FCW Insider: May 25, 2021

Connecting and supporting the post-pandemic workforce

After a year of emergency response, IT leaders are planning for a permanently changed operating environment.

NASA looks to change course on cybersecurity with new contract

NASA's inspector general says the agency's "fragmented" IT approach has left it with an overly risky cybersecurity posture. Meanwhile the agency is preparing a solicitation for a wide-ranging cybersecurity management contract.

DOD oversight report tracks pandemic spending

A recent inspector general report looks at contractors who received COVID-19 reimbursement under a $1 billion allocation in the CARES Act.

ICYMI: Unfunded mandates in the cyber EO?

New marching orders for agencies and technology vendors in the Biden administration's new cybersecurity policy need to be supported in the budget, industry reps say.

Quick Hits

*** Washington Technology reports the launch day of the General Services Administration's new integrated System for Award Management website did not go well.

*** A bipartisan bug bounty provision sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and three colleagues would sets up a vulnerability disclosure program at the U.S. Department of State. The measure was included in the, State Department Authorization Act, passed last week in the House of Representatives.

*** At a Senate hearing last week, Richard Kidd, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for environment and energy resilience said that the Defense Department's CIO has a key role to play in making sure that DOD's facility related control systems, "are defensible, survivable, and resilient to operate and sustain critical functions in a cyber- contested environment."

*** Nick Clegg, the vice president of global affairs at Facebook and the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, is backing the creation of a new "digital regulator" to do for the online space what the Federal Communications Commission does with telecom and media.