In today’s interconnected digital landscape, application programming interfaces (APIs) play a pivotal role in facilitating seamless communication and data exchange between various applications and systems. However, with this increased connectivity comes heightened security risks, particularly concerning the protection of sensitive data in those APIs. One of the most notorious examples of API risk is the Cambridge Analytica scandal in the...

Adopting a zero trust policy has become imperative for agencies aiming to safeguard their digital assets against increasingly sophisticated threats. It represents a true paradigm shift, away from traditional perimeter-based security models to a more dynamic, trust-never always-verify approach. One critical part of implementing zero trust is managing digital identity – ensuring that access to resources is securely managed and continuously...

Federal agencies collect vast amounts of data that often goes untapped because unlocking its full value is complex. But as agencies move to comply with the White House Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, harnessing the potential in their own data can help meet the EO’s objectives. Agencies can facilitate the use of AI by using their data to train custom large language model...

The whirlwind of artificial intelligence tools in 2023 proved the government is eager to embrace the technology as soon as possible. An overwhelming 99% of agency leaders agree investing in safe and effective AI is essential to fulfilling their mission, according to a recent survey conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of ICF. Despite being rich in data, many agencies are lagging in the data modernization needed to support AI – and c...

State and local governments and education produce large amounts of unstructured data in a wide range of data types. From student report cards that contain personally identifiable information (PII) to municipal tax rolls full of information that fraudsters want to steal, these organizations have a data protection challenge on their hands. Keeping these diverse data sets safe and ensuring their high availability are essential for smooth educatio...

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...

It has been almost seven years since the White House issued Presidential Policy Directive 40, setting out the federal continuity policy “to maintain a comprehensive and effective continuity capability through Continuity of Operations (COOP), Continuity of Government (COG), and Enduring Constitutional Government (ECG) programs, ensuring the resilience and preservation of government structure under the United States Constitution and the co...

The growth in volume of data being generated every year is staggering. One company has estimated that an organization’s amount of data will triple within five years, between on-premises, cloud and software-as-a-service locations. On top of that, sensitive data – whether personally identifiable information, financial, intellectual property, etc. – can be scattered throughout the data ocean. In 2022, more than 200 government ag...

Government agencies at all levels are doing everything they can to protect their data from the ongoing onslaught of cyberattacks. Whether it’s implementing zero trust architecture to meet the requirements of Executive Order 14028, federal agencies using FedRAMP certified cloud services, any of the dozens of state, local, municipal and educational organizations enrolled in StateRAMP, government as a whole understands the critical importan...

Government and education IT teams are dealing with an explosion in demand for accessible databases, fueled by the deluge of new unstructured data, structured data, and application development. Whether enterprise apps, mobile, or newer technologies such as wearables and virtual reality devices, the velocity and volume of application growth will continue to expand. In fact, IDC predicts there will be 750 million applications by 2026. Apps and t...