in place, but there are concerns about having the right resources and funding to fully meet administration mandates. Nine in 10 respondents agreed a key step is having a zero trust assessment performed by an outside resource to identify gaps and key focus areas, but contracting and finding funding for this effort is difficult. With this assessment, existing resources can be assigned to the most critical and impactful areas, and the need for additional funding and resources can be prioritized. Funding specifically earmarked for zero trust will be in FY24 budgets. This funding is determined by aligning the work and tools needed across each capability area. Continue reading →