The Fed Mission Success Round Up: Cybersecurity, Modernization, and More in Federal Agencies

Weekly News Round Up
Written By Fareeha Khan

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.

CISA is Seeking Cybersecurity Innovation Fellows

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced the launch of its Cyber Innovation Fellows program in hopes of attracting leading private sector expertise for temporary four-month assignments to contribute to the nation’s cyber defense.

NIST Sets Out Secure Systems Engineering Framework in Final SP 800-160 Guidance

The National Institutes of Standards and Technology has published a final version of new guidance on engineering trustworthy secure systems, which it says will provide engineers across government and private enterprise to with essential design principles.

GSA Pilots Supply Chain Monitoring for GSA Advantage!

The General Services Administration has tested a new supply chain monitoring process to remove about 75,000 products and services offered by unauthorized suppliers from its online shopping system. GSA used data from its Verified Products Portal (VPP) to identify the risky items on GSA Advantage! and remove them with industry.

FDA, VA are Moving Away from Paper-Based Processes

The Food and Drug Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs received FedHealthIT awards for accelerating the move away from paper-based processes, digitizing health records and information to improve speed and quality of health care for patients.

NASA Looks to Automate Data Sharing with Government and Commercial Partners

NASA wants to automate data sharing with government and commercial partners to further its human exploration mission, with Artemis launches beginning no sooner than August. 

Data Gap Poses Risks for Launch Site of VA’s New Health Record

The commercial electronic health record system being introduced by the Department of Veterans Affairs is proving difficult and expensive to adapt to the agency’s data reporting requirements.

Federal Contracting: Opportunities Exist to Reduce Use of Time-And-Materials Contracts

GAO found that civilian agencies use Time- Material and Labor-Hour (T&M) contracts more often than defense agencies. This GAO report highlights the risks associated with these contract types, which lack incentives for contractors to control costs or use labor efficiently. It recommends using lower-risk contract types such as contracts on a firm-fixed-price basis where possible.

Why You Need Your Boss's Boss to Embrace Agile

It's not usually the tech that's the difficult part of user experience work, government technologists say, but getting senior leaders to advocate to help clear organizational roadblocks. Human-centered design and agile development are still relatively new to government, and senior leaders are "the key ally" for adopting these practices successfully.

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