Tag Archives: VA

Supporting AI Growth in Government with Professional Education

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being incorporated into the function of government in numerous ways. The AI.gov website includes more than 700 AI use cases across federal agencies.

Among the many projects, AI is being used to:

These pilot projects provide a peek into the power of AI to improve the speed and effectiveness of decision-making and service to citizens. However, for AI to have a government-wide impact, the success and challenges of these solid projects need to be shared. Continue reading →

The Lesser Known Missions of Homeland Security

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The mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is widely understood, "to safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values." However, in carrying out this mission, DHS touches a number of areas that may not seem intuitively tied to homeland defense but are nonetheless critical challenges facing the nation as well as agencies across government.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS has a key role in securing the homeland from cyber threats. The department's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the operational lead for federal cybersecurity and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. With this responsibility, CISA and other DHS agencies play a key role in shaping policy and guidance around emerging technology use. Today, they are keenly focused on helping agencies safely and ethically use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve mission effectiveness.

DHS is leading by example. AI is currently being used to aid border-patrol efforts, combat drug trafficking, and create age-progression estimations of missing children. While implementing AI itself, DHS is also focused on how adversaries may use AI and creating ways to defend against the technology being used to spread disinformation, create more advanced cyber attacks, or speed the development of weapons. Continue reading →

New Tech Means New Acquisition Strategies for DoD

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With more and more battles being fought in cyberspace, the pace of warfare has accelerated. However, the systems that support our warfighter were not designed to support the speed or types of products and services needed for modern defense. This year's AFCEA West Conference is focused on ensuring acquisition and readiness are on pace to meet global security demands. Ensuring our warfighters get the tools they need when they need them is a critical effort requiring evolution and reform of defense acquisition.

Improved Private Sector Coordination

A congressional hearing in late 2023 discussed the need for the Department of Defense (DoD) to tap into the innovation taking place in the private sector to stay competitive with global adversaries. A draft of the national defense industrial strategy stated that the defense industrial base "does not possess the capacity, capability, responsiveness, or resilience required to satisfy the full range of military production needs at speed and scale." Continue reading →

Regulating Blockchain’s Promise

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Blockchain is proving to be an enabler of secure and transparent government transactions. As with any technology, as it gains traction it also gains scrutiny. Several laws and regulations have been introduced to ensure that risks associated with blockchain are understood and mitigated.

Recently, the Government Accountability Office issued a recommendation that the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal financial regulators create a formalized coalition to coordinate the identification and addressing of blockchain-related risks. These risks could include security gaps resulting from old software, phishing schemes, speed of networks, and foreign access to sensitive data. Continue reading →

Creating an Inventory of Tech and People for More Secure Systems

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Moving to a zero-trust model for cybersecurity is dependent on understanding who and what needs access to your network. While simple to say, it is not as simple to do. Government agencies are currently focused on ensuring they have the full picture of what is on the network and who they need to support securing those assets.

Defining the Ecosystem

As agencies progress on their zero-trust journey, understanding every piece that touches networks becomes critical. These touchpoints often extend beyond traditional technology solutions. The growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices introduces operational technology into the IT architecture.

Edge computing devices being used by field staff, sensors, and cameras all provide valuable data and efficiency, but they also provide an entry point for bad actors. Because of this, the Office of Management and Budget has tasked agencies with creating an IoT Inventory by the end of fiscal 2024. The memo details the breadth of devices to be inventoried, including building maintenance systems, environmental sensors, specialized equipment in hospitals and laboratories, and more. With this inventory in place, agencies will be able to take advantage of a new working group on the CISO Council, which will define IoT and OT security best practices.

New Approach = New Talent

With cybersecurity permeating every aspect of government operations - from traditional IT to the operational systems mentioned above - we need to take a look at how we train the federal workforce. With a recognized cybersecurity skills gap, new efforts are underway to grow a workforce trained and able to take on cybersecurity challenges.

  • The Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act has been introduced to grow the federal cybersecurity workforce through the creation of several programs including a focus on providing cybersecurity training to veterans.
  • Keeping cyber talent in government is just as critical as training new talent. The Office of Personnel Management has created the cyber rotational program to allow federal employees to move to details at other agencies, providing the opportunity for growth within the federal government.
  • The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is building its cyber ranks with the next generation. It created a program to hire high school students as interns and give them top-secret security clearances to work on mission-critical work.

GovEvents and GovWhitePapers have a host of resources that detail how agencies can get a handle on the things they need to secure and the people they need to do that work.

  • Identify, Evaluate & Prioritize Industrial Cyber Risk (January 10, 2024; webcast) - Industrial control system (ICS) security represents one of the more challenging areas for security professionals. It's often a legacy system that wasn't designed with security in mind and, because it's different from traditional IT assets, it has very different security requirements. And no surprise--such systems are increasingly targeted by sophisticated cyberattackers, including ransomware gangs and nation-state actors. Learn how to harden OT assets against cyber-threats, identify critical endpoint vulnerabilities and risks, enable rapid recovery, and more.
  • Bridging the Cybersecurity Talent Gap in Government (January 11, 2024; webcast) - Navigating the unique challenges of the government and public sector demands a specialized approach to cybersecurity talent. This session will unveil groundbreaking methods, from upskilling your current team to leveraging a pre-vetted cybersecurity talent pool. It will also explore government-funded cybersecurity training programs to enhance your workforce.
  • Federal News Network's Industry Exchange Cyber (January 22, 2024; webcast) - Gain a perspective on cybersecurity issues critical to government: intelligence, endpoint management and remediation, identity security, cybersecurity asset management, and security orchestration and response.
  • CyberSmart 2024: Cybersecurity Faces a Rapidly Changing Landscape (January 25, 2024; Reston, VA) - Just as agencies are implementing zero-trust architecture to help with this wave, other IT developments are threatening to upend cybersecurity even more. Artificial intelligence is being incorporated into software, even as elected officials and regulatory agencies are trying to develop new rules of the road for its use. At the same time, historically offline operations technology is beginning to be integrated with IT systems, opening up the OT to attacks that previously weren't feasible.
  • Cybersecurity (white paper) - The increasing use of communication technologies relying on complex data, technology, communication, and interconnectivity has expanded attack surfaces and increased the potential risk of malicious exploitation. The Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology's Cybersecurity Program leverages multidisciplinary expertise to research, analyze, and develop cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies and capabilities to improve the protection and resilience of our national critical infrastructure and federal and state departments and agencies.
  • Accelerate Cybersecurity Mandate Compliance (white paper) - In the push to comply with a multitude of cybersecurity mandates, federal agencies are faced with challenges of cost, complexity, and delays to achieve full compliance. Failure to fully implement the requirements of these mandates, however, is not an option when critical infrastructure, public services, and national security are at risk from an ever-expanding threat landscape.
  • Building the Cybersecurity Workforce Pipeline (white paper) - This report analyzes the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber (NCAE-C), a consortium of institutions designated as centers of excellence by the National Security Agency, to determine how NCAE-C designated institutions fare compared to other schools in graduating students with cyber-related degrees and credentials.

For more on the government's path to zero trust, explore the resources available on GovEvents and GovWhitePapers.