The Wrap: Shutdown Diary; TMF Bumps for DoT, FTC; State Dept. Cyber Fixes

Welcome to The Wrap for Friday, September 29!?

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

Shutdown Diary

We don’t know how long it will last, or what Federal funding will look like coming out the other side, but The Wrap is going to do our best to provide you with a useful daily update during the coming Federal government shutdown – no matter if you are in government service or with the private sector. In today’s inaugural edition , we canvas some of the published shutdown notices from the IRS, Homeland Security Department, and Energy Department. Specific agency plans were still being communicated to workforces even as late as this morning, so there will be more to learn as we go on. Maybe most importantly for immediate information needs, Feds can find all updated contingency plans for their respective agencies on the White House’s website?here . And the Office of Management Budget has provided agencies with an updated set of frequently asked questions to better understand how to prepare for a possible government shutdown, which Feds can access?here . Here’s to hoping that the pause in government functions is short-lived.

DoT, FTC Get TMF Bumps

The Department of Transportation (DoT) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today became the latest recipients of funding from the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) for projects at the two agencies that will help improve consumer protection systems. DoT will be getting $8 million to help modernize its consumer protection system and better serve air travelers, while FTC will use a $1.1 million TMF investment to help it secure and modernize a public-facing database that issues registration numbers to U.S. businesses.? Federal CIO Clare Martorana, who chairs the TMF board, said the FTC investment will allow it to “retire a legacy system that is costly to maintain and difficult to defend and replace it with an application that will meet today’s security expectations.” The DoT project, she said, will allow the agency to work directly with air travelers to design, test, and implement solutions that will meet their needs.”

GAO Flags State Dept. on Cyber Fixes

The State Department has failed to fully implement its cybersecurity risk program and needs to

take a number of steps to better protect its IT network and systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a?new report . The good news: GAO said State has documented a cybersecurity risk management program that meets Federal requirements. The less than good news: the agency has failed to fully implement its program to identify and monitor risk to assets and the information maintained on its systems. “Until the department implements required risk management activities, it lacks assurance that its security controls are operating as intended,” GAO said. “Moreover, State is likely not fully aware of information security vulnerabilities and threats affecting mission operations,” the watchdog agency said. State concurred with all 15 GAO recommendations to address the problems.

NSA’s AI Security Center ?

The National Security Agency (NSA) is taking steps to consolidate its existing AI security-related activities into a central effort dubbed the Artificial Intelligence Security Center. NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone said Thursday that the new center “will become NSA’s focal point for leveraging foreign intelligence insights, contributing to the development of best practices guidelines, principles, evaluation methodology, and risk frameworks for AI security.”? The center will wrap in work from the Defense Department, foreign partners, and academia, and also will “help industry understand the threats against their intellectual property and collaborate to help prevent and eradicate threats,” the general said.

Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more next week. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy.

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