FCW Insider: Dec. 16
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
NSC invokes 2016 directive to respond to SolarWinds hack
The National Security Council's announcement to create a special group for coordinating the federal government's response to the SolarWinds hack comes as the list of affected agencies grows.
Telework gets Air Force IT seal of approval
Lauren Knausenberger, the Air Force's deputy CIO, said IT satisfaction went up significantly once people started working from home.
Longtime agency watchdog to head CIGIE
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency elected the Inspector General of the National Science Foundation as its new chairperson.
New bill would shed light on "midnight regulations"
A new bill would require the Government Accountability Office to provide Congress with information about rules published during the ending days of the Trump administration.
Quick Hits
*** Many states are only in the beginning stages of modernizing their IT structure, according to a study by the Internet Association, a trade group representing technology companies. In the group's analysis of state and local technology advancements released Tuesday, 24 states scored in the "getting started" category. Only three reached "very good," and none reached categories rated even higher, like "exceptional."
The analysis includes an interactive map called "SITARA" -- State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Information Technology Advancing Reform Achievements. It evaluates localities in three categories -- modern IT infrastructure, effective modernization efforts and cybersecurity. The association used 11 metrics across the three categories to give scores.
*** The General Services Administration's internal IT security program is effective, but it needs some attention to detail, according to Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) report from independent auditor KPMG. The report was released by GSA's Office of Inspector General. Across those systems, KPMG said it found seven control deficiencies in two of FISMA's reporting domains -- configuration management and identity and access management. Among KPMG's recommendations was a suggestion that GSA get a better handle on some its cloud providers' software updates. The report said GSA had attributed some of the unsupported software issues to its cloud provider not having plugins to easily find that unsupported software.