It’s been a decade since "Cloud First" was put forth as a formal goal of government. In that time, agencies have moved from wary experimentation to straightforward "lift and shift" efforts to, increasingly, enterprise as-a-service solutions. The question is no longer whether to leverage cloud servicers, but how best to do so. Yet as the easier moves to the cloud have been made, the remaining systems and workloads require decidedly more c...

Two years after the White House issued an executive order creating a national strategy for artificial intelligence, agencies are moving past pilot projects and are looking for the next level of AI in government. Although some of the most visible projects are at NASA, DOD and IRS, many agencies are working on developing AI projects that support services, improve mission effectiveness and decision making and automate repetitive tasks. There is a...

Identity management -- both for citizen customers and for an increasingly decentralized workforce -- is a complex challenge that combines security, privacy, CX and data-management considerations. Legacy systems often lack the interoperability and granular controls needed by users and admins alike, and weren’t designed to fully support the expectations set by the Office of Management and Budget with M-19-17.Thankfully, there is a growing...

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...

The federal government has been working to update its policies, architectures and frameworks around digital identity for some time. OMB revised its Identity Credential and Access Management guide in May of 2019 and that National Institute for Standards and Technology has been working on an updated version of its guidance on security and privacy controls for information systems. Then, the pandemic hit, and all programs went into overdrive as ag...

IT modernization has been a federal priority for years, but many agencies still struggle to turn that goal into a practical plan of action. Securing multi-year funding is one challenge, but the fundamental obstacle is often the sheer complexity of transforming government-scale systems. Smart, successful modernization demands a holistic approach that addresses several essential pillars: security, network infrastructure, multi-cloud architecture...

DOD put into effect at the end of Nov. 2020 a new DFARS rule that requires Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) for all DOD contractors. Although anticipated for some time, questions remain about the certification process and the scope. The rule requires that contractors register on the Supplier Performance Risk System, produce and maintain a System Security Plan and a Plan of Actions and Milestones. In addition, each company is r...

Most government agencies have made the journey to cloud since the Cloud First and Cloud Smart strategies came from OMB starting in 2010. Many organizations have more than one cloud. The challenge becomes blending the different types of cloud and service models to provide access to needed data, while at the same time protecting a much enlarged attack surface created by the large number of workers who are accessing the data remotely. If there is...

The global information technology supply chain has been hit with a growing and unprecedented number of attacks as adversaries attempt to compromise systems with various forms of malware in an attempt to steal or compromise or hold for ransom sensitive information. Federal executives realized how complex the question of supply chain security was in 2017 when officials tried to implement the Department of Homeland Security’s order to remov...

Eight years in, the Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation program has matured and broadened its offerings significantly. The focus now is on deploying a threat intelligence framework for governmentwide use, integrating the AWARE risk-scoring algorithm and rolling out of security orchestration automation and response (SOAR) to automate vulnerability detection and defensive cyber operations. More extensive and sophisticated use of data in dashboa...