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Kentucky county clerks to authenticate via Yubikey -- GCN


By GCN Staff
Apr 12, 2021
Kentucky is planning to equip all the commonwealth’s 120 county clerks with Yubikey devices to enable two-factor authentication that will better protect the state’s voter registration system from unauthorized access.
Users insert a Yubikey token into the USB ports on their laptops and touch its button to verify they are a local human user and not a remote hacker.
The Yubikeys will be made available thanks to a federal grant obtained via a joint partnership of the Kentucky Secretary of State, the mayor of Lexington, Ky., the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Kentucky , United-states , Michael-adams , Linda-gorton , Kentucky-office-of-homeland-security , Us-department-of-homeland-security , Kentucky-secretary , Kentucky-office , Homeland-security , Mayor-linda-gorton , State-michael-adams , Gcn

The riskiest smart city technologies -- GCN

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley ranked nine technologies according to technical vulnerability, attractiveness to nation-state attackers and potential impact of a successful attack.

Berkeley , California , United-states , Virginia , White-house , District-of-columbia , American , Shaynepplstockphoto-shutterstock , Stephanie-kanowitz , Technology-approval-group , University-of-california , Department-of-homeland-security

DOD's 5G foundation to support telerobotic surgery pilot -- GCN


By Stephanie Kanowitz
Mar 16, 2021
The Defense Department is preparing for 5G-based telemedicine experiments with technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and robotic surgery.
DOD is expected to issue requests for prototype proposals from Joint Base San Antonio (JSBA) in Texas after releasing a statement of work for a 5G telemedicine and medical training project. The SOW sought industry input on development related to 5G-enabled AR/virtual reality-guided medical training, advanced telehealth information access, advanced robotic surgery and telementoring via AR for medical procedures.
The 5G network is critical to telemedicine because it shifts from the voice-centric 4G network to application-to-application communication without human intervention, National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) Vice Chairman Randy Clark said.

Virginia , United-states , San-antonio , Texas , Randy-clark , Joseph-evans , Stephanie-kanowitz , National-spectrum-consortium , Department-of-veterans-affairs , Office-of-the , Defense-department , Joint-base-san-antonio

Nimble thinking will galvanize federal cloud security -- GCN


By Beau Hutto
Mar 16, 2021
Nimble thinking affords organizations the ability to act and respond quickly amid evolving circumstances, and it’s key to both cloud adoption and capitalizing on cloud capabilities. Unfortunately, nimble thinking can be tough for federal agencies to integrate into operations that are subject to regulations and scrutiny. 
Federal agencies have made progress on cloud adoption, but as top researchers over the past few years have pointed out, many are still struggling. It’s hard to blame them; despite overtures around acquisition reform and contracting agility, too often decision-makers remain saddled with decades-old processes that treat security hardware as the same kind of resource as a fighter jet. Cloud security -- like IT writ large -- requires a different mindset. It’s all about investing in the future of security and embracing the promise of nimble thinking that will pay dividends.

Pentagon-strategic-capabilities-office , Defense-information-systems-agency , Veterans-affairs , Department-of-veterans-affairs , Army-rapid-capabilities , Critical-technologies-office , Navy-naval , Defense-innovation-unit , Air-force , Kessel-run , Rapid-capabilities

How cloud can cut carbon emissions -- GCN


By GCN Staff
Mar 16, 2021
Cloud computing is helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, potentially preventing more than 1 billion metric tons of CO2 from 2021 through 2024, according to a forecast from International Data Corp.
According to the market research firm, a key factor in the reduction of CO2 emissions has been the aggregation of discrete enterprise data centers to larger-scale facilities that can more efficiently manage power capacity, optimize cooling, leverage the most power-efficient servers and increase server utilization rates. The savings vary by region and country, IDC said, with the opportunities for greatest gains in areas currently using coal for power generation, like the Asia-Pacific region.

Cushing-anderson , Data-center-optimization-initiative , International-data-corp , Energy-star , International-data , Cloud-smart , Gcn , Computer-news , Gcn-com , Ada , Product-reviews , Vivek-kundra

FedRAMP issues container security guidance -- GCN


By GCN Staff
Mar 16, 2021
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has released supplemental requirements to ensure cloud service providers (CSPs) keep their container technology in compliance.
Released March 16, the document, Vulnerability Scanning Requirements for Containers, bridges the compliance gaps between traditional cloud and containerized systems by describing “the processes, architecture and security considerations specific to vulnerability scanning for cloud systems using container technology.”
Containers can be installed on bare metal or virtual machines, on-premise systems or within elastic cloud environments and are deployed and managed with various orchestration tools, the document states. According to FedRAMP, the technology introduces risk due to unvalidated external software, non-standard configurations, unmonitored container-to-container communication, ephemeral instances that are not tracked, unauthorized access and registry/repository poisoning.

National-institute-of-standards , Authorization-management-program , Federal-risk , Vulnerability-scanning-requirements , National-institute , Gcn , Computer-news , Gcn-com , Ada , Product-reviews , Vivek-kundra

Labor gets TMF funding to upgrade data management, analytics -- GCN


By Natalie Alms
Mar 17, 2021
The Department of Labor is using $9.6 million from recently expanded Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to upgrade its enterprise data infrastructure.
The new project will improve the availability of the agency's data by boosting operational efficiency and public services so that federal agencies and other data consumers can access information more easily.
The Labor Department will use the funding to enable an evidence-based decision-making approach across enforcement, compliance unemployment insurance and other agency mission areas, the General Services Administration said in its announcement.
The proposed project will incorporate enterprise-standard predictive analytics and reporting capabilities into the department’s IT platform, implement enterprise data management and support an application programming interface and public-facing data portal to transform how the Labor Department shares data. “By the end of this project, DOL will unlock the department’s enterprise data sources, create data management capacity, and ensure timely delivery of appropriate information to the right DOL staff and customers in a secure manner,” according to the TMF website.

Katy-kale , Services-administration , Technology-modernization-fund , Labor-department , Department-of-labor , General-services-administration , Gcn , Computer-news , Gcn-com , Ada , Product-reviews , Vivek-kundra

3 ways agencies can restore cybersecurity trust -- GCN


By Alan Duric
Mar 15, 2021
Government agencies have been unable to maintain trust in their cybersecurity capabilities this past year, and for good reason. The onset of the pandemic, followed by a year of tumultuous cyberattacks, has further damaged an IT infrastructure that had long been vulnerable to bad actors, nation-state and otherwise.
The perfect storm of pandemic-related events and vulnerable infrastructure has challenged federal, state and local governments. Not only did 2020 see a massive increase in data breaches, with the first quarter of the year showing a 278% increase in leaked government records, cyberattacks happened on a much larger scale, as seen with the SolarWinds hack that affected governments and businesses. These events have clearly shown that if governments continue relying on outdated and insufficient systems and protocols, the number of successful attacks will only grow in size and consequence.

Texas , United-states , Alan-duric , Gcn , Computer-news , Gcn-com , Ada , Product-reviews , Vivek-kundra , Intellipedia , Defense-knowledge-online

Protecting open source software by analyzing community behavior -- GCN

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s SocialCyber program aims to create a dynamic situational awareness capability that can preserve the integrity and security of open source software projects.

Virginia , United-states , Susan-miller , Virginia-center , Defense-advanced-research-projects-agency , Innovative-technology , University-of-delaware , Defense-department , Chester-university , Federal-computer-week , West-chester-university , Gcn

Security gaps could undermine confidence in election results -- GCN


By Mark Rockwell
Oct 19, 2020
It only takes one small breach to dent confidence in the nation’s election systems, according to a digital rights and technology expert.
While the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other organizations have made great strides since 2016 to shore up local election infrastructure, “cybersecurity is an active process. Threats are constantly changing and evolving, so we need to keep making the case that election officials need to prioritize cybersecurity and not be complacent," said William Adler, senior technologist for elections and democracy at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Adler's comments came during an Oct. 16 conference call with reporters. He and other officials at the technology and digital rights advocacy group explained the variety of threats facing the upcoming elections, from voter suppression to misinformation about mail-in ballots and cybersecurity. Even an unsuccessful attack, if detected and publicized, can sow misinformation and undermine confidence, which is a Russian goal, according to Adler.

Department-of-energy , District-of-columbia , United-states , Russia , Washington , Russian , Jesseh-neal , William-adler , Mark-rockwell , Communications-week , James-madison-university , Department-of-homeland-security