The Fed Mission Success Round Up: The Cloud, Modernizing Anti-Trust Laws, and Software Transparency Requirements in Federal Agencies

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.

Leveraging Encryption Keys to Better Secure the Federal Cloud

For government agencies, migrating resources to the cloud increases flexibility, efficiency and promises enhanced security features. But in a cloud-centric world, security is increasingly complex. While security tools do exist within platforms, users may accidentally or unknowingly disable security features.

DOD CIO Takes Heat on the Hill for Pace of MilCloud 2.0 Migrations

Lawmakers are worried that delays to the Defense Department's plan to migrate legacy systems to cloud-based solutions could hamper national security.

Congress Faces Renewed Pressure to ‘Modernize Our Antitrust Laws’

This week’s rulings have now put the pressure on lawmakers to push through a recently proposed package of legislation that would rewrite key aspects of monopoly laws to make some of the tech giants’ business practices illegal.

Small Businesses Ask Congress to Focus CMMC on Primes and DOD

Small businesses are lobbying Congress for a more lenient process to meet the Defense Department's unified cybersecurity standard for contractors, called the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.

Lawmaker, Tech Companies Clash on Software Transparency Requirements

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has defined "critical software" in accordance with an executive order to institute procurement standards Federal agencies must follow.  

White House Plans to Attribute the Microsoft Exchange Hack Soon

The White House will soon officially assign responsibility for an extensive attack on Microsoft Exchange servers and decide on next steps.

Sweeping Executive Order Covers Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce

An executive order issued last Friday directs the Federal government to ramp up diversity training, rethink the use salary history as a basis for pay determinations and supply gender non-conforming and non-binary and transgender feds with employee credentials that reflect their current names, pictures and pronouns.

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

• Tips for Remote Agile Scrum Ceremonies: How to Optimize for Success

• 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.