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...

Leaders across the federal government are under pressure to deliver on an ever-expanding mission with limited resources. Doing so requires the modernization of systems and processes to connect data, content, and applications to maximize existing infrastructure investments and enhance information availability, value, and security. With countless directives and executive orders on everything from cybersecurity and data sharing to improving the c...

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a cornerstone of Department of Defense (DOD) supply-chain security efforts, but it is still a work in progress. The goal of protecting controlled unclassified information (CUI) that resides in the data networks of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is indisputable. One challenge is how to assess and certify implementation of required security practices at scale, while another is avoiding...

Government continues to invest in digital transformation efforts to improve agility and customer engagement, seeing the greatest results in their cloud migration efforts. While not a new focus area, leveraging cloud became a staple of mission delivery in the height of the pandemic, but integration efforts happened almost overnight, leaving necessary improvements throughout the enterprise. Now, with a vision towards the future of government, le...

Government entities hold massive amounts of data within their cyber walls. Utilizing and protecting this data is a top priority for leaders across government. As agencies strive to reach new heights in efficiency and effectiveness, new techniques for managing and accessing this very data are coming to the forefront. Most notably, how can leaders translate the data from collection and storage to decision making and action? How are leaders lever...

From Cloud First to Cloud Smart policies, cloud computing has underpinned much of government’s IT modernization for the past decade. The importance of cloud adoption took on an increased urgency over the past two years as agencies needed to quickly and securely enable remote work for thousands of employees. Now, as agencies at all stages of their cloud journey develop the next generation of cloud strategy, issues around security, enterpr...

The official deadline for federal agencies to shift fully to electronic records management can be counted in days. On December 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration will stop accepting new paper records. The deadline is a concluding note in the federal government’s shift away from paper to fully digitized documents and records. Those goals, set by M-19-21 in 2019, not only demanded digitized records, but also called for...

Emerging computing technologies—from cloud, to edge, to machine learning, artificial intelligence and others—are helping agencies to achieve better, faster, cheaper processing and problem solving, as well as more efficient applications. With their increasing incorporation into federal agencies’ everyday operations, these technologies also bring challenges, from security to operational and data privacy issues. Cloud computing...

With cyberattacks on the increase at all levels of government, The White House issued a new executive order at the end of January that requires agencies to have a zero trust architecture in place by the end of FY 2024. The Office of Management and Budget followed with a memorandum (M-22-09) that laid out the requirements agencies must meet and the deadlines for completing the tasks outlined in the document. OMB identified five areas of focus--...

Data has been critical to managing the pandemic—from federal, state and city health departments to hospitals and universities maintaining dashboards on case counts and agencies across the country evaluating policy decisions. But data’s vital role in government at all levels and in education extends beyond tracking infections and case counts. Data drives improved decision making for agencies improving citizen services, managing tran...