FCW Insider: July 2, 2021

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

Lawmakers mull federal response to state and local technology gaps

One potential fix could be for the federal government to harmonize its cybersecurity and data protection rules for state and local partners across federal agencies that interact with state systems.

White House stresses stakeholder engagement in Evidence Act guidance

Three years after its passage, the Biden administration is now trying to provide clarity and additional recommendations for agencies still struggling to implement the Evidence-Based Policy Act.

What not to say

Steve Kelman approves of a strategy of avoiding judgmental words and phrases when delivering a critique or bad news.

Deadline extended for 2021 Rising Star nominations

Help us identify the early-career innovators and change agents in government IT -- and be sure to do so before the July 15 deadline.

Quick Hits

*** The National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI along with the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre released an alert describing campaigns by Russian intelligence to crack cloud and enterprise computing systems using brute force tactics to obtain credentials.

*** The Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency put out a request for information on Wednesday seeking potential vendors to manage the dot-gov domain registry system.

*** The House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense advanced its markup of the Defense Department's fiscal year 2022 spending via voice vote on June 30. The bill confers budget authority for the Cyber Mission Forces to the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, under the authority, direction and control of DOD's principal cyber advisor. If this measure is passed into law, the head of CYBERCOM would "be responsible for directly controlling and managing the planning, programming, budgeting, and execution of the resources to train, equip, operate, and sustain the Cyber Mission Forces."