FCW Insider: Aug. 12
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
Why DOD's diversity problem can't be solved with numbers
Janice Glover-Jones, the Defense Intelligence Agency's chief diversity, equality and inclusion officer, said that diversity has to be more than compliance and "promote inclusive behaviors."
Senate bill would extend full-time federal telework for duration of COVID emergency
The bill also would steer Technology Modernization Fund dollars to agency efforts to improve telework activities.
CISA's 'next frontier' around cyber data analytics
An official said the agency wants to spend the next five years quantifying the unquantifiable around collective cyber risk.
Extra time for JEDI redo
The Defense Department requested an extension to a stay in a lawsuit before announcing any revisions to the award in the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud deal.
Quick Hits
*** Two top officials in law enforcement and counterintelligence said it was "depressing" how frequently and intensely foreign actors are targeting the systems and networks of critical infrastructure entities.
"When we look at the amount of activity that's occurring, I would say it's depressing for us as a nation," said Bill Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at FCW's Cybersecurity Workshop Aug. 11. "I think we have to make sure that we understand that the lights continue to blink red with our critical infrastructure."
Later at the same event, Tonya Ugoretz, Deputy Assistant Director for the FBI's cyber division, seconded that sentiment, saying it is particularly upsetting to see threat actors attempting to hack organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research.
"It's also important that we don't lose our ability to be kind of shocked by it, and we don't lose our resolve to respond to it and ensure that we're holding the people and the countries who are behind this malicious cyber activity accountable," she said.
*** For 31 years, FCW's Federal 100 Awards have celebrated outstanding individual achievements in the federal IT community. Due to the ongoing public health concerns, we are instead producing a series of Fed 100 Winner Showcase virtual events, to recognize all the winners and to dig more deeply into select winners' stories and accomplishments. Please join us on September 10th as we celebrate the several leaders and innovators in the AI and Automation category. Learn more about their work and the broader trends they are seeing across government.