Podcasts by Ask the CIO

Data driving GSA’s back office, customer facing contracting system upgrades from 2022-02-18T07:47:23

GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is putting a larger focus on customer experience both on the front end systems and back end processes.

Army’s approach to buying cloud services serves as foundation for JWCC from 2022-02-10T15:23:31

All of the excitement and consternation about the Defense Department’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) over the past year maybe over blown. In many ways, DoD is replicating the Army’s app...

Final zero trust strategy both prescriptive, flexible enough to achieve end goals from 2022-02-03T04:42:08

The final zero trust strategy released by the Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 26 is more than just yet another attempt by yet another administration to address long-standing cybersecurity c...

For Army DevSecOps trainees, emotional intelligence, teamwork more important than coding skills from 2022-01-28T07:29:12

Hannah Hunt, the chief product and innovation officer for the Army Software Factory, said the third cohort of DevSecOps trainees started in January.

For CBP, supply chain risk is much more than just cybersecurity from 2022-01-14T11:41:14

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection considers its supply chain, the range of products and services is almost endless. One day they might be buying food and clothes for migrants. The next day, C...

CIOs playing a larger role not just at the federal level from 2022-01-10T09:43:15

Like their federal brethren, state government chief information officers found themselves in an expanded role over the last few years. These CIOs say the biggest change, however, may be how other s...

Through new Office of Digital Transformation, FDA putting business ahead of IT from 2021-12-10T08:52:27

Data and science are at the center of the mission of the Food and Drug Administration. This is why the agency created the new Office of Digital Transformation. It is the final step in a two-year ef...

Unemployment insurance programs just one example of IT modernization needs from 2021-12-03T08:49:21

The pandemic put unprecedented pressure on state and federal unemployment insurance programs. Systems including call centers and claims processing struggled to handle the demand, but across the sta...

DHA performing some much needed IT system house cleaning from 2021-11-12T09:18:49

Pat Flanders, the chief information officer at DHA, said the military services and defense agencies will see a more consistent and more secure set of technology tools.

JAIC driving more AI capabilities to where DoD needs them from 2021-11-04T08:43:27

Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center for the Department of Defense, said the military is not in danger of falling behind to China when it comes to taking...

GSA makes course corrections with its commercial platforms initiative from 2021-10-29T08:22:25

Just over a year into the e-commerce portal initiative, the General Services Administration is making some major course corrections. GSA’s initial thinking about the program aimed at making it easi...

A maturing ERM program helping CFPB determine mission impact from 2021-10-22T07:32:24

Marianne Roth, the chief risk officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the bureau built its enterprise risk management program around mission risks and strategic risks.

DIU proves out a new approach to cloud security from 2021-10-15T13:38:42

Rick Simon, the program manager for the Secure Cloud Management project and a contractor in the Defense Innovation Unit, said the office issued success memos to the three vendors who took part in t...

Collins used CISO role to drive cyber deeper into SSA’s mission areas from 2021-10-11T09:13:27

Rob Collins, who recently left after four years as the chief information security officer at the Social Security Administration, used his dual background of business and technology expertise to imp...

VA extending pandemic IT mindset to continue modernization acceleration from 2021-10-01T06:58:26

The Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing a portfolio management approach to managing technology and business outcomes.

Olson’s customer-first approach helped Treasury get out from under technical debt from 2021-09-24T07:08:19

Eric Olson, the former Treasury Department chief information officer, said the agency moved key systems to highly secured cloud services over the last four years.

Legacy financial management federal providers must define their roles in new approach from 2021-09-17T04:55:30

The Biden administration has a new zero trust draft strategy in response to major cyber attacks on US networks in the last year. Chris DeRusha, federal chief information security officer, said ther...

FDIC, State finding novel approaches to bring new technology to users from 2021-09-14T11:38:56

Sylvia Burns is the FDIC chief information officer, and Keith Jones, the State Department’s CIO, highlighted individual efforts to drive innovation to their internal and external customers.

Correa’s motto of taking smart risks lives on in the PIL from 2021-09-03T12:56:10

Soraya Correa, who recently retired after 40 years in government, including the last six as Homeland Security's chief procurement officer, said six years into the Procurement Innovation Lab's exist...

Justice’s move to zero trust from 2021-08-12T11:03:41

GSA CoE’s new framework seeks to infuse, sustain customer experience from 2021-08-05T09:26:51

Energy's Nevada National Security Site’s Network 2025 vision laying the foundation for the future from 2021-07-29T12:03:01

Veterans Affairs driving new software capabilities by making DevOps part of its culture from 2021-07-22T09:17:18

FTC’s journey to the cloud moves into next phase of business process optimization from 2021-07-15T11:05:16

GSA’s next set of acquisition modernization initiatives to focus on services, automation, data from 2021-07-01T08:47:44

The General Services Administration has almost completed its first set of initiatives under the Federal Marketplace Strategy. GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service created a foundation over the last fe...

DIU rethinking cyber endpoint protections through advanced deception tools from 2021-06-25T08:12:01

Patrick Gould, cyber portfolio deputy director at Defense Innovation Unit, said on behalf of cyber mission teams his organization tested out two tools that advanced the use of deception approaches ...

Federal CISO DeRusha: FISMA report details a key part of cyber roadmap from 2021-06-18T07:57:31

Chris DeRusha, the federal chief information security officer, said the annual Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) report to Congress further highlights why the administration is fo...

VA driving data integration to gain better outcomes for veterans from 2021-06-10T11:33:23

Federal CIO Martorana expects first set of proposals for $1B TMF to be ‘high impact’ from 2021-05-28T08:29:10

On this week's Ask the CIO, Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana discusses the Office of Management and Budget working on the new 21st Century IDEA Act guidance and a new IT modernizat...

Cyber dashboards exemplifies CDM’s evolution under Cox from 2021-05-24T05:50:56

Kevin Cox, the outgoing program manager of the continuous diagnostics and mitigation (CDM) program at CISA, said CISA has implemented the cyber dashboard at 13 CFO Act agencies and plans to provide...

Air Force adding more government muscle to its Cloud One platform from 2021-05-14T03:25:06

The Air Force’s software development platform Cloud One is too vendor heavy - Cloud One has only 20 federal and military employees out of a staff of 275. But it’s not just about numbers, it’s ensur...

A threat-based methodology is FedRAMP’s next step toward simplicity with rigor from 2021-05-06T12:08:40

The acting director of the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Brian Conrad, discusses how their program management office is taking steps to make the process easier in 2021 an...

SOCOM creating common core capabilities in the cloud to transform from 2021-04-29T11:02:24

Lisa Costa, the chief information officer of the Special Operations Command in the Defense Department, said her office is offering a DevSecOps-as-a-service approach to make it easier to push capabi...

Federal Mobility Working Group’s timely framework for 5G testing, security from 2021-04-23T07:09:06

Federal News Network Executive Editor spoke to Alan Hill, deputy assistant commissioner for Category Management in the Office of the IT category in the General Services Administration's Federal Acq...

New research explains why some agencies are more agreeable to open source software from 2021-04-15T11:39:26

Joe Castle, a recent PhD graduate from Virginia Tech, who studied federal technology policy and open source software, and is a federal employee, said culture, public engagement, structural factors ...

DIA preparing to move to the Intelligence Community’s mega cloud contract from 2021-04-09T11:40:36

On this week's Ask the CIO, Jack Gumtow, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s chief information officer, discusses how his office is leading three levels of effort to modernize the Joint Worldwide Int...

Energy and USDA are reducing cyber friction to deliver capabilities faster from 2021-04-02T07:22:14

On this week's Ask the CIO, several agencies are trying to streamline and reduce the burden of cybersecurity processes in an effort to get capabilities to the mission areas faster. You hear from th...

Garcia leaves Army having ensured a solid cloud, data, cyber foundation from 2021-03-18T06:53:21

On this week's Ask the CIO, Jason Miller speaks with Greg Garcia, who recently left government after 38 years. He spent his last two-plus years as the deputy chief information officer of the Army, ...

How the SEC is adjusting to cloud’s ‘pay by the drink’ model from 2021-03-11T10:27:41

NITAAC details timing, evaluation plans for $40B IT services contract from 2021-03-02T09:08:52

Brian Goodger, the program manager for CIO-SP4 and acting director of NITAAC, said the final solicitation for the health IT services governmentwide acquisition contract should be out mid-to-late Ma...

For one HHS office, a cyber failure isn’t always bad news from 2021-02-19T04:30:59

Matthew Shallbetter, the director of security design and innovation at the Department of Health and Human Services, has an unusual job in government. He actually goes out and meets with cybersecuri...

GSA’s acquisition office’s success in fiscal 2020 explained from 2021-02-11T12:18:35

The Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration brought in record revenue last year for IT products and services. This week we hear from some key players in the community abo...

Money for IT modernization is available, if you know where to find it from 2021-02-05T10:23:22

Mark Forman, the former administrator for e-government and IT at OMB and Gloria Parker, a former CIO at HUD, helped author a new white paper from the Partnership for Public Service to further accel...

GAO’s Powner’s legacy: Call it clean, don’t sugar-coat it, be constructive from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

David Powner left the Government Accountability Office in early August after spending 16 years overseeing federal technology management issues.

How SSA is benefitting from the momentum of its case processing system modernization effort from 2021-01-28T13:20:35

Sean Brune, the deputy CIO for IT Modernization at SSA, said IT developers and business leaders are working closer than ever to revamp legacy systems.

State relying on software-as-a-service to accelerate new capabilities from 2021-01-21T13:58:16

Stuart McGuigan, who was the chief information officer at the State Department for the last two years before leaving on Jan. 20, said a recent application summit drew more than 800 attendees from a...

Next generation of identity management coming into clearer focus for DoD from 2021-01-14T08:22:59

TSA’s digital services team accelerates delivery of new capabilities from 2021-01-07T10:20:13

GSA Murphy’s legacy goes well beyond ascertainment from 2020-12-16T14:55:14

In her first public statements since the Nov. 23 decision to ascertain the election results, Emily Murphy, the GSA administrator, explained her thinking behind the decision and how she prepared for...

Coast Guard’s training strategy evolves with help from IT upgrades from 2020-12-04T06:25:48

Commerce’s ITA has a head start on its digital transformation journey from 2020-11-13T12:33:16

Rona Bunn, the acting chief information officer at the International Trade Administration in the Commerce Department, said the launch of a new website is part of how the agency is making interactio...

Defense Innovation Unit out to prove AI, automation can keep up with the speed of cyber from 2020-10-30T06:48:51

The Defense Department is running out of fingers to plug up the ever-increasing amount of cyber threats it faces to its dam. But hiring more people, with more fingers, to block the holes is not the...

Energy’s Oak Ridge Lab adapting cybersecurity for this new boundaryless environment from 2020-10-27T07:39

The security operations center (SOC) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory thought it knew the online patterns and actions of most of its scientists and employees. Then the pandemic hit and everythi...

Cloud based internet isolation initiatives to give DoD new kind of cyber protections from 2020-10-16T04:29:55

The Defense Information Systems Agency moved its cloud based internet isolation program into production after testing it out for the last year under a $199 million Other Transaction Agreement. Stev...

NIST ready to test approach to make FedRAMP faster, less burdensome from 2020-10-08T10:01:50

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is partnering with the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP to remove some of the arduous parts of the cloud security certific...

How ODNI is building trust through IT standards, enterprisewide capabilities from 2020-10-01T08:24:05

Cynthia Mendoza, the intelligence community’s chief architect, said the reference architecture framework is defining consistent, repeatable approaches to ensure security and interoperability among ...

Two Air Force bases given go-ahead to expand network-as-a-service from 2020-09-17T11:08:58

The Air Force’s initiative to modernize its network didn’t miss a beat over the last few months despite the pandemic and other related challenges. In fact, the Air Force expanded its test of networ...

Innovation is more than a buzzword at one Navy center from 2020-09-11T04:19:20

Innovation doesn’t just happen at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division - it’s something that people like Judy Conley and Jessica McElman promote, encourage and demonstrate. Conley, t...

VA CIO more confident than ever in IT modernization strategy from 2020-09-03T18:02:38

NGA gives industry a primer on its technology future from 2020-08-27T08:12:23

Mark Munsell, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency chief technology officer, said industry, particularly non-traditional companies, should use the tech focus and technology strategy document...

FDA’s cloud motto: Easy, fast, cost effective, secure from 2020-08-20T08:12:51

The Food and Drug Administration is about a year into its IT modernization strategy that focused on three core elements: A modernized IT infrastructure; the ability to demonstrate capabilities of a...

Federal CISO Schneider plans to reinvigorate CyberStat in fiscal 2021 from 2020-08-14T08:17:45

The Office of Management and Budget has tried at least two other times to get agencies to consolidate and optimize their security operations centers.
At some departments, there are eight or 10...

National Cancer Institute brings diversity of thought, people to help small business innovators from 2020-08-07T08:01:02

Christie Canaria, the Small Business Innovation Research program director at the National Cancer Institute and a finalist for the Women in Technology leadership award, said her role in helping smal...

The more the Air Force moves to the cloud, the more it needs to be on the cloud from 2020-07-30T13:39:32

Nicolas Chaillan, the Air Force’s chief software officer, said the service is testing its cloud native access point approach through Platform One with the F-35 and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent ...

Former federal CIO Kent reflects on her tenure, accomplishments, biggest frustrations from 2020-07-16T05:49:50

For Suzette Kent, among the biggest frustrations of being federal chief information officer for more than two years was how Congress viewed IT modernization. While a handful of lawmakers understood...

Network modernization paid off for DOT during telework surge from 2020-07-10T07:50:59

Ryan Cote, the chief information officer of the Transportation Department, said he shuddered to think what might have happened if not for the previous two years’ worth of work.But it took more than...

Interior’s IT modernization success relies on people, data from 2020-06-25T12:48:10

Bill Vajda, Interior’s chief information officer, said IT modernization is letting the agency train its employees to be problem solvers and not focused on wires and pliers.

NARA’s three-legged stool to transform records management from 2020-06-24T06:07:49

For DoD’s Miller, CAC roll out signaled career-changing event from 2020-06-19T11:36:50

Essye Miller, the principal deputy chief information officer at DoD, is retiring from federal service on June 30 after more than 35 years in government.

CTIIC is challenging the assumption of cyber information sharing from 2020-06-04T12:29:13

Erin Joe, the director of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC), said the Cyber Threat Framework is creating a common lexicon for agencies to understand and discuss potential and...

VA-led research effort shows how medical devices can have well-known seal of approval from 2020-05-29T07:23:06

When the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Food and Drug Administration wanted to add cyber rigor to medical devices they turned to a familiar name. VA and the FDA worked with the Underwriter’...

VA, USDA getting smarter with data analytics from 2020-05-22T13:16:40

Dr. Gil Alterovitz, the director of the National Artificial Intelligence Institute at VA, said during a recent AFCEA Bethesda panel that the agency recent completed an AI tech sprint, which involve...

Zero trust is the next logical step for SBA’s cyber evolution from 2020-05-15T06:54:24

For much of the past two years, the Small Business Administration has been on a mission to standardize and consolidate its cybersecurity tools and services. In many ways, SBA is modeling what the f...

Federal CIO says new cyber shared services to help agencies make more informed choices from 2020-05-08T10:10:45

Nearly a year to the date of launching its new approach to shared services, the Office of Management and Budget moved the first offering from interim to permanent. This decision means this new appr...

Air Force finally in alignment across most major IT foundational elements from 2020-05-04T04:43:49

All the pieces of the Air Force’s digital modernization roadmap finally are in place. It’s been a two-year effort to arrange the money, the oversight and the governance that will make the strategy ...

NGA, NRO managing cyber risk through more data-driven, collaborative approaches from 2020-04-24T11:52:06

Deputy chief information security officers at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office say they are in the middle of expanding and maturing their approache...

Voice of America going ‘over the top’ with its new streaming service from 2020-04-17T13:40:03

Jim Tunnessen, VOA’s chief information officer and chief digital officer, said the Over the Top product will live in the cloud to ensure latency and performance issues don’t drag it down.

Path for agencies to more easily use cloud services paved by TIC pilots from 2020-04-10T13:56:51

Sean Connelly, the Homeland Security Department’s TIC program manager, said new interim guidance letting remote workers connect to cloud services is heavily influenced by pilots that proved that fl...

Air Force testing next generation help desk with 70K users as part of EITaaS from 2020-04-06T05:22:45

As the Air Force rolls out its proof of concept under the enterprise IT-as-a-service, one of the first pieces to go live is something as basic as a modernized help desk. It’s one of several efforts...

Before she leaves, Wynn setting NASA up for a reorganized, consolidated IT future from 2020-03-27T11:08:40

Renee Wynn, the NASA chief information officer, is retiring after about 30 years in government and is leaving the space agency on track to fix long-standing IT governance challenges.

HHS, CMS following the two 'Cs' of IT modernization: Customers and cost cutting from 2020-03-16T04:43:17

When the Department of Health and Human Services transforms its back office and mission technologies two themes emerge. The first is more typical of an IT modernization effort — consolidation and r...

Cloud, data center consolidation part of Klimavicz’s legacy at Justice from 2020-03-05T21:00

Joe Klimavicz, who retired after six years as the Justice Department CIO, said during his tenure the agency has significant strides in modernizing technology and providing improved services.

NGA eager to take advantage of the IT revolution, evolution from 2020-02-26T21:00

With foundation set, Education moves into phase 2 of IT modernization journey from 2020-02-20T21:00

Jason Gray, the Education Department’s chief information officer, said fixing long-standing problems like laptops that took 20-to-40 minutes to boot up and log in and printer sprawl helped lay the ...

SBA, VA driving the customer to center of IT projects from 2020-02-13T21:00

Nagesh Rao, the director of business technology solutions at the SBA, and Jim Trinka, the chief talent management officer in the Office of Information and Technology, say by focusing on customer ex...

State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls pushed the ‘easy’ button for better identity management from 2020-02-06T21:00

Labor’s IT modernization story started with commodity, ends with mission from 2020-02-02T21:00

The Labor Department is showing the true power of the Technology Modernization Fund. With the fund’s goal being to help agencies accelerate existing technology projects, Labor received $3.5 million...

The big data challenge getting smaller for Army, Air Force as CDOs mature from 2020-01-23T21:00

In naming a chief data officer, the Army and the Air Force took different approaches with an eye toward the same goal. The Army dual-hatted its deputy chief information officer with CDO responsibil...

VA’s CFO, CIO collaboration opens the aperture of the value of $4B in IT spending from 2020-01-15T21:00

Ryan Woodward, the Director of the Franchise Budget Office for Infrastructure Operations in the Office of Information and Technology at VA, said the agency has spent the last few years learning how...

Cloud, network managed services giving Air Force glimpse of network future from 2020-01-12T21:00

The two lynchpin initiatives under the Air Force’s network modernization effort are set to take major steps forward in 2020. Through both the enterprise-IT-as-a-service (EITaaS) and the Cloud One p...

Automate, reskill and optimize are the three steps to a better SOC from 2019-12-19T21:00

Few, if any, are left at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s security operations center who just stare at screens looking for cyber anomalies. Instead of using people, USCIS automated th...

HUD, USDA throwing a little spaghetti against the wall to see what big data projects stick from 2019-12-15T21:00

As every agency tries to make sense of the ever-growing mounds of data it collects, this big data challenge is giving them the opportunity to experiment and even take some smart risks. At the depar...

For DISA, managing cyber risks starts by prioritizing data, systems to protect from 2019-12-05T21:00

Roger Greenwell, the chief information officer, the authoring official and risk management executive at DISA, said the agency is focused on understanding where the cyber threats are, how does it ta...

Goodrich overcame naysayers, doubters to advance cloud security from 2019-11-20T21:00

Matt Goodrich, the former director of the cloud security program known as FedRAMP and now is a principal solutions engineer and security specialist at Salesforce, said he survived personal and prof...

To bring down cyber risk, GSA using power of the purse, Energy turns to new metrics from 2019-11-14T21:00

The General Services Administration and the Energy Department are taking two different paths to achieve the same goal—reducing cyber risk. Energy Department Chief Information Security Officer Emery...

With foundations in place, NSF, USPS’s IG office moving IT modernization faster from 2019-11-07T21:00

Gary Barlet, the chief information officer of the Postal Service’s inspector general’s office, and Dorothy Aronson, the CIO of the National Science Foundation, say they both spent the last several ...

DHS to deliver 2nd piece of cyber puzzle to make moving the cloud easier from 2019-10-31T20:00

The new Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) policy that the Office of Management and Budget released in September was step one to reducing the burden of using cloud services. The Department of Homel...

Agencies will soon have a strategy to make data an even bigger strategic asset from 2019-10-24T20:00

Suzette Kent, the federal chief information officer, says the Federal Data Strategy, and its corresponding implementation plan, will drive improvements to how agencies deliver on mission and servic...

When it comes to cyber authorizations, plagiarism is just fine for DHS from 2019-10-15T20:00

Dr. John Zangardi, the DHS chief information officer, said he is streamlining the authority to operate (ATO) cyber process to help components move applications to the cloud faster without giving up...

Air Force to EPA: What's on the agenda as Congress resumes from 2019-10-13T20:00

From an Air Force secretary vote to taking on the Environmental Protection Agency, Congress has returned after a two-week recess to take on a host of pressing topics. Bloomberg Government Editorial...

Marines testing mobile devices for security, convenience from 2019-10-13T20:00

With the rise of mobile devices from smartphones to tablets, the Marine Corps must deal with an ever-more-delicate balancing act. The corps knows its Marines want to stay connected with family and ...

Justice’s Klimavicz using CIO, CDO pulpits to build organizational capacity from 2019-09-26T20:00

When the Justice Department named a new chief data officer, it didn’t name a position, but a person. Joe Klimavicz is that person, wearing both the chief data officer and chief information officer ...

DISA teaming up with US Cyber Command on a zero trust lab from 2019-09-19T20:00

A lot of agencies and vendors talk about the move to a zero trust architecture, but few are actually putting the pieces in place to improve their cybersecurity. The Defense Information Systems Agen...

DOT’s three-year plan to centralize management, delivery of technology from 2019-09-12T20:00

Ryan Cote, the Transportation Department’s chief information officer, said by bringing together technology management and delivery under his office, the modals would be freed to focus on mission an...

Move to new telecom contract requires agencies to modernize without breaking the mission from 2019-09-05T20:00

Transitioning to a new telecommunications contract has never been easier for the federal government. But the move to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions or EIS contract brings a whole new set o...

USPTO’s 19 projects to stabilize, modernize IT systems from 2019-08-29T20:00

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued more than 10 million patents and millions of trademarks, but up until now there was no good way to search through the troves of data. The agency is t...

SBA’s Houser bringing experiences of securing cloud services to Census from 2019-08-21T21:00

The Census Bureau is getting a new chief information security officer just as preparation for the 2020 count hits its full stride. Beau Houser will join Census after spending the last two years as ...

Agencies have a lot of options to find innovation, it’s a matter of using them from 2019-08-15T20:00

Amira Boland, who is coordinating the implementation of the Customer Experience Cross-Agency Priority Goal and the GEAR Center for OMB, and Jim Thompson. the director of private sector engagement a...

Marshals Service moving toward agile, risk-based processes for new IT from 2019-08-07T20:00

The U.S. Marshals Service technology modernization effort actually has little to do with the actual technology.The Justice Department bureau is upgrading its processes that will lead to successful ...

For HUD’s CFO, IT modernization is all about the data from 2019-08-01T20:00

Irv Dennis, the CFO of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says the data analytics portion of the Centers of Excellence effort is helping to transform the agency’s financial management...

HHS new contract writing system testing more than an innovative technology approach from 2019-07-25T20:00

In early fiscal 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services will pilot its new contracting writing system called Accelerate. HHS will work with a small group of contracting officers and indus...

How USAID got out of technical debt from 2019-07-18T20:00

The U.S. Agency for International Development has no legacy systems. With more than $7 billion in technical debt across the government, USAID is not responsible for any of that. Jay Mahanand, the c...

DoD, NATO turn to collective defense against cyber attacks from 2019-06-27T20:00

Since 2004, the Defense Department has been a part of an international Computer Emergency Response Team through NATO.
But only in the last few months has DoD and some of its allies been able to...

For HHS, FITARA is not just a law, but a lifestyle from 2019-06-23T20:00

It’s one thing to get an “A” or a “B” in the different areas of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard. It’s another to translate those grades into real IT reforms. While the resu...

NSA dares students to break the cyber code, and then recruits them from 2019-06-12T20:00

NSA’s six-year-old program challenges students and others to solve a multi-step cybersecurity problem as a way to expose them to the type of work the agency and the government does.

Over last 18 months, Federal CIO Kent’s goal is create a continuous improvement mindset from 2019-06-09T20:00

Federal chief information officer Suzette Kent said in an exclusive interview that during her time leading federal technology she has learned the biggest areas agencies need to catch the private se...

DHS, IRS, OMB clearing a path to achieve agile maturity from 2019-05-23T20:00

OMB’s draft cloud smart strategy is one of several ongoing efforts across the government to help agencies deliver services and modernize systems more quickly.

How the cloud saved USCIS from the post-shutdown blues from 2019-05-09T20:00

Eric Jeanmaire, the former division chief for Identity, Records and National Security Delivery in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and now the CEO of Finality, said moving E-Verify to the c...

Public, private sector CIOs face uphill climb to trusted partner status from 2019-04-28T20:00

Like legacy technology systems, agency chief information officers are struggling to modernize their own roles. Federal technology executives and their private sector counterparts still face an uphi...

For the FBI, data is both a blessing and a curse from 2019-04-18T20:00

Gordon Bitko, the chief information officer of the FBI, said the bureau is relaying on a combination of tools, training and shared services to better manage data.

USDS applying its own lessons learned to fix federal hiring, acquisition from 2019-04-10T20:00

Eddie Hartwig, the deputy administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, said the goal is to train 250 contracting officers under the Digital IT Acquisition Professional Program (DITAP).

GSA’s acquisition systems modernization effort buoyed by new contract writing system from 2019-04-04T20:00

The General Services Administration will host an industry day on April 18 to detail initial thoughts around a new contract writing system. Crystal Philcox, the assistant commissioner for Enterprise...

For DLA, there’s only one path to modernize its technology from 2019-03-28T20:00

Michelle Jacobs, the director of DLA’s hosting office, said the agency is using commercial cloud services to host more than 60 percent of its applications and wants to move toward a software-as-a-s...

Sandia’s synthetic network offers new insight into how cyber attackers work from 2019-03-14T20:00

Vince Urias, a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, said the HADES program creates a fake environment where cyber defenders can lure hackers and better under...

IT modernization at the CDC is just one piece of a bigger strategy from 2019-03-07T21:00

Suzi Connor, the chief information officer at CDC, said a new three-pronged approach will change the way the agency manages and uses technology. Connor joined Federal News Network's Jason Miller on...

Fixing federal IT requires changing acquisition, funding approaches from 2019-02-28T21:00

Whether or not the Section 809 panel’s recommendation to exempt the Defense Department from the Clinger-Cohen Act makes sense or goes too far, the congressionally-mandated group hit upon a bigger i...

NIH to hire chief data science strategist as part of its drive to harness big data from 2019-02-21T21:00

Andrea Norris, the chief information officer at the National Institutes of Health, said her agency is investing heavily in people, tools and cloud services to take more advantage of data.

How Energy is using its $15M loan to get “over the hump” to move to cloud email from 2019-02-07T21:00

Max Everett, the Energy Department’s chief information officer, said about one-third to one-half of the department still needs to move their email to the cloud.

FTC to speed up its journey to the cloud from 2019-01-31T21:00

Raghav Vajjhala, the chief information officer of the FTC, said a new blanket purchase agreement with four vendors will help the agency take a low risk approach to IT modernization.

How GSA is using AI to keep agencies on the right side of the law from 2019-01-24T21:00

Contracting officers are getting some much needed help to make sure solicitations include language to guarantee accessibility for people with disabilities. Section 508 requires agencies to buy tech...

To find cyber, data science workers, agencies should explore non-traditional disciplines, like musicians from 2019-01-16T21:00

Margie Graves, the deputy chief information officer of the government at the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration is trying to identify innovative approaches for recruiting and ...

Six ways the CIO is supporting the Army’s new AI task force from 2019-01-10T21:00

Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford, the Army’s chief information officer, said the service’s new artificial intelligence task force will focus on tasks ranging from automating cybersecurity to identity manage...

Former OMB cyber chief explains why federal cyber is better today than 3 years ago from 2018-12-20T21:00

Josh Moses, the former Office of Management and Budget’s chief of the cyber and national security branch in the office of Federal CIO, said agencies are in better shape to defend against cyber atta...

AI, cyber workforce at the top of House IT subcommittee priorities for 2019 from 2018-12-16T21:00

Artificial intelligence and the cyber workforce will be front and center when the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on IT comes back for the 116th Congress. Both Reps. Will Hurd (R...

Here is how Commerce is making shared services work from 2018-12-09T21:00

Glenn Davidson, the former executive director of enterprise services at the Commerce, said after three years the agency is seeing better services and cost avoidance from consolidating IT, acquisiti...

For NIH’s Dugar, like minds really do think differently around cybersecurity from 2018-11-28T21:00

Jothi Dugar, the NIH’s clinical center’s chief information security officer, said she is using the agency’s Diversity of Science effort to increase the number of women in cybersecurity.

Mobile apps, services have changed so the government’s approach is too from 2018-11-15T21:00

The General Services Administration is creating new special item numbers under its IT schedule to make it easier for agencies to buy mobile computing services.

Air Force restructures CIO to bring business, IT and data closer together from 2018-11-08T21:00

The Air Force is the second military service to restructure its chief information officer’s role by moving it to a higher level in the organization. The service named Undersecretary Matt Donovan as...

HHS remakes cyber threat center to have external focus from 2018-11-01T20:00

Janet Vogel, the acting chief information security officer at HHS, said the Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) replaces the Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integratio...

For 2019, DHS, OMB to begin next chapter of CDM program from 2018-10-25T20:00

Jeanette Manfra, the assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at DHS, said her office will focus on helping agencies manage and mitigate vulnerabilities through the CD...

How NSA is winning the war for cyber talent from 2018-10-18T20:00

Kathy Hutson, NSA’s senior strategist for academic engagement, said a 20-year partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County helps keep current employees growing and brings in new ones.

HUD, USDA bolstered from first payments from Technology Modernization Fund from 2018-10-11T20:00

USDA and HUD are taking advantage of both the Technology Modernization Fund and the Centers of Excellence to jumpstart IT modernization efforts. David Chow, the chief information officer at HUD, sa...

Education’s body and soul approach to IT modernization from 2018-10-04T20:00

Jason Gray, the Education Department’s chief information officer, said IT modernization is all about making both the policy and the infrastructure more flexible, agile and customer focused.

How NASA plans on ensuring that its data is accessible forever from 2018-09-30T20:00

Renee Wynn, the NASA CIO, said during the upcoming ACT-IAC ELC ImaginationNation conference she’s interested in learning about SDN and zero trust networks.

GSA’s Thomas pushing IT modernization from his front-row seat from 2018-09-19T20:00

Alan Thomas, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, said the Technology Modernization Fund and the EIS contract are helping to push agencies toward better IT services.

DHS’ Intelligence and Analysis Office riding cloud, shared services to reach better mission results from 2018-09-13T20:00

Dave Bottom, the chief information officer in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at DHS, said upgrading to Windows 10 will buoy its larger IT modernization effort.

State’s move to hybrid cloud underpinning new IT modernization strategy from 2018-09-05T20:00

The State Department's approach to modernizing its technology is focused on two major shifts: The first is centralization of back-office or commodity IT. The second is all about consuming IT-as-a-s...

DLA turns to AI, machine learning to bring surety to the DoD supply chain from 2018-08-22T20:00

The Defense Logistics Agency is five months into using its new Business Decision Analytics tool and the impact is obvious for them. The platform is giving DLA contracting officers more specific and...

Bradley talks declassification; McCarthy talks IT spending from 2018-08-16T20:00

On this special episode of Ask the CIO, host Jason Miller talks to Mark Bradley, the director of the Information Security Oversight Office, and Shawn McCarthy, the research director for IDC Governm...

Nelson quickens NRC’s move to the cloud by building on successes from 2018-08-02T20:00

Dave Nelson, the chief information officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said it just took one success and a little bit of time to get the NRC fully on board with cloud services.

Emerging threat to warfighters required new thinking by DoD’s JIDO from 2018-07-26T20:00

Leonel Garciga, the CTO of the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO), broke from the traditional federal model with open source to get capabilities out faster.

5 years after blowing the whistle on cyber problems, Davis has no regrets from 2018-07-19T20:00

Jerry Davis retired from federal services after more than 20 years, including the last five as the NASA Ames CIO.

Data integration effort delivers savings, better decision making for HRSA from 2018-07-15T20:00

The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $11 billion in grants across 90 programs in fiscal 2017. And with that comes petabytes of data and the need to analyze that information. Adr...

The benefit, curse of senor technology pushes the Air Force to try something different from 2018-06-28T20:00

Frank Konieczny, the CTO for the Office of Information Dominance and chief information officer in the Air Force, said the service is figuring out how to authenticate connected devices.

EXIM Bank addresses nuts, bolts of IT modernization from 2018-06-25T20:00

The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. received an unusual report from its inspector general. Auditors praised the agency’s efforts to modernize its infrastructure and deploy new systems.
Howard S...

Through CoEs, USDA starts proving what's possible with IT modernization from 2018-06-14T20:00

The Agriculture Department is moving closer to ending the planning stage and entering the operational stage of the Trump administration’s Centers of Excellence IT modernization initiative. USDA and...

Before buying technology, NNSA performs a cyber checkup from 2018-06-07T20:00

Wayne Jones, the chief information officer at the NNSA, said he is taking a hybrid approach to modernizing systems and applications.

Intelligence Community brings on Microsoft as key piece to second epoch of ICITE from 2018-05-31T20:00

John Sherman, the Intelligence Community’s chief information officer, wanted to tamp down any rumors about why the IC signed a deal to bring Microsoft’s cloud into the mix. He tells it all to Execu...

4 bots relieve NASA employees from doing ‘low-value’ work from 2018-05-23T20:00

Pam Wolfe, the chief of the Enterprise Services Division in the NASA Shared services office, said because of robotics process automation, her office can review grant applications more quickly.

How OMB is moving CIOs from cost center to value add from 2018-05-17T20:00

GSA started down the path using the Technology Business Management (TBM) framework more than two years ago. David Shive, the chief information officer for GSA, said he began with TBM for purely sel...

U.S. Digital Service helps CMS with ‘novel’ approach to IT modernization from 2018-05-09T20:00

Jonathan Sullivan, a digital services expert at the U.S. Digital Service, said modernizing the Quality Payment Program for CMS required a change in approach.

From 120 hours to 34 minutes, SBA transforms small business application processes from 2018-05-06T20:00

The U.S. Digital Service helped SBA modernize the applications to apply for government contracting programs.

With urgency, VA deploys new capabilities to fix services almost every day from 2018-04-26T20:00

The Veterans Affairs Department is working on no less than 11 different modernization projects to improve the Vets.gov portal. These include straightforward efforts like getting VA to the cloud and...

VA must show sustained progress with cybersecurity for auditors to give their seal of approval from 2018-04-19T20:00

Dominic Cussatt, VA’s chief information security officer, said VA has addressed several long-standing cyber problems, including the use of two-factor authentication.

TSA isn’t sweating the new Windows 10 mandate from DHS from 2018-04-12T20:00

Russell Roberts, the TSA chief information officer, said IT network and hardware upgrades are laying the groundwork for cloud migration.

Revealing the value of IT investments will help form the path to the cloud from 2018-04-05T20:00

Steve Grewal, who recently joined Cohesity as its CTO after leaving as the deputy CIO at GSA, said agencies should categorize the apps that can move to the cloud immediately.

NCI develops a model for the future of scientific computing from 2018-03-28T20:00

The National Cancer Institute is sharing data and moving applications to the cloud in an effort to make life easier for its employees.

DoD should heed lessons of MilCloud as it moves out with JEDI from 2018-03-15T20:00

Alfred Rivera, who retired after serving more than 20 years at the Defense Information Systems Agency, said DoD can’t underestimate the costs and time it takes to migrate to a single cloud foundati...

How FDIC rebounded from major cyber incidents from 2018-03-08T21:00

Howard Whyte, the FDIC chief information officer, said a third-party assessment set the cyber roadmap for the future.

From creation to elimination, FERC maps its data for better protection from 2018-03-01T21:00

Mittal Desai, the chief information security officer at FERC, said his office now knows more about how the program offices use and protect information. Desai joined Federal News Radio's Jason Mille...

Legal Services Corp. starts at beginning to modernize grants system from 2018-02-22T21:00

Jada Breegle, the Legal Services Corp.’s chief information officer, tells Jason Miller on Federal News Radio's Ask the CIO a new solicitation will help detail the current grant making processes.

NSF aiming to stay ahead of the technology innovation curve from 2018-02-15T21:00

On this week's Ask the CIO with Jason Miller from Federal News Radio, Dorothy Aronson, the chief information officer of the NSF, said a new user interface for its grants application system will com...

White House mandated risk management reports show mapping of threat to capability to investment from 2018-02-08T21:00

Ross Nodurft, the vice president at One World Identity and the former OMB unit chief for the cyber and national security unit, said managing high valued data is key for better cybersecurity.

IG community takes next step to close the FISMA gap between auditors, CIOs from 2018-01-26T01:30

The Council on IG Integrity and Efficiency Subcommittee on IT continues to try to close the gap between auditors and chief information officers in how they determine their agency's cyber posture.

Before replacing the CAC, DoD to evolve current smart identity card from 2018-01-05T09:30

Andy Seymour, the Defense Department's public key infrastructure manager, said a new policy will require the services to unlock the PIV certificate authentication on the Common Access Card.

Former DHS deputy CTO to promote federal IT change from outside in from 2018-01-05T06:30

Rob Palmer, who left DHS late last year and now is as executive vice president and CTO of ShorePoint, said lessons during his decade in government will help shape his private sector career.

Lack of cyber workers is the forcing function for shared services from 2018-01-05T06:30

Grant Schneider, the acting federal chief information security officer, said shared services for cybersecurity can help address the workforce shortage.

Ending States bifurcation cyber offices needs to be near top of next CIOs to-do list from 2017-12-21T09:01

Frontis Wiggins, who recently retired from the State Department as its CIO, said the Diplomatic Security and CIO offices have made some progress to work on cyber issues, but more is needed.

How one outgoing CIO wants to be a Yoda for small agency IT modernization efforts from 2017-12-15T09:01

Kirit Amin, the outgoing CIO of the International Trade Commission, said OMB and GSA should provide an easier way for small agencies to move off legacy systems.

How DHS, DoD sharpen their cyber pencils to make the right investments from 2017-12-01T03:30

DHS has implemented a cyber maturity model and DoD is using a security scorecard to identify strengths and weaknesses in networks and systems.

How the FCC could be the model for IT modernization from 2017-11-16T00:30

David Bray, who left the FCC in October and now is the executive director of the People-Centered Internet Coalition, moved the agency to the cloud to cut spending on legacy IT systems by 35 percent.

Overwhelming response at hiring fair demonstrates a job in federal IT is in demand from 2017-11-02T03:30

The CIO Council's first-ever governmentwide hiring fair had 30-plus agencies participate to fill cyber and IT positions.

US Digital Service evolves from firefighters to Smokey Bear from 2017-10-27T06:30

Eddie Hartwig, the acting deputy administrator of U.S. Digital Service, said his office has changed its approach over the past year.

Reducing 'time-to-hire' from 15 weeks to less than 8 weeks is the CIO Council's goal from 2017-10-20T19:01

Jason Gray, the Education Department's CIO and the co-chairman of the CIO Council's IT Workforce Committee, said there are four main goals for the upcoming governmentwide hiring fair.

For USPTO, security is part of the software code from 2017-10-12T22:01

John Owens, the chief information officer of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said automated tools and human analysis ensure software code is secure.

CIOs, IT workers dont always see eye-to-eye on priorities, challenges from 2017-10-04T22:01

George DelPrete, the director of the Federal CIO Survey from the PSC and Grant Thornton, said those questioned online offered a different viewpoint than those surveyed in person.

Coast Guard using Windows 10 to spark IT transformation from 2017-09-29T04:01

Brian Burns, the Coast Guard's acting chief information officer, said the service is on schedule to move to Windows 10 by March 2018.

New Energy CIO eyes expansion of cyber, cloud efforts from 2017-09-22T07:01

Max Everett, the Energy Department's chief information officer, said the agency can help secure and improve the technology behind the Internet of Things.

How technology is changing the culture of the Intelligence Community from 2017-09-14T10:01

Jennifer Kron, the acting chief information officer of the Intelligence Community up until Sept. 13, said the ICITE program is having a bigger impact on the IC than most realize.

OPM setting the foundation for security clearance, retirement system modernizations from 2017-09-08T10:01

Dave DeVries retired after 35 years in government including the last year as the chief information officer at OPM.

Moving to the cloud requires training the workforce first, foremost from 2017-08-31T16:01

The University of Maryland University College is trying to fill a void by offering a new Masters program in cloud architecture and management

How one small agency is cutting its IT spending from 2017-08-24T21:01

Vincent Groh, the CIO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, said by moving to the cloud he cut MCC's spending on data centers by half.

Navy's integration of privacy, cybersecurity part of Fosters lasting impact from 2017-08-17T00:01

The Department of Navy is a much different place than when Rob Foster arrived two years ago. Now as Foster, the DoN chief information officer, heads to a new job in government, he said the Departme...

Dev/ops helping two agencies take on complex IT modernization efforts from 2017-08-04T06:01

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and the Federal Communications Commission are further along with using dev/ops to modernize applications in the cloud.

FDA combining agile, cloud to create microservices framework from 2017-07-27T09:01

Todd Simpson, the chief information officer at the Food and Drug Administration, said its cloud advisory board and innovation lab work together to bring new capabilities to bear while also reducing...

FAA saved $36M through shared services, reinvested into new IT from 2017-07-21T12:01

Sean Torpey, the acting deputy assistant administrator for Information and Technology and acting chief information officer for the FAA, said the agency is swinging the spending pendulum from legacy...

DHS's 72-hour marathon to keep agencies, industry safe from WannaCry from 2017-06-29T16:19

Jeanette Manfra, the acting undersecretary for cybersecurity at the Homeland Security Department, offered an in-depth look into the steps DHS and the government took to keep federal agencies safe f...

How one agency is getting rid of passwords through the cloud from 2017-06-21T22:19

Greg Hall, the assistant director and chief information security officer in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys in the Justice Department, said the office hired Okta to provide a cloud service ...

How the Air Force is bending the IT cost curve to save half a billion dollars from 2017-05-11T01:19

Butch Luckie, the Air Forces chief of IT business analytics, tells Federal News Radio's Jason Miller on Ask the CIO the service is doing a better job capturing software and hardware asset data to h...