Cybersecurity is a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s priorities and has never been more important to securing the nation’s infrastructure and data from cyber threats than it is today. Government IT leaders must remain vigilant against near-constant cyber threats while maintaining legacy systems and securing a remote workforce. In this workshop, Nextgov/FCW will examine the most important trends in cybersecurity across the f...

The National Defense Industrial Strategy is a first of its kind document that lays out the framework for how the Defense Department will engage and work with industry as well as how DOD will invest in new technologies. The document describes a three-to-five-year plan that focuses on four priorities: resilient supply chain, workforce readiness, flexible acquisition, and economic deterrence. Government contractors in the IT and systems integrati...

As the government moves increasingly towards digital infrastructure, geopolitical tensions rise, and individuals access more endpoints from more locations than ever before, a strong cyber posture must be embedded in everything agencies do. Policy guidance such as the cyber executive order, NIST’s updated security risk framework, and the Cyberspace Solarium’s recommendations offer strategic direction while tactical playbooks such as...

Government Summit - Washington DC Join the Google Government Summit to learn how technology is helping government leaders achieve mission outcomes and unleash human potential.Google Public Sector is bringing together government and industry leaders from federal, state, and local government from the United States and around the world. Speakers include Jeanette Manfra, MK Palmore, Thomas Kurian and others.Request a spot in person for the full da...

When DOD rolled out its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program in 2020, it was designed to secure the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in systems used by contractors in Defense Industrial Base that support business and warfighting efforts. Initially, an independent accreditation body was to certify a group of third-party assessment organizations. The plan ran into a number of obstacles as industry organizations questioned...

Just as technology has been constantly changing and evolving, so has DOD’s strategy for the best way to modernize the tools it provides to the warfighters and their business support services. In 2018, the agency released a strategy to use cloud technology, which has been revised over the intervening years to reflect the cancellation of the JEDI contract and the adoption of DOD’s Software Modernization Strategy. The new strategy set...

The nation’s defense systems and capabilities are challenged as never before-- on the ground, in the air, on the seas, in cyberspace and real space. The military must rise to those challenges on all those fronts to ensure the nation is secure. Information technology remains warfighters’ and defenders’ powerful primary tool for their jobs. From cloud computing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, to machine learning and...

The Department of Defense's cloud strategy aims to transform virtually every aspect of the warfighting effort, and has resulted in a rapidly growing ecosystem of both general-purpose and fit-for-purpose clouds. Some of those efforts are unique to DOD, reflecting the scale, missions and austere operating environments of military operations, while others are readily transferrable to most any agency. All, however, hold valuable lessons for those...

As technology evolves, so do the threats to its security. The remote work shift caused by the continuing pandemic has pressed security teams to reassess how they verify and allow access. Zero Trust is a strategy, not a product, which reimagines the way access is granted to users, to data and to applications. Devices, which used to be central to identity, now include personal computers and home internet connections, which are not government iss...

In October of 2020, then-Defense Secretary Esper defined defense readiness as "our military’s ability to answer the nation’s call, and to fight and win, anytime, anywhere. … The question we must answer is this: if called upon to fight tonight, are we ready?" Ensuring that answer is "yes" demands change in every corner of the Department of Defense, and especially in the technology that will power tomorrow's military. Cybersec...