FCW Insider: May 18, 2021

The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.

Can NTSB-style oversight work for cybersecurity?

President Joe Biden's new cybersecurity executive order calls for a safety review board to examine the attack against SolarWinds as well as other significant cybersecurity incidents moving forward.

Watchdog: 'Uncertainty' may undermine CBP's enforcement of social media policy

The Office of Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security found divisions among senior Customs and Border Protection officials about the agency's social media posting policies.

Nominations now open for 2021 Rising Stars

Help us identify the early-career innovators and change agents in government IT.

Quick Hits

*** Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, is raising concerns about the role of the Transportation Security Administration in handling cybersecurity of energy pipeline infrastructure in light of the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. In a May 17 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cantwell wrote that "at a minimum, the TSA must do more to ensure that all operators achieve full compliance [with current standards] and should seriously consider making these voluntary standards mandatory to ensure that compliance."

*** As part of the Biden administration's climate agenda, the General Services Administration is looking to increase the use of advanced energy efficiency technologies and methods to reduce energy consumption in the federal real estate portfolio. GSA and the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a blueprint for how to retrofit existing facilities with new grid-interactive technology.