Emerging Tech

A DNA Company Wants You to Help Catch Criminals

Family Tree DNA was criticized for secretly working with the FBI. Now it’s explicitly asking potential customers to help law enforcement.

Emerging Tech

GSA’s Investment Team Is Building An Agile Development Contract

The $10 million, single-award contract would assist in developing novel ideas to improve the federal government.

Cybersecurity

Identity Theft Services Inefficient at Addressing Data Breach Risks, Watchdog Says

The Government Accountability Office also recommended that Congress should reconsider allowing federal agencies how much coverage is appropriate to offer.

Modernization

FBI’s Long-Awaited $5 Billion IT Services Recompete Goes Back To Draft

The ITSSS recompete is getting a new name, new timeline and new draft solicitation, while the existing contract gets a one-year extension.

Artificial Intelligence

DARPA Wants AI to Learn Language like Human Babies

The Pentagon’s research wing is funding efforts to build AI language systems that learn more like people and less like machines.

Artificial Intelligence

Without JEDI, Pentagon’s Artificial Intelligence Efforts May Be Hindered

The Pentagon won’t be able to maximize artificial intelligence’s true capabilities without an enterprise cloud solution, something it’s currently trying to contract out.

Emerging Tech

Why Trump Wants to Go to the Moon So Badly

The administration has vowed to return Americans to the lunar surface in 2024 “by any means necessary.”

Cybersecurity

How Las Vegas Stops Email-Borne Cyberattacks Pre-Delivery

“For most organizations email is a weakness, as much as we try and educate our user population,” said the city’s IT director.

Emerging Tech

How Instagram Replaced the Contacts List

The app has become the default way to connect with new friends, dates, or business contacts.

Digital Government

DEA Never Checked If Its Massive Surveillance Operations Are Legal, Watchdog Says

The administration “failed to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis” of three NSA-style bulk data collection programs, according to the Justice Department Inspector General.

Policy

HUD Sues Facebook For Violating Fair Housing Rules With Targeted Ads

Facebook’s ad system allowed companies to target users based on a number of protected classes, including race, sex, nationality and general interests.

Ideas

What to Do When the Russian Government Wants to Blackmail You

Russian officials have a long history of using compromising material, or kompromat, as a weapon against political opponents.

Modernization

How NARA’s Helping Agencies on the Path to a Fully Electronic Government

Officials are developing ways for agencies to measure their efforts to achieve fully digital records management by the December deadline.

Artificial Intelligence

The Pentagon is ‘Absolutely Unapologetic’ About Pursuing AI-Powered Weapons

The controversy surrounding military artificial intelligence is rooted in “grave misperceptions” about what the department is actually trying to do, according to current and former Defense officials.

Artificial Intelligence

The U.S. Military Is Creating the Future of Employee Monitoring

A new AI-enabled pilot project aims to sense “micro changes” in the behavior of people with top-secret clearances. If it works, it could be the future of corporate HR.

Digital Government

Empowering Regulators Could Stop the Next Equifax Breach, Watchdog Says

Giving the regulatory agencies more power to punish companies after breaches could make industry invest more in cybersecurity, according to the Government Accountability Office.