When the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act became law at the beginning of 2021, it added resources and high level support for the government’s expansion of its pilot AI projects into large scale applications. A new AI Initiative Office was created at the White House to provide policy guidance and help speed the use of AI to leverage government data. The Government Accountability Office published its Federal AI Accountabilit...

Data has become the lifeblood of federal, state and local agencies’ missions, allowing more nimble, informed and effective operations and service. It drives almost every aspect of government services, from cyber threat detection, to mission critical support operations at civilian and military agencies, to externally-facing customer services. Understanding how to harness that data and use it in new, innovative ways remains a continuing ch...

From wildfires and hurricanes to increasing crime rates and the continuing pandemic, public safety organizations at all levels of government find themselves spread thin these days. However, a continued wave of technology innovations can help fill their need for better data, quicker response and effective delivery of services. The move of many public safety organizations to the cloud has opened new options for using and sharing operational data...

IT modernization continues to be a guiding light for the federal government, but long-standing issues still complicate agencies’ plans, in addition to urgent new issues. Continuing cloud migration and management, more potent cybersecurity and supply chain risks, budgeting, as well as evolving remote work environments add up to an increasingly complex environment for agencies looking to modernize their IT at scale.Adapting to those challe...

The COVID pandemic spurred agencies to move their data and applications to the cloud quicker than many had planned to make it more accessible for a remote workforce and to protect it from intensifying cyberattacks. More than a year into the new normal world of remote work, agencies are evaluating the best ways to secure the hybrid and multi clouds and their data troves to make sure it can meet the increased challenges. In May 2020, the Biden A...

With aging IT infrastructure, outdated job classification system and a greying government workforce, agency executive and human capital officers face a trifecta of challenges in the years ahead. Soaring demand for cybersecurity experts and data scientists are just two examples of the newer professional specialists that the government is struggling to hire. With the rise of vaccinated workers, questions have arisen about the reopening of federa...

In just a few short years, Robotic Process Automation has gone from a few scattered pilot projects to an essential tool deployed by dozens of agencies. Hundreds of thousands of staff-hours have been saved, and organizations are increasingly looking to leverage artificial intelligence to automate more-complicated workflows. Automation at scale comes with challenges, however -- from credential management to siloed systems to ensuring that outdat...

To protect the health and safety of attendees, this event has been rescheduled due to COVID-19 concerns. New Dates: 10/19-10/21/2021 Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure. The Nation’s critical infrastructure provides the essential services that underpin American society. Pr...

The Society of Government Meeting Professionals (SGMP) will celebrate its 40th anniversary and host its Annual National Education Conference (NEC) in Huntsville, Alabama from September 21-23, 2021 and virtually. The hybrid conference is the oldest annual event in the government meetings industry and where government planners and suppliers from across the country come together for non-stop education, resources and connections. Nine continuing e...

OVERVIEW By the beginning of 2021, NIST will have released the finals of many Risk Management Framework (RMF) standards: SP800-53 Rev 5 – Security Controls SP800-53B – Security Control Baselines, Privacy Framework SP800-160 Vol 2 – Systems Security Engineering SP800-161 Rev 1 – Supply Chain Risk Management SP800-171 Rev 2 – Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and High Valued Assets (HVA) Revisions to the NIS...