Modernization

Audit finds improprieties in GSA/Peace Corps cloud email pilot

A deal between the General Services Administration and the Peace Corps to provide cloud email might have run afoul of funding laws, according to GSA's inspector general.

Cybersecurity

NIST is looking for a few good cryptographers

NIST's Computer Security Division wants to hire 15 cryptographers over the next five years to tackle emerging areas such as quantum and lightweight cryptography.

Digital Government

18F pushes for an even more open 'open source' rule

"Open source by default" ought to apply not only to code developed by government agencies, but also to virtually all code that vendors supply the government, a developer with GSA's startup urged.

Cybersecurity

Mixed prospects for encryption bills on Capitol Hill

A senior Senate staffer says that Congress is unlikely to move on significant legislation to mandate law enforcement access to encrypted communications.

Emerging Tech

Pentagon: ‘Innovation is a National Security Imperative’

If the quest for innovation could hold the keys to DOD’s most important technological riddles, its top officials have now made three visits to the West Coast tech hub and set up shop.

Digital Government

DOT launches open data push to build National Transit Map

The Department of Transportation is asking local and state transit agencies to share their data in an open format for a national transit map.

Cybersecurity

What will it take to diversify the cyber workforce?

In its first national conference, the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals sought to lay the groundwork for getting more women and minorities into the cyber ranks.

Modernization

Has DOD hit its limit on sharing spectrum?

A new DARPA challenge seeks to help defense and commercial wireless users cohabitate on airwaves, but DOD's CIO warns "there is a physical limitation to how fast we can move" to free up frequencies.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft's Chatbot Became a Racist Jerk After Less Than a Day on Twitter

Tay started out by asserting that “humans are super cool.” But the humans it encountered really weren’t so cool.

Digital Government

7 Iranians Indicted for Hacking

The FBI’s most-wanted list for cybercrime has grown by nearly 50 percent this week.

Digital Government

HHS Official: Social Media Listening a ‘Routine’ Part of Emergency Response

Response teams might scan tweets to see which geographic areas need resources during a natural disaster.

Digital Government

Final A-130 revisions due out this summer

A long-awaited revision of the principal federal IT policy document is due out this summer, according to the OMB official leading the rewrite.

Cybersecurity

Fraudsters' targets show cybersecurity success, says IRS commissioner

The breaches of IRS security tools are, in some ways, good signs, said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, because they demonstrate that the tools are making hackers' lives harder.

People

Forest Service CIO wanted

The conservation agency is looking for a new leader for its technology operations.

Modernization

TRANSCOM wants an IT service 'library'

TRANSCOM's Command, Control, Communications, and Cyber Systems Directorate is in the early stages of adopting an IT "infrastructure library" of best practices to improve the directorate's IT service management.

Emerging Tech

A Search for the Government’s Oldest Computer

A 30-year-old computer in Grand Rapids that controls a school’s temperature, a 40-year-old machine in Hawaii handling payroll and the computers at NASA built for the Voyager space mission are all in contention.

Emerging Tech

Why the Future Needs Huggable Robots

The distance between people and machines—the fact that robots aren’t more snuggly—poses a real problem for the future of robotics.

Cybersecurity

NPPD to become Cyber Infrastructure Protection

The reorganization of DHS's cyber agency aims to showcase spectrum of physical and IT protections.