People

How DHS is providing security tech, cyber support for Super Bowl LVIII

The Department of Homeland Security said it is “leveraging its significant technology assets and dedicated personnel” to protect the Feb. 11 matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Cybersecurity

DHS inventory of AI systems for cybersecurity is ‘not accurate’, oversight report says

The report calls on the DHS to better verify its AI inventory submissions and for CISA to develop AI cybersecurity progress metrics.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS launches hiring push for new AI Corps

The department wants to hire 50 feds to focus on artificial intelligence.

People

Former DHS employees sentenced for plot to steal government software, databases

The trio wanted to to build a commercial software product that would have been sold to government agencies.

Emerging Tech

TSA uses ‘minimum’ data to fine-tune its facial recognition, but some experts still worry

The Transportation Security Administration is planning to expand its facial recognition scanners to more than 400 airports, an agency official said.

Emerging Tech

Next digital identity testing at DHS to focus on ‘liveness’ detection

The department’s Science and Technology Directorate is taking applications from vendors that want to participate in testing technologies that claim to determine whether a submitted image is legitimate or a hacker’s spoof.

Emerging Tech

Government needs to regulate facial recognition tech, says National Academies

A facial recognition risk management framework, new legislation and more are among the recommendations in a new report requested by the FBI and DHS.

Artificial Intelligence

Agencies eye synthetic data to help train and test AI

The Department of Homeland Security and Chief Data Officers Council put out calls recently for products and insight on synthetic data generation.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS aims to lead in defense against ‘adversarial’ AI

The agency’s secretary noted artificial intelligence has proven useful for DHS operations in many ways, but also cautioned that the technology can be used for more nefarious purposes.

People

DHS aims to cut another 10M hours of paperwork

Within the newly formalized DHS Customer Experience Office, “our biggest challenge is that the demand far outstrips the supply,” said its leader, Dana Chisnell.

People

House punts effort to impeach Biden cabinet secretary

Some Republicans joined Democrats to postpone the exceedingly rare effort.

Artificial Intelligence

What are agencies doing with AI? A bipartisan Senate duo wants to know.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sent letters to three federal agencies probing into their use of artificial intelligence systems.

Cybersecurity

ICE’s ‘outdated and overly permissive’ device policy left the agency vulnerable, watchdog warns

A spring audit of agency mobile devices found several banned and outdated applications installed on personnel and contractor smartphones.

Emerging Tech

US would be ‘effectively defenseless’ without counter-drone authority extension, FBI director says

The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice’s authority to mitigate threats from unmanned aircraft systems is set to expire on Nov. 18.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS to release AI guidance for critical infrastructure

The agency hopes to serve as a “vanguard” in critical infrastructure’s safe and ethical use of AI, according to one official.

Artificial Intelligence

DHS looks to AI to help solve child abuse cases

An interagency collaboration within the Department of Homeland Security is tapping machine learning capabilities to halt international child abuse cases.

Modernization

DHS issues new IT plan to tackle workforce, AI and CX challenges

The department is planning to establish a DHS IT Academy with training and upskilling for its workforce.

Digital Government

DHS biometrics management dinged by watchdogs

“Hundreds of millions of individuals' personally identifiable information” is impacted by the privacy weaknesses, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Artificial Intelligence

Agency leaders see data analytics and customer service uses for AI

Tech officials told lawmakers they are focused on a socio-technical approach to AI use cases in the government, saying it is not “one size fits all.”

Acquisition

DHS should assess the benefits of a risk management sharing tool, GAO says

A new report found that the department’s guidance for risk management practices in acquisition programs isn’t specific enough for all programs and could be helped by information-sharing tools.