IBM will help the port establish a Cyber Resilience Center to automate and manage security controls.
The Port of Los Angeles bills itself as the busiest seaport in the Western Hemisphere, and it is moving to protect its cargo and shipping operations from cyberattacks via a recently formed partnership with IBM. In December, the company and the port announced a three-year, $68 million agreement to design and operate a Cyber Resilience Center (CRC) to defend the port’s supply chain from cybersecurity threats.
According to a statement from IBM and the port, the CRC will “serve as a maritime Security Intelligence and Operations Center to automate threat collaboration,” and will draw in stakeholders beyond those traditionally involved in maritime operations. Those include “telecommunications and cargo companies that support the port’s supply chain,” StateScoop reports.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 01/18/2021
President Biden signed an executive order on Friday cracking down on what the White House says are anticompetitive practices among technology companies, labor and several other economic sectors.
"The heart of American capitalism is a simple idea: open and fair competition," Mr. Biden said in remarks on Friday afternoon. "Capitalism without competition isn't capitalism, it's exploitation."
Mr. Biden insisted that "competition works," and had led to the U.S. becoming the "wealthiest and most innovative nation in history." A White House fact sheet says the order to "promote competition in the American economy" will "lower prices for families, increase wages for workers, and promote innovation and even faster economic growth."
The executive order establishes "a whole-of-government effort to promote competition in the American economy," the fact sheet says. "The Order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies to promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems across our economy."
Read full story at CBS News…
first published week of: 07/12/2021
Research by Michigan State University and Ford Mobility examined connected vehicle data to gain insights into driving styles and incidents, potentially allowing for safety problems to be addressed before a crash occurs.
Data collected from connected vehicles can offer near real-time insights into highway safety problem areas, identifying near-misses, troublesome intersections and other roadway dangers.
New research from Michigan State University and Ford Mobility, which tracked driving incidents on Ford vehicles outfitted with connected vehicle technology, points to a future of greatly expanded understanding of roadway events, far beyond simply reading crash data.
“Connected vehicle data allows us to know what’s happening now. And that’s a huge thing. And I think that’s where a lot of the potential is, to allow us to actively monitor the roadways,” said Meredith Nelson, connected and automated vehicles analyst with the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 07/26/2021
Former GSA CIO Casey Coleman joins the podcast to discuss a new report about digital engagement and government.
The ways that people interact with government have changed quite a bit with changing technology and the pandemic has moved many interactions online. But, those interactions can be dicey and the relationships between customers’ expectations of and experiences with government digital service delivery. A new report from Salesforce and the Boston Consulting Group entitled The Global Trust Imperative looks at how digital interactions transform the citizen experience with government.
Casey Coleman is Salesforce SVP of Global Government Solutions and the former CIO of U.S. General Services Administration. She joined the podcast to talk about the Global Trust Imperative and the connection between digital services and trust in government.
Listen to full podcast here: Government Executive…
first published week of: 08/23/2021
Deputy Federal CIO Maria Roat said today that the Federal government is making progress on a number of fronts in its digital-first strategy to improve the delivery of citizen services, but needs to pursue “sustained modernization” of IT services to continue driving change for the better.
Speaking at General Dynamics Information Technology’s Emerge 2021 digital modernization conference, Roat listed several Federal IT advances in recent times including further adoption of automation technologies driven by improved data flows and cloud computing. But she also explained that further improvements will depend on investments in additional IT modernization.
Read full story at MeriTalk…
first published week of: 05/03/2021
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has appointed Simon Huang as the city’s new chief technology officer. He will bring both public- and private-sector experience when he begins work in this position on Dec. 1.
Huang brings a variety of public- and private-sector experience to this role, in addition to being a long-time resident of the city. His LinkedIn page details that he spent seven years in leadership roles at Brown Shoe Company before working for St. Charles County, Mo., as the director of information systems for seven years.
According to the mayor's announcement, he has also worked for nonprofit organizations like Society for Information Management, FOCUS St. Louis, Community Council of St. Charles County and the Asian American Chamber of Commerce.
Read full story at GovTech…
first published week of: 12/06/2021
As cities around the globe continue to grow, location-based technologies will be important for maintaining and improving the quality of urban life. Geospatial data and analytical tools are already being used to address air quality, access to transport, and traffic flow—and soon they will enable better methods of community-building, planning and development, and the delivery of services.
Join this webinar to hear the foremost experts in location technology and geospatial intelligence discuss how forward-thinking government agencies are working with partners to realize the potential of these technologies, including:
Read full story at SmartCities Dive…
first published week of: 10/11/2021
Zero-trust architectures for cybersecurity are being mandated at the federal level, and state and local IT leaders should prepare to adopt this approach as well.
Surveys of state and local government IT leaders consistently show that cybersecurity is their top concern. This will likely always be the case, especially since agencies remain prime targets for cyberattacks.
However, it’s time for IT leaders to start evolving their approach to cybersecurity, away from the castle and moat and defense-in-depth mindset and to a more data-centric view of cybersecurity. In short, it’s time for them to start thinking more seriously about zero-trust architectures.
Zero trust is a model in which no user, device or application is implicitly trusted on the network. Users must continuously authenticate and validate themselves, and the principle of least privilege applies across the board, meaning you only get access to what you need to do your job and nothing more.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 11/15/2021
Many governments still rely on legacy mainframes, which are holding them back now more than ever.
This summer, Montana is expected to retire a mainframe that has supported state agencies for decades. The state moved remaining applications to the cloud to finally discontinue use of the mainframe.
Montana’s freedom from its mainframe is somewhat rare among states. Many state governments still rely upon aging mainframes for citizen services. Mainframes are deeply embedded in many government functions ranging from motor vehicle registration and Medicaid eligibility to tax assessments. Mainframes are even more pervasive than they may first appear: Nearly a quarter of state CIOs polled by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers indicated in a 2020 survey that they still provided local governments with mainframe support.
Advances in technology and changing economic models have made transitioning to cloud services a compelling proposition, granting government agencies with advantages in cost, flexibility, and application maintenance and development. States also have found it challenging to identify new job candidates with mainframe expertise.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 06/21/2021
Recent research offers insights into how state and local IT managers are using hybrid cloud and the hurdles they need to overcome.
During the course of the coronavirus pandemic, government agencies have embraced hybrid cloud technologies, but they have faced challenges in managing and securing them, according to recent research.
In a report earlier this year from MeriTalk entitled “Hybrid at Hyperspeed: Cloud Strategy for the New Reality of Government,” based on a survey of 300 federal, state, and local IT leaders, large majorities say the pandemic has increased adoption of hybrid cloud tools. According to the report, 83 percent of state and local respondents say the pandemic amplified the importance of migrating to a hybrid cloud environment, with 66 percent saying the pandemic accelerated their organization’s hybrid cloud adoption by a year or more.
At the same time, 57 percent of state and local IT managers feel their organization is not getting the most out of its hybrid cloud investments.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 05/10/2021