In the role of chief technology officer since June, Christopher Rein describes the challenges he sees around modernizing legacy systems and striking a balance between implementing current and emerging tech.
Christopher Rein took the lead as New Jersey’s chief technology officer last June, overseeing the state’s Office of Information Technology. A longtime public- and private-sector tech official, Rein previously served as deputy director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell, as well as the state’s deputy chief information security officer. He’s New Jersey’s second-ever IT leader and is taking a measured approach to state IT modernization and development.
1. WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST PRIORITIES OVER THE NEXT YEAR?
Probably like many states, modernization of legacy technology is a big one. Some areas have been unfunded or underfunded for quite some time, and the state has employed some heroic efforts to keep them running. So we need to modernize some back ends, modernize infrastructure, but also modernize and help with the digital transformation, where it’s not just technology, it’s not just the website, but it’s the culture change, the behavior change, and in some cases the process change within government.
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 01/07/2019
After Atlanta and Baltimore, another major US city grapples with a ransomware attack.
The city of New Orleans is dealing with a cyber-attack. The nature of the cyber-attack has been confirmed as a ransomware infection in a press conference held today by New Orleans officials.
The attack was discovered earlier today, at around 11:00 am, local time, a city spokesperson told ZDNet via phone call.
"Out of an abundance of caution, all employees were immediately alerted to power down computers, unplug devices & disconnect from the city's WiFi," said Beau Tidwell, a spokesman for New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
The nola.gov website is also offline, being shut down with the rest of the city's servers.
According to reports from local media outlets [1, 2], to make sure employees powered down computers as soon as possible, officials used the city hall's public loudspeakers systems to alert employees of the cyber-attack.
Besides city hall, the incident also affected the New Orleans Police Department, which shut down its IT network in entirety as well.
Read full story at ZDNet…
first published week of: 12/16/2019
As states and localities transition to Next Generation 911, here is what they must consider.
Everyone knows from movies and TV shows that when you dial 911 on your phone, an operator picks up and usually responds with, “911, what’s your emergency?” But how does that call get routed and what happens after callers have described their emergency situation?
A movement underway across the country is seeking to modernize and upgrade the entire 911 experience and the technology infrastructure behind it. The goal is to make it easier for callers to transmit richer and more detailed information about their emergencies, and for staff at 911 call centers, known as public safety answer points, or PSAPs, to then provide that information to first responders.
The effort, known as Next Generation 911 (NG911), is an initiative designed to enhance the infrastructure that underpins the 911 system, and switch from legacy circuit-switched voice to IP-based networks. One of the goals of NG911 is for callers to be able to transmit pictures and videos to 911 operators via their mobile devices. States have made varying levels of progress on transitioning to NG911 systems, according to the National 911 Program.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 09/23/2019
The city of Baltimore had more than two years to defend itself against the attack, and it’s officials’ fault they dropped the ball, according to NSA cyber chief Rob Joyce.
It’s unreasonable to get mad at someone for spoiling a movie that came out more than two years ago, and a National Security Agency official thinks the same logic should apply to cybersecurity exploits.
Rob Joyce, the NSA’s top cyber policy adviser, on Thursday rebuffed blame after one of the agency’s cyber weapons was used to hold Baltimore’s computer networks for ransom, arguing the attack would’ve been avoided if the city was more proactive with its digital hygiene.
“NSA shares the concerns of all the law-abiding citizens around the world about the threat posed by that criminal, malicious cyber activity, but the characterization that there’s an indefensible nation-state tool propagating ransomware is simply untrue,” Joyce said at a cybersecurity conference hosted by CrowdStrike.
On May 7, hackers reportedly used an NSA tool called EternalBlue to freeze thousands of the Baltimore government’s computers. The attack shut down email and disrupted numerous government services, and it could ultimately cost the city more than $18 million to recover.
EternalBlue, which was stolen during a 2017 breach at NSA, exploited a previously disclosed bug in a Microsoft software package. The company issued a patch for the vulnerability more than two years ago, but because Baltimore never updated its software, the city remained susceptible to the attack.
Read full story at NextGov…
first published week of: 06/03/2019
( debt.org )
The scholarship money will be available to 35 colleges, with the goal of strengthening the state’s workforce in technology related fields such as computer science fields like coding and cyber security.
More than 20 million dollars in new scholarship money for computer science programs is now available to 35 Ohio schools.
Inside the Kettering Laboratories Building at the University of Dayton campus Thursday, local leaders and presidents from colleges and universities around the state gathered as Lt. Governor Jon Husted and Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner announced a new Choose Ohio First scholarship. The goal of the new scholarship is to boost Ohio’s efforts to strengthen the state’s workforce in technology related fields such as computer science fields like coding and cybersecurity, while supporting an estimated 1,400 Ohio students.
Included among other Ohio schools, University of Dayton received nearly $3 million in scholarship money, Wright State University received nearly $1 million, Sinclair Community College received almost $300,000. Central State University also received $207,000.
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 12/16/2019
Oracle Corp. lost its legal challenge to the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud contract ..., clearing the way for the government to award the contract to Amazon.com Inc. or Microsoft Corp.contract to another cloud company. The ruling also eliminates a headache for the Pentagon, which has been fending off challenges to its winner-take-all strategy in the cloud contract for more than a year.
Read full story at Bloomberg…
first published week of: 07/15/2019
(Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock )
The robots would service military, government and commercial spacecraft more than 22,000 miles above the Earth.
The Pentagon’s research office wants to send robots into space to inspect and repair the nation’s satellites.
Today the U.S. has more than 400 military, government and commercial satellites circling the globe in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, a celestial path about 22,000 miles above the ground. These high-altitude satellites are ideal for telecommunications, meteorology and certain military applications, but when they break down, it’s nearly impossible to fix something far out in the cosmos.
Enter space robots.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency believes space-based robots offer the best bet for inspecting and repairing high-altitude satellites, especially with the number of satellites set to skyrocket due to a budding Space Force and federal agencies and industry ramping up operations in outer space.
Under the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program, DARPA will partner with teams to build both robots that can maintain and upgrade satellites, as well as the spacecraft to move the bots through space. Once deployed, the tech would periodically check in on different satellites and service them as needed.
Read full story at NextGov…
first published week of: 04/22/2019
The Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has partnered with the General Services Administration to accelerate government's AI use with a new Center of Excellence initiative.
"The new GSA-DoD partnership reflects the ongoing success of the Center of Excellence initiative. In alignment with the Administration's strategy for ensuring American leadership in the industries of the future, the AI CoE program will build the capacity to deliver AI solutions throughout the federal government," Chris Liddell, White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, said in a statement.
JAIC will rely on expertise from the GSA Technology Transformation Services team, and will look to push military advances in AI technology to the civilian sector.
Read full story at Defense Systems…
first published week of: 09/30/2019
City begins investing in small pilot projects with plans for a big payoff, officials say at conference.
Philadelphia is having a moment, agreed panelists discussing the city’s smart city plans at the Smart Cities Connect 2019 conference at National Harbor, Md., on Wednesday.
In recent years, the city hosted the Democratic National Convention and won the Super Bowl, and soon, panelists noted, it will host a national celebration for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But Philadelphia is also facing a crucial year in its transformation into a smart city, said CIO Mark Wheeler.
The SmartCityPHL plan, launched in February 2018, calls for Philadelphia to “do more with less” and “create capacity” to re-engineer processes, Wheeler said. “It is to make sure we are taking assets, we are not wasting them, and we are coordinating with a very clear set of processes,” he said.
When it comes to action, Philadelphia is planning ahead by setting aside money for smart city projects, Wheeler added. The city can spend up to $34,000 without a request for proposals, so the Office of Innovation and Technology can dedicate money to small pilots quickly. For fiscal 2020, Philadelphia has set aside $150,000 in budget for smart city projects.>
Read full story at State Tech…
first published week of: 10/14/2019
Ransomware attacks against state and local governments are on the rise, according to a report from cybersecurity company Recorded Future. The report found 46 publicly reported ransomware attacks in 2016, a number that dipped to 38 in 2017. But reported attacks jumped to 53 in 2018, and in the first few months of this year reports are already at 21. The numbers for last year and this year might go up because many local and state government attacks are acknowledged weeks or months after they occur; actual numbers likely are higher because government entities do not always publicly acknowledge an attack.
Read full story at Smartcities Dive…
first published week of: 05/20/2019