The Office of Inspector General (OIG) serves as the internal watchdog for all federal departments and agencies. The 74 inspectors general are broadly responsible for preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, misconduct, and mismanagement in their domains, and promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in operations and programs. The Department of Health and Human Services OIG, for instance, employs more than 1,600 public servants to...

Administering elections falls on the shoulders of state and territorial governments. It is not surprising, then, that there are so many different approaches, technologies, and processes in place to handle election infrastructure. The problems that befall election infrastructure are many, varied, and often well publicized. In Maricopa County, Ariz., ballots were too lightly printed to be read by scanners during the 2022 midterms. Multnomah Coun...

The state of New York is emphasizing improving its IT resilience. The state’s 2022-23 strategic plan focuses on moving off legacy systems, implementing an enterprise architecture, and improving service delivery to its residents, to name a few. In addition, the state has its first cybersecurity strategy, and created a Joint Security Operations Center. As the largest city in the United States, New York City has its own technology roadmap,...

The internet is an increasingly dangerous place. The FBI warns of Chinese threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, while the National Security Agency releases guidance for strengthening AI system security. Meanwhile, agencies still wrestle with phishing, ransomware and myriad other threats that occur every day. At the same time, government organizations are expected to implement zero trust architectures, improve identity and access management,...

States’ voter registration systems and voter access have undergone a host of changes over the past five years, thanks in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many states expanded vote-by-mail options, stepped up automatic voter registration programs, or both. Cities took action, as well – Los Angeles, for instance, has overhauled its voting system infrastructure, using open source, the cloud, and cybersecurity partnerships to updat...