The Fed Mission Success Round Up: Equity, Customer Experience, Log4j Vulnerability, 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.

The Federal Government Is Making a New Investment in Women-Owned Small Businesses

The Small Business Administration, the Federal agency that supports entrepreneurs, is putting a greater focus on women business owners than ever before in the agency’s history, following two years that have decimated small businesses and brought into stark relief the barriers still facing the fastest-growing group of owners. 

OMB Releases Guidance to Advance Equity for Underserved Small Businesses in Federal Procurement

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released guidance on December 2, 2021, implementing Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government” (EO).  The EO directs agencies to readily make available Federal contracting opportunities to all eligible vendors and to remove barriers preventing underserved individuals and communities from entering procurement opportunities.

Biden Executive Order Seeks ‘Seamless’ Customer Experience Across Federal Services

The Biden administration is looking to make public-facing services across the Federal government easier to access. President Joe Biden signed an executive order focused on improving customer experience within government and building on its ongoing work to improve the equity of public-facing services. 

What Is the Log4j Vulnerability? What to Know.

A flaw in widely used internet software known as Log4j has left companies and government officials scrambling to respond to a glaring cybersecurity threat to global computer networks.

Log4j Zero-Day Vulnerability Response

On December 9, 2021, security researchers discovered a flaw in the code of a software library used for logging. The software library, Log4j, is built on a popular coding language, Java, that has widespread use in other software and applications used worldwide. This flaw in Log4j is estimated to be present in over 100 million instances globally.

DHS Issues Emergency Directive Ordering all Federal Civilian Agencies to Address Log4j Flaw

U.S. cyber officials issued an emergency directive Friday giving all federal civilian agencies until Dec. 23 to assess their internet-facing networks for the Apache Log4j vulnerability and immediately patch the systems, or take other measures to mitigate the software flaw.

Congress Passes Defense Policy Bill with Boosts To R&D and Cybersecurity

The fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act would allocate $768 billion overall to the national defense budget and mandate several policy changes within the Department of Defense. The president is expected to sign into law before the end of 2021.

IT Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) Roundup

GSAs GWACs support the PMA in some key ways, including delivering mission-enabling technologies across government. They support deep relationships with the supplier community, helping industry understand how the PMA drives new and emerging government IT requirements to support key initiatives such as improving citizen interactions with the government and equipping the Federal workforce to effectively deliver for the public. Here are some GWACS making a difference across Federal agencies.

4 Federal Government IT Trends to Watch in 2022

The shift to zero trust, the evolution of hybrid work, network modernization, and the power of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence will be key areas of focus next year.

From the Makpar Blog …

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Fareeha Khan
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