FCW Insider: April 2, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
Mandatory review of DOD's compliance on CMMC is delayed
The Defense Department was supposed to submit a review to Congress by March 1 assessing whether components complied with the guidelines of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. That deadline has been pushed to June.
Could 2022 see the end of OCO?
As the Biden administration prepares to deliver its first budget, the question arises of whether there's enough political clout to end the controversial overseas contingency operations account.
Krebs cautions on push for national cyber director
The former CISA chief expressed confidence in Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger to help the White House confront the multiple cybersecurity incidents it is facing.
Quick Hits
*** The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a plan on Thursday to vaccinate workers at the National Archives and Records Administration in part to get NARA employees charged with supporting veterans claim processing back in the office.
"The staff at NARA play a vital role in making sure veteran claims for compensation for service-related conditions are processed in a timely manner. By assisting their vaccination efforts, we can make significant progress in processing the backlog in claims, which has increased since March 2020 due to the pandemic," acting Undersecretary for Benefits Thomas Murphy said in a statement.
*** The General Services Administration is rewriting its $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract to take out the requirement that vendors support Internet Explorer as part of their offerings. The move reflects Microsoft's decision to retire support for Internet Explorer last August. In a bulletin posted April 1, GSA noted that "any agency that has a need to continue using IE should work with their vendor(s) to ensure their needs are met."
*** The Government Accountability Project led a letter joined by 264 organizations calling on congressional leadership to update and strengthen laws protecting government whistleblowers.
"By strengthening our whistleblower laws to match or exceed those of other democratic nations, we can restore our nation as the world's leader protecting freedom of speech for whistleblowers as an essential vehicle for accountability," the letter states.