DOJ didn't name names, but Amazon, Google, and Facebook investors are spooked.
The Department of Justice is launching an antitrust probe into some of the world's biggest and most influential tech companies, the agency announced Tuesday.
The department's Antitrust Division, which is responsible for reviewing and enforcing issues relating to mergers, monopolies, competition, and price-fixing, said its review would "consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail services online."
“Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” Makan Delrahim, head of the Antitrust Division, said. “The Department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.”
The DOJ didn't name any names, but the list of "market-leading online platforms" accused of stifling competition through dishonest tactics, or simply of being too big for competitors to exist against, generally has Amazon, Facebook, and Google at the top; all three companies' stocks immediately tanked following the announcement.
Read full story at ars Technica…
first published week of: 07/29/2019
( WorldAtlas.com )
Legacy network bottlenecks during the testing phase of the data and application migration to a Unisys-owned hybrid cloud center, in Eagan, Minn., have pushed back state plans to go live until early November
Kansas has had to delay by almost three months the migration of data and applications to a brand-new, vendor-housed data center after hitting an unexpected snag.
Pennsylvania-based Unisys was awarded a contract with the state in 2017 to stand up a hybrid cloud facility in Eagan, Minn. Kansas began the migration process in January by using pilot groups in case the current legacy network failed to successfully transfer information to the new Unisys hardware.
Chief Information Technology Officer Lee Allen said he was about to green light the full migration when problems began to arise.
“The legacy network that’s in place was bottlenecking the flow of data in certain points. The ultimate cause is outdated hardware, what they call an ‘oversubscription at our access layer,’” Allen told Government Technology. “The devices where the users directly connect to the network in our various facilities — it's a specific model that we’ve used extensively and is at capacity — creates this bottleneck.”
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 08/12/2019
"It's not just a video game," says spokeswoman for New York Democrat who wrote bill creating advisory committee.
Several House Democrats have a novel idea for how to train the federal workforce: virtual reality.
The 2019 Virtual Reality Technologies Enabling Coaching and Honing Skills (VR TECHS) in Government Act (H.R. 4103), introduced by Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., would create a federal advisory committee headed by the General Services Administration to develop ways to use virtual reality products for federal employees’ professional development. The committee would be tasked with establishing best practices for using virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology to train employees and to share those with agencies.
Sarah Sinovic, a spokeswoman for Clarke, said the congresswoman first started thinking about the bill when hearing about a firefighter who was not properly trained and died on the job. The bill, she said, would create opportunities for the entire federal workforce to benefit from virtual reality, not just first responders.
Read full story at GovExec…
first published week of: 08/05/2019
Some agencies have a far more robust cybersecurity workforce than others, and lawmakers want them to spread the wealth.
Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., John Hoeven, R-N.D., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Thursday reintroduced a bill that would create a program that allows government cyber specialists to gain professional experience at multiple agencies. Under the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act, feds with cyber experience would be able to do stints at agencies with less robust security infrastructures, which would bolster those organizations’ digital defenses.
By giving feds exposure to a diverse array of security challenges, lawmakers aim to make government cyber jobs more appealing.
Read full story at NextGov…
first published week of: 02/11/2019
Government rarely gets credit for the tremendous range of innovation it drives. But as the winners of our 2019 Government Innovation Awards make clear, amazing things are happening at all levels of the public sector.
The 40 Public Sector Innovations below include everything from AI-powered mission enablers to cloud-based reinvention to cybersecurity workforce development. In some cases, the technology itself is transformative, while in others creative use of readily available tools is the game-changer. All, however, show how IT and innovation can dramatically improve government.
Read full story at GCN…
first published week of: 11/18/2019
A bill passed by the Legislature and expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis will see the state’s predominant IT agency — the Agency for State Technology — folded into the Department of Management Services.
Florida, which has long flirted with a state technology shakeup, will soon embark on a massive reorganization of IT governance. The process will see previously distinct agencies merged into one and the launch of new tech initiatives — including a cybersecurity task force.
A bill recently passed by the Legislature and expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis will see the state’s predominant IT agency — the Agency for State Technology (AST) — folded into the Department of Management Services (DMS), the state’s department devoted to business and workforce related activities. The AST will then be merged with the DMS’ telecommunications division, creating the DMS Division of State Technologies.
In the past, Florida more than once came close to a similar reorganization process, but some political differences consistently quashed attempts.
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 05/13/2019
The initiative will provide resources to support workshops for municipalities to bolster cybersecurity.
Cyberattacks don’t just target large cities and state government. They also hit small towns that often have even fewer resources to defend themselves.
With that in mind, last month Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a new program to help the commonwealth’s 351 municipalities develop plans to enhance their cybersecurity resiliency.
The initiative, backed by $300,000 in funding, will be managed by the MassCyberCenter, a public entity that seeks to coordinate the state’s cybersecurity ecosystem.
The program will “support a series of statewide workshops that will provide municipalities with the tools to develop or review their cyber incident response plans and facilitate collaboration with neighboring communities,” according to a press release.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 11/18/2019
Initiatives across the country seem to be gaining steam as cities look to encourage equitable access — but pitfalls around cost and taxpayer risk remain.
As the need for equitable internet access becomes increasingly important to leaders, some cities are taking matters into their own hands and setting up municipally owned and operated networks.
When internet is treated as a public utility like gas, water or electricity, some city leaders say it can help residents find jobs, do homework at home more easily and connect easier to new technology like telehealth.
And while telecom companies and internet service providers (ISPs) have pushed back, arguing that they are in the best place to provide service and are doing what they can to roll it out citywide, the likes of Chattanooga, TN and Fort Collins, CO have taken the lead, while others such as Seattle are trying to follow in their footsteps.
Read full story at Smart Cities Dive…
first published week of: 12/30/2019
ALITA will focus on promoting technology development and its adoption by the legal sector of the nation.
Singapore saw the launch of the Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (ALITA), focused on promoting technology development and its adoption by the legal sector of the nation.This is the first of such an organisation within the Asia-Pacific region to be established for such purposes.It was launched as part of a two-day law and tech conference, TechLaw.Fest. The event saw the attendance of over 50 legal technology enterprises from 15 countries. These include enterprises from India, China and Vietnam.Law Minister K. Shanmugam who attended the event said that it is imperative for lawyers to accept and adopt technology into their practices. He added that the legal profession is to expect the incorporation of technology into its processes with time.He gave examples of how there currently is an application which can detect and narrow down onto issues which a lawyer needs to focus on.Mr Shanmugam said that technology will act allow lawyers to carry out their more efficiently and replace mundane manual tasks.He acknowledged that while technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be employed for the decision makings, there are ethical boundaries to be considered and needs to be worked on.
Read full story at OpenGov…
first published week of: 09/09/2019
Leveraging data as a strategic asset has become a new priority for the U.S. government, which recently released a comprehensive Federal Data Strategy that calls for secure, private and sharable data across all government agencies. According to Suzette Kent, the CIO of the U.S. government, the new Federal Data Strategy marks “a new era for the way government manages data.” The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided an overview of the 10 core principles and 40 best practices that will govern the Federal Data Strategy, as well as a draft action plan for putting these principles and practices into place in 2019-2020.
While the primary focus of the new Federal Data Strategy is on growing the U.S. economy and improving the overall effectiveness of government, there is also ample mention of privacy and security. Government agencies will be expected to derive optimal value from their data assets, but they will also be held to very high standards when it comes to the safety, security and confidentiality of that data. As part of this sweeping new Federal Data Strategy, each government agency will be expected to create annual Action Plans that lay out the concrete steps that they will be taking to move forward with the key principles and practices.
Read full story at CPO Magazine…
first published week of: 07/08/2019