Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco promised to use an existing law to go after contractors that don't follow required cybersecurity standards.
The Department of Justice today launched a “civil cyber fraud initiative” that will punish government contractors and other firms that receive federal funding with severe fines if they fail to disclose data breaches.
“For too long, companies have chosen silence under the mistaken belief that it’s less risky to hide a breach than to bring it forward and report it,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit. “Well, that changes today.”
Monaco said the Justice Department will for the first time use civil enforcement tools to go after government contractors that fail to follow required cybersecurity standards. “We know that puts all of us at risk,” she said. The department will use existing authorities under the False Claims Act.
Read full story at Nextgov…
first published week of: 10/11/2021
As hurricanes and other catastrophes become more expensive, drones have become the go-to technology for assessing and mitigating destruction.
Immediately after Hurricane Florence hit the East Coast of the United States, drones were in the air, surveying the damage. In Wilmington, N.C., for example, a news drone tracked floodwaters as the hurricane moved through the state in reports from WTVD 11 Eyewitness News.
Several years ago, drones began appearing in emergency response situations, conducting surveillance and assessing damage. Today, utilities use drones regularly. Every agency involved in disaster responses may somehow deploy a drone as a primary tool, whether for damage assessment, search and rescue, overall surveillance and more.
During the approach of Hurricane Florence in September, authorities alerted more than one million people and advised them to evacuate their homes. Drones gathered data for damage reports caused by the hurricane, which informed citizens when they might return home, reports Wired.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 03/01/2021
Where IT modernization is concerned, the Environmental Protection Agency’s information leader said, “everything is fair game.”
As EPA CIO Vaughn Noga said, historically the agency has evaluated IT systems and applications continuously, rather than just when something becomes obsolete. He said his organization is routinely looking for more efficient and cost-effective solutions.
“We’ve been fairly successful. I think one of our one of our biggest challenges, quite frankly, is our desire to evolve is faster than our resources can support both in funding and in people,” Noga said on Federal Monthly Insights – Digital Modernization: Enterprise Modernization.
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first published week of: 05/03/2021
Compliance deadlines for manufacturers and operators have also been pushed out.
A new rule that will develop an identification and tracking ecosystem for domestic drones will now go into effect in April, one month later than originally planned.
The Federal Aviation Administration developed the rule over a couple of years with the goal of establishing a unique identifier for every small unmanned aerial system, or UAS, colloquially known as drones, and a system to track the aircraft at all times when in flight.
The “digital license plates” for drones requires all UAS over 0.55 pounds to be equipped with one of two tracking methods: a built-in system that “broadcasts identification, location and performance information” for both the drone and the operator; or a separate “broadcast module” that can be attached to the UAS and serves the same purpose.
The FAA also included a third option enabling operations without a remote ID capability in pre-designated areas.
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first published week of: 03/29/2021
Unmanned aircraft systems will have to broadcast their “digital license plates” to legally zip around most places in the future.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced and released two final, expansive rules Monday to govern drone flights across U.S. skies.
The long-anticipated regulations outline permitted drone operations—including above people and at night—and lay out the agency’s Remote ID requirements to promote the identification of devices in use. Both were recently submitted by FAA to the Office of the Federal Register and would go into effect 60 days after they’re published, which the agency expects will be sometime in January.
Release of the rules comes at a ripe time for unmanned aircraft systems, which FAA said in its announcement “represent the fastest-growing segment in the entire transportation sector” with 1.7 million drone registrations and 203,000 FAA-certificated remote pilots. In 2019, FAA certified a subsidiary of package-delivery giant United Parcel Services to operate a national drone airline system for the first time ever and companies like Amazon and Walmart, among others, are also making moves to develop and certify their own drone fleets.
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first published week of: 01/11/2021
FCC approves 147-satellite plan without adding conditions requested by SpaceX.
The Federal Communications Commission today gave Boeing permission to launch 147 broadband satellites. While that's a fraction of the number of satellites approved for other low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations, the decision allows Boeing to compete in the emerging LEO satellite broadband market.
"As detailed in its FCC application, Boeing plans to provide broadband and communications services for residential, commercial, institutional, governmental, and professional users in the United States and globally," the FCC said in its announcement approving the license.
The 147 planned satellites include 132 low-Earth satellites orbiting at an altitude of 1,056 km and 15 "highly inclined satellites" that would orbit at altitudes between 27,355 and 44,221 km. The FCC authorized Boeing to conduct space-to-Earth transmissions in the 37.5–42.0 GHz frequency bands and Earth-to-space operations in the 47.2–50.2 GHz and 50.4–51.4 GHz bands
Read full story at arsRechnica…
first published week of: 11/15/2021
Georgia, Maine, Pennsylvania and others took mapping into their own hands, building their own granular data to pinpoint gaps in internet coverage and apply for federal funding.
Three years ago, Georgia state officials knew they had a problem. The state needed federal funding to bring broadband to unserved parts, but no one knew where those gaps actually were. The US Federal Communications Commission maps weren't precise enough, and Georgia didn't have any of its own. So those officials decided to build their own maps.
The state legislature formed the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative and passed a law that made it easier for service providers to share private, detailed information without tipping off competitors. Within two years, Georgia had built a map considered to be one of the most granular in the nation. And it didn't have to wait for the flawed national broadband map to catch up.
"We took the approach of getting [data] more at an address- or a location-level approach to get a better understanding," said Deana Perry, executive director of the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative. "The publication of the map has been very beneficial," she added, in supporting efforts to get students connected during the novel coronavirus pandemic, to help expand access to low-income housing and to get people access to doctors through telemedicine -- all areas that are vital as the pandemic continues to ravage the country.
Read full story at c|net…
first published week of: 03/01/2021
A new training guide aims to help local, state and federal employees chart the way to cybersecurity roles and skill development resources, while a new entity will coordinate cyber defense across all levels of government.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has announced two efforts that could help state and local agencies better tackle cyber talent shortages and threat intelligence and response plan challenges.
CISA last week released a Cybersecurity Workforce Training Guide that provides road maps for developing or launching cybersecurity career paths to state, local, tribal, territorial and federal agencies. The resource outlines capabilities and qualifications for different positions; helps current or prospective government employees identify their current skill sets and proficiency levels; and offers trainings and other resources to help staff level up.
“Our objective is to provide the right tools so this critical workforce knows where to find the available training that can help them be well prepared and skilled,” said Eric Goldstein, CISA executive assistant director for cybersecurity … .
Read full story at Government Technology…
first published week of: 08/23/2021
Vivek Kundra joins the GovExec Daily podcast to discuss the future of public sector cloud computing.
The tasks ahead of Joe Biden are vast, from the COVID-19 crisis to the political bifurcation throughout the U.S. In the IT realm, Biden enters a term facing a massive hack of government systems and vendors that analysts say could have come from Russia and a federal workforce on maximum telework due to the pandemic.
Vivek Kundra served as the first U.S. chief information officer from March 2009 to August 2011 under President Barack Obama and is now the chief operating officer at Sprinklr, an enterprise software company. He joined the GovExec Daily podcast to discuss Biden’s potential technology priorities as president, including expanding broadband access, finding potential savings from cloud computing, and designing digital services to make things simpler for citizens.
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first published week of: 02/01/2021
The USGS has issued the Fiscal Year 2022 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the 3D Elevation Program. Partnership opportunities for the acquisition of lidar data now available.
On August 16, 2021, the USGS issued the FY22 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for 3D Elevation Program ( 3DEP ). The BAA provides a vehicle for partnering with the USGS and other Federal agencies to acquire high-resolution 3DEP data. The 3DEP BAA is a public process to develop partnerships for the collection of lidar and derived elevation data for 3DEP. The 3DEP BAA provides an opportunity for ongoing national collaboration so that Federal, State, and local governments, the private sector, and citizens may have access to and derive benefits from 3D elevation data. More information about the BAA process is available at https://usgs.gov/3DEP/BAA.
Read full story at USGS.gov…
first published week of: 11/08/2021