"How can we implement a holistic approach to cybersecurity?" "What methodologies, policies, technologies, and specific tools can we deploy to prevent, detect and monitor cybersecurity threats"? "How can we build a more effective program?" As more data breaches are disclosed, cybersecurity is at the forefront of Boards, executives, employees and consumers. Breaches are a continuing threat to an organization's reputation through the disclosure o...

Most people in government would confirm that cybersecurity is their #1 priority right now. A hybrid work environment with its enlarged attack surface and a continuing escalation in the number and sophistication of attacks put the systems and the data that resides on them at an uncomfortable level of risk. The administration is providing new policy guidance with an executive order on cybersecurity that emphasizes Zero Trust architecture, new gu...

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...

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...

In June 2021, the federal government was optimistic about returning to offices in the summer and began planning for reentry with new guidelines. The Delta variant surge paused those plans and caused a reexamination of the future work plans. Learn how agencies are adjusting to host of new and continuing challenges: a long term remote workforce, the technology and security challenges they face, how they are changing the way they manage the workf...

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...

The Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation (CDM) program has matured and broadened its offerings and full deployment of agency dashboards is on the horizon. In the last year, however, ominous high profile breaches in commercial and critical infrastructure networks have highlighted the continued importance of strong cybersecurity across federal networks. In the wake of the pandemic, federal IT managers are faced with an increasingly complex cyber...

Time and time again, data breaches demonstrate the pitfalls of relying on detection to identify malicious activities taking place on the network, rather than prevention of the threat in the first place. The emphasis—post event—has been what the agency did wrong. But, what if we took a different approach that allowed agencies to share what has been working for them? Both before and after. Some tips and lessons from folks who have be...