FCW Insider: July 30

The Defense Department speaks out on the federal court ruling for its JEDI cloud buy and stands by its fixed-price, single-award strategy. Lauren C. Williams has the story.

The Justice Department intends to leverage the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract to drive broader modernization. AT&T won a $1 billion, 15-year EIS task order from the agency. Mark Rockwell reports.

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), President Donald Trump's pick for Director of National Intelligence, sponsored cybersecurity legislation from his perch at the Homeland Security Committee. Derek B. Johnson takes a look at Ratcliffe's record on cybersecurity issues.

A year after standing up, Army Futures Command has hit full operating capability. Lauren rounds up three innovative projects.

Quick Hits

*** A recent cybersecurity exercise pitted Department of Homeland Security agents and other law enforcement officers against a red team of hackers from the private sector and academia looking to disrupt Election Day voting. The exercise, deemed "very realistic" by a DHS intelligence agent, was observed by reporters and camera crews from Hearst Television.

*** Microsoft announced in a blog post that it was looking to make the way it rewards and recognizes security researchers who report vulnerabilities in company products. Under the new system, Microsoft will continue to pay bug bounties but also will publicly award points and "reputation scores" for researchers who are the first to report vulnerabilities and to those who establish a track record for accuracy and for reporting on significant flaws.

*** The Department of Veterans Affairs hit a milestone in its effort to modernize electronic health records and data. The agency announced it had transferred records on 23.5 million veterans to the data center of Cerner, the software provider working with VA and the Department of Defense on new health records systems.

*** This is the final week to submit Government Innovation Award nominations. Submit your picks for individual Rising Stars, Public Sector Innovations and Industry Innovators by Aug. 2!