News

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a new set of guidelines for evaluating security and privacy controls in federal information systems, GovInfoSecurity reported Monday. Eric Chabrow writes Ron Ross, an NIST fellow, said the guide is designed to complement continuous monitoring and information security authorization programs across …

The Congress has approved two bills that U.S. officials say could impact the approval process for foreign arms sales, Reuters reported Tuesday. Andrea Shalal writes one bill would permit the House of Representatives and Senate foreign affairs committees to seek a 30-day notification of government-to-government arms delivery to other countries. …

The Senate has voted to confirm Sarah Saldana as the assistant secretary in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, The Hill reported Tuesday. Ramsey Cox reports that Saldana, who will enforce President Barack Obama’s decision to grant undocumented U.S. immigrants with work visas, …

Janice Glover-Jones, acting chief information officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency since October, will assume the CIO role on a permanent basis starting on Dec. 28. The 28-year DIA veteran is also the agency’s deputy CIO and will continue to oversee its daily information technology operations and budget, DIA said …

President Barack Obama has signed into law an omnibus bill that provides $1.1. trillion in funds to operate most of the federal government in fiscal 2015, Reuters reported Tuesday. The bipartisan spending deal cleared Congress last week and headed off a government shutdown, according to the story by Peter Cooney. …

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) warned the U.S. could face bigger cybersecurity issues if Congress does not pass legislation to allow the government and industry to exchange threat information, FCW reported Monday. “My fear is that a non-rational actor with nation-state capability is going to be able pull off a significant …

The Office of Science and Technology Policy has launched a new website that works as a public resource for disaster data and collaboration tools as part of the government’s Innovation for Disasters initiative. Brian Forde, Heather King and Meredith Lee wrote on the White House blog that Disasters.data.gov supports efforts to drive …

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says it has reduced the costs to operate and maintain legacy information technology systems as a result of its adoption of agile software development, Federal News Radio reported Friday. Jason Miller writes that USPTO spends only 40 percent of its budget on legacy systems while spending 60 percent …

NASA has tested a computer software for determining the proper space between on-flight aircraft aboard a Boeing 787 test airplane. The Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes software is designed to calculate and display speed information for pilots to guide the aircraft into a safe distance from another aircraft, NASA …

House and Senate committees reworked the defense appropriations portion of the $1.1 trillion government spending package before the bill advanced to the House floor on Thursday, Defense News reported Monday. Paul McCleary and Bradley Peniston estimate that lawmakers added more than $4 billion to the Defense Department‘s requested fiscal 2015 …