It is hard to think of a technology that has taken over the IT ecosystem faster than artificial intelligence. OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, and yet it already has evolved so much that it bears little resemblance to v .0. The federal government has been moving quickly by its standards to address AI’s challenges and capabilities, including a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, an AI Risk Management Framework from the National I...

Florida is the third-largest state in the U.S. by population, and it continues to grow rapidly – from 2010 to 2020, its population grew by 14.5%. That kind of growth rate might be the envy of other states, but it also means increased pressure on the state government to deliver internet-based, user-friendly services for everything from child support services to renewing business licenses. To accomplish this transformation in state governm...

State and local governments had to adapt quickly to the effects of the pandemic, as workers and residents alike were encouraged to shelter in their homes. This created major challenges for agencies’ IT systems and technical support staff. Rather than using a “hub-and-spoke” method of connecting employees to servers, data, applications, and each other – where cybersecurity focused on firewalls around the perimeter ...

Government at all levels is moving as quickly as possible to integrate new solutions and overhaul processes that need streamlining. At the same time, officials are keeping close watch on AI and other emerging technologies, wary of the law of unintended consequences. For instance, in early September California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to study the development, use and risks of generative artificial in...

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey found that almost half of federal employees worked remotely. By the end of 2022, the same survey found that 14% of employees were working remotely and another 25% were teleworking at least three days a week. The sudden exodus from government office buildings shone a bright light on the significant challenges it posed to security compliance operations – a challen...

Events on the world stage are also playing out in cyberspace. Nation-states continue their kinetic wars into internet realms, commit crimes such as financial and intellectual property theft, and pursue their global strategic goals hidden from view. Ransomware attacks are increasing again. It’s a tough time for cybersecurity professionals. “We’re seeing attackers cause bigger impacts with less skills. They’re also more b...

The federal government has been proactive in continuity of operations (COOP ) planning since at least the 1950s, when President Eisenhower issued executive orders directing various measures agencies should take to be prepared for a possible nuclear war. The need for COOP leads naturally to the question of resilience – how quickly agencies can recover from events beyond their control. Climate change is a slow-moving tsunami of many smalle...

It is hard to believe that ChatGPT isn’t even a year old yet, when you look at the tidal wave of new apps that have been released in its wake. After decades where the phrase “artificial intelligence” was sufficient, commentary in the public sphere has already moved to the next level – generative AI. What’s the difference? As Forbes describes it, “Traditional AI systems are primarily used to analyze data and...

We all now live in a data-driven world. And the federal government may be the single largest generator – and user – of data in the world. According to Digital.gov, “Every day, thousands of federal workers collect, create, analyze, and distribute massive amounts of data from weather forecasts to economic indicators to health statistics. Federal government data is a major driver of the American economy as businesses use the dat...

Advances in telecommunications capabilities are a major driver in Department of Defense programs. From creating secure private networks that U.S. military forces and their partners can use in conflicts to integrating 5G capabilities to create “smart” warehouses to significant improvements in supply chain logistics, DoD has been committed to investing in rethinking the meaning and applications of communications. One of the next step...