Digital Government

Education secretary pledges troubled online student aid tool will be ready for next fall

The online Free Application for Federal Student Aid tool had a rocky release, with bad data and uptime problems, but the Department of Education is looking for improvements next year.

Artificial Intelligence

Feds need to be careful when tapping generative AI for work

Human review of AI-generated outputs is critical, OPM says in new guidance for government employees.

People

Government Eagle Award: David Shive

The GSA chief information officer has seen the pace of change accelerate dramatically inside of government, especially recently with hard pivots on cybersecurity, customer experience, digital identity, cloud adoption and more. 

People

Industry Eagle Award: Nick Sinai

Nick is renowned for mentoring an up-and-coming generation of government tech and policy talent. One supported said he's, “one of the first lifelines I call when I have a hard problem.”

Modernization

TMF doles out $47.8 million to NASA, Labor for modernization projects

The fund was zeroed out in the last appropriations round and will expire in 2025 without new legislation.

Modernization

NWS says partial circuit failure caused network outage

A six-hour outage took key weather information updates offline for about six hours earlier this week, amid outbreak of severe weather.

Modernization

Federal weather system experiences outage amid severe weather nationwide

The agency is seeking money to shore up weather forecasting IT systems in fiscal year 2025.

People

Announcing the 2024 Federal 100

Meet the 100 outstanding individuals being honored for going above and beyond in support of federal IT over the past year.

Digital Government

National Archives tees up new rules for UFO records

New legislation mandates a governmentwide repository of records dealing with "unidentified anomalous phenomena."

Cybersecurity

CISA directs agencies to mitigate widespread VPN bugs

Two unpatched flaws in Ivanti's Connect Secure VPN are being exploited by hackers in the wild.

Modernization

At VA, cloud is still emerging tech

The agency's CIO said that "cloud still has huge potential for us." 

Modernization

GSA, OMB lag on FedRAMP improvements, GAO finds

The congressional watchdog wants agencies to streamline the cloud approval process.

Cybersecurity

EU signs on to IoT safety label plan

A U.S.-led effort to offer cyber-safe labels for connected devices is gaining momentum internationally.

Acquisition

Google Cloud eliminates 'exit fees' for departing customers

The cloud services provider appears to be getting out ahead of regulatory efforts in Europe and elsewhere to promote seamless movement of data between cloud providers.

Policy

OMB head 'not optimistic' about avoiding a government shutdown

Congress is back next week with a short clock to pass a 2024 budget or extend the existing stopgap measures funding the government.

People

André Mendes looks back and forward

The former top tech official at the Department of Commerce looks back on a career in federal IT and previews where he thinks the AI and quantum revolutions will take us.

People

Fed 100 deadline extended to Jan. 12, 2024

You've got a little extra time to get nominations in for superstars of the federal IT community.

People

Coker confirmed as cyber director

On a bipartisan vote, the Senate confirmed Harry Coker to lead the Office of the National Cyber Director at the White House.