Digital Government

White House Advises Agencies on COVID-19 Spending and Reporting

“Time is of the essence,” but “spending transparency and regular reporting will provide important accountability mechanisms to help safeguard taxpayer dollars,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a memo.

Emerging Tech

How Homeland Security’s Biosurveillance Arm Uses Tech To Track a Pandemic

The National Biosurveillance Integration Center began tracking what would become the novel coronavirus on Jan. 2.

Ideas

The Intersection of Cyber Crime and Coronavirus Stimulus: The Perfect Storm for Fraud

Millions of people filing for unemployment, a fast-moving economic stimulus, requests for accelerated payments, and obligations and contract awards—all of these factors create the perfect storm for fraudsters.

Ideas

Even During COVID-19, 'Nature is a Necessity'

“If a city doesn’t have enough green space for the amount of people who live there, that’s a public health issue."

Ideas

Government Secrecy Is Growing During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Local, state and federal officials throughout the United States have locked down information from the public.

Emerging Tech

Pentagon Supercomputers Puzzle Out How to Safely Airlift COVID-19 Patients

The Defense Department turned its supercomputing resources toward solving problems presented by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Digital Government

Congress Hears Options—And Concerns—for Using Smartphone Data to Fight COVID-19

Other countries have been using various forms of location and proximity tracing to slow the spread of the disease, with widely varying levels of privacy protections.

Ideas

3 Keys to Full Spectrum Data Management

Full-spectrum data management means having a grasp on data across complex systems composed of private and public clouds, edge devices, and legacy applications and infrastructure.

Digital Government

140 Million Tweets Capture COVID-19's Spread

And it’s publicly available as a resource for the global research community.

Modernization

NIST Invites Comment on Guidance for Who Gets to Access What in the Cloud 

Cloud services facilitate resource and data sharing but that introduces security vulnerabilities.

Emerging Tech

Wi-Fi Peeks into Buildings to Check Social Distancing

Mapping the Wi-Fi strength of mobile devices can reveal how people move and gather.

Digital Government

GSA Creates Buying Guide for COVID-19 Screenings at Federal Buildings

As the government’s buyer and landlord, the General Services Administration created a central contract vehicle for screening services to prevent infected people from entering federal buildings.

Digital Government

NOAA Teams with Record-Breaking Explorer to Map the Unknowns of Earth’s Deepest Ocean Points

The agency will work with Victor Vescovo’s Caladan Oceanic to share assets, facilities and data that they hope will strategically power new discoveries.

Cybersecurity

Navy, Senate Researching Cyber Services  

The Navy is putting feelers out for an intelligence analyst, while the Senate explores the landscape for penetration testing.

Cybersecurity

CISA Offers Ways to Lessen Lag for Teleworkers Without Sacrificing Security

The temporary guidance outlines options and best practices for agencies to follow during the coronavirus pandemic.

Digital Government

Lawmakers Push CDC for New Demographic Data on Coronavirus Patients

A group of 17 lawmakers asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect sex, race, ethnicity and other information to spot potential inequities in health care. 

Modernization

VA Delays Major IT Programs to Focus on COVID-19

The initial rollout of the new electronic health records system will be pushed out—again—as well as pilots for the new scheduling system. A third, integral effort remains on track.

Cybersecurity

NASA Warns Employees of ‘Exponential’ Increase in Cyber Threats

The Office of the Chief Information Officer sent a memo detailing how teleworking employees can protect agency systems.