Emerging Tech

Long-Range Iris Scanning Is Here

An engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon says he’s invented technology that can identify someone from across the room with the precision of a fingerprint.

Digital Government

This Senator Is 'Shocked' by How Little Data NSA Is Collecting

The NSA bulk-data program is so scaled down, it might not even be effective, the Senate Foreign Relations chairman claims.

Cybersecurity

DHS looks to migrate, upgrade ID system

The Office of Biometric Identity Management wants to replace the Automated Biometric Identification System.

Cybersecurity

Cyber Threats Will Keep Coming if Public and Private Sectors Don't Collaborate, Says DHS Cyber Exec

Securing the cyber ecosystem against national threats requires a partnership between government and industry players, according to a DHS cyber official.

Cybersecurity

Debating the Sino-Russian cyber pact

Mike Rogers, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, weighed in on the growing Russian and Chinese threats to U.S. assets in cyberspace.

Cybersecurity

Post-Snowden, NSA Crafts New Plan to Protect National Secrets

The spy agency's framework could help employees assess, and potentially mitigate, the risk of sharing sensitive information.

Digital Government

NSA Critic Named No. 2 White House Tech Official

After ribbing on NSA and the White House cyber czar, Princeton researcher Ed Felten was appointed U.S. deputy chief technology officer.

Cybersecurity

Geodata brokers, spear-phishing feds, a Data Act playbook and more

News and notes from around the federal IT community.

Cybersecurity

Spy gadgets, transparency and 800 monkeys

Robert Litt, general counsel for the ODNI, argues that Congress and the courts have a say on intelligence policy, but not on the tech used to implement it.

Cybersecurity

NSA chief wary of proxies

Adm. Michael Rogers says nation-states might increasingly turn to surrogates to conduct cyberattacks.

Cybersecurity

Federal Employee Retirement Plan Struggles with Cyber Conflict of Interest

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board refuses to let auditors probe until satisfied that FISMA directives will not fracture the Chinese wall between OMB and the board.

Cybersecurity

Four reasons to start with system-wide visibility

As agencies consolidate their IT infrastructures and move to the cloud, infrastructure performance management becomes critical.

Cybersecurity

Third-Party Software Was Entry Point for Background-Check System Hack

Intruders piggybacked on a vulnerability in an enterprise resource planning application.

Cybersecurity

Hackers Rig Ratings of Pro-Putin Videos and Spy on Iranian Expat Living in the US

Just another week in ThreatWatch, our regularly updated index of noteworthy data breaches.

Cybersecurity

Pentagon frets over China's cyber capabilities

The annual report to Congress comes not long after the Chinese defense ministry objected to what it said was the offensive nature of the Pentagon's cyber strategy.

Cybersecurity

Why insider threats keep succeeding

Outdated security models rarely address insider threats, argues John Sellers, and perimeter defense and background checks are not going to keep attackers out.

Cybersecurity

Senators question Thrift Savings Plan's security

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee want to know more about TSP's cybersecurity.