The Fed Mission Success Round Up: Biden’s Executive Order on Big Tech, Innovation, Cybersecurity and Cloud Challenges in Federal Agencies

Monday July 12, 2021

Welcome to the Fed Mission Success News Round Up brought to you by Makpar. Each week, we will provide a summary of actionable news and insights to help aid in overall mission success for Federal agency IT decision-makers and influencers. 

President Biden’s Executive Order Opens New Front in Battle with Big Tech

A core thrust of the order is to encourage regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to adopt new rules and policies to rein in the growing size and power of large tech platforms such as Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. That could prove to be a tall order for the FTC, the principal Federal regulator of internet commerce.

Why Biden’s War on Big Tech Is Misguided

It is sometimes hard to recall amid the bipartisan venom now directed at Big Tech that these firms have become big precisely because they have lavished benefits on us all. The digital giants won in the marketplace not only through digital technology but also by creating value in different ways.

How USPTO’s First Emerging Tech Director Is Approaching the Nascent Role

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is deliberately applying innovative technologies across many complex processes, particularly as its filings and examinations are trending up and reaching new records lately.

NIST Researchers Have a Breakthrough That Could Save the Lives of Firefighters

Ever since there have been building fires, firefighters have had to worry about the dangerous phenomenon known as a flashover. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed an artificial intelligence tool that promises to help in predicting flashover.

Fiscal Service Digital Playbook Flags Workflows Ripe for Automation

The bureau is releasing a Digital End-to-End Efficiency Playbook that walks agencies through how to identify workflows for automation and select business processes with the most potential to maximize cost savings.

COVID-19 Increased Acquisition Activity in Cyber Industry

The pandemic contributed to more than 120 publicly announced cybersecurity acquisitions in 2020 as the need for cybersecurity tools grew.

Colonial Pipeline Didn’t Have Multifactor Authentication in Place—And Most Defense Contractors Don’t Either

Colonial Pipeline didn’t have multifactor authentication in place on the account that was ultimately the weak point that hackers exploited. Of course, multifactor authentication alone won’t necessarily thwart attackers, but the fact that such a basic precaution was missing should raise a lot of alarm bells.

DoD Sets Deadline for Other Providers to get in on New Cloud Project

The Defense Department plans to award contracts to Microsoft and Amazon to replace the JEDI Cloud project it cancelled on Tuesday. And although DoD said it’s willing to consider other cloud providers, it’s giving them less than two weeks to explain why their service offerings would meet the department’s needs. Vendors have until July 20 to send “capability statements” to the new Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract office.

From the Makpar Blog …

In case you missed it, here are our latest blog posts:

• Beyond Passwords: Identity Access Management in the Digital Age

• Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with Asian Immigrant Contributions to Tech

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• Agile Transformation

• Increasing Federal IT Efficiency: How to Streamline the ATO Process Leveraging DevSecOps

• Tackling the Challenges of Big Data for Federal Agencies

• How Agencies Can Score Quick Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) Victories

• PODCAST: How the Federal Government can Overcome Barriers to Agile Transformation

• CIO-SP4 BPA, BIC MAC, and POLARIS Contracts to Drive Further Government Innovation

• Makpar Applauds Appointment of First Native American U.S. Cabinet Member

• The Cybersecurity Framework That Keeps You and Your Family Safe as You Access Your IRS Records for Stimulus Checks

• Data Security Win: Virginia is Second State in U.S. to Pass Data Protection Legislation

• How Decentralized Decision Making Can Help Federal Agencies Adopt a More Agile Practice

• 4 Ways to Migrate a Workload to the Cloud for Federal Government Agencies

• PODCAST: The SolarWinds Breach Points to Need for Cyber Fundamentals

• In Response to The SolarWinds Breach: The Need to Return to Cybersecurity Fundamentals.

• Is the Product Owner the Most Important Role in Government Agile Development?

• Cloud Migration Primer for Federal Agencies

• Breaking Down Cultural Barriers to Cloud Adoption for Federal Government Agencies

• Cybersecurity Best Practices for Federal Agencies, Small/Medium Businesses, and Individuals

Makpar has over a decade of experience providing high-level strategic and project management services, focused on cybersecurity and cutting-edge technologies. Please contact us here for more information about how we can enhance mission success for your agency.