People

Top feds talk agile

Federal leaders discussed agile's promise and the notion that the government-changing approach could yield positive results far beyond IT – if feds can stomach it.

Digital Government

In health apps, the game's the thing

Device-agnostic, gamified health apps will drive a new era of self-managed health care. If it isn't fun and well designed, it might not be worth pushing out at all.

Cybersecurity

After the cyber sprint: 14 agencies meet Tony Scott's mark

The federal CIO published a scorecard showing how agencies had boosted -- or, in some cases, failed to boost -- their strong authentication implementation during the government cyber security sprint.

Cybersecurity

HHS security goes back to basics

Don't plug smartphones into medical machines. Log off your computer. Keep your password to yourself. The medical community has plenty of room to improve when it comes to keeping critical data safe.

Modernization

How 'fog computing' makes the IoT run

The push to put processing power on the network's edge can be a valuable complement to cloud computing.

Digital Government

Data Act implementation hung up on definitions

Words, rather than numbers, are proving key to bringing all federal agencies together in the push for financial transparency.

Digital Government

DOD awards massive health records contract

Leidos, Accenture and Cerner pull off an unexpected win of the multi-billion-dollar Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization contract, beating out the presumptive health-records leader.

Digital Government

Linking laws through open data

Open data holds the promise of connecting legislation in new ways, bringing federal, state and local laws together and automating compliance. But teaching machines to read law –- or lawmakers to read machines -- is no simple task.

Digital Government

Can tech improve taxpayer service? Only if it's bought and deployed

The IRS is facing renewed budget cuts after one of the worst tax filing seasons ever. Can the agency improve with less cash, or make different decisions about the cash it gets?

Cybersecurity

Is public growing 'desensitized' to breaches?

Monzy Merza, chief security evangelist for operational intelligence software firm Splunk, worries that the OPM hack will lead to less concern over smaller but still dangerous incidents.

Modernization

Talk more cloud

'Cloud' might be a tired buzzword, but in the federal technology space, the specifics of how cloud actually gets done aren't talked up enough, government cloud gurus say.

Modernization

Pictures from the stars, powered by cloud

NASA's Pluto flyby beamed never-before-seen images to audiences new and old. Cloud services helped make the event go smoothly.

People

Senator fights electrical apocalypse

Sen. Ron Johnson plans to funnel $100 million toward quick hardening of the U.S. power grid. But with so much at stake, he contends, much more should be done.

Cybersecurity

Where's the new cyber strategy?

A week after the end of the federal "sprint," OMB is working past its own deadline on the Federal Civilian Cybersecurity Strategy.

People

Agencies caught off guard by OPM’s pay-to-play credit monitoring

OPM is passing along the cost of post-breach credit monitoring to other federal agencies, but some are wondering how it will all work.

Cybersecurity

It didn't start (and doesn't end) with OPM

The lax security that made OPM an easy target permeates government, says ICIT study.

People

NASA's top watchdog talks IT

NASA Inspector General Paul Martin says the agency has made strides, but is still far from perfect when it comes to IT governance and cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity

OPM's shift in security posture raises labor law questions

OPM did not give unions a chance to bargain over the cutting off of social media and personal email accounts.

Digital Government

Can NOAA pay industry to fill its weather data gap?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must balance its treaty obligations to provide weather data freely to the world against the private-sector innovation that weather data property rights could unleash.

Digital Government

Pluto flyby earned NASA social media gold

NASA tweeted up a storm, engaged openly tongue-in-cheek on Twitter and gave Instagram the first look at a historic moment in U.S. space exploration history.