The Department of Defense’s (DOD) office of the director of operational test and evaluation office and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) carried out a cyber event in Feb. 2020 to assess the cybersecurity posture of the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) Joint Regional Security Stack (JRSS) and two other SIPRNET joint systems and reported poor cybersecurity findings after conducting the event.

The DOD testing office recommended that the department’s components and chief information officer “continue developing more effective cybersecurity alternatives to JRSS, such as the ongoing pilot work by the Services on implementing Zero Trust architectures and increased focus on developing and maintaining a skilled and trained defensive cyber work force,” the fiscal 2020 report reads.

Other recommendations are forgoing S-JRSS operations if the zero trust architecture proves feasible; prioritizing system usability, training and operator proficiency over meeting migration schedule deadlines; and producing an operational requirements document to improve NIPRNET-JRSS defense against nation state actors.

DISA and DOD components should verify JRSS operator competency and training to use and configure JRSS prior to new user migrations, according to the report.

Thomas Beach, interim chief data officer at the Department of Commerce (DOC), told Nextgov in an interview published Tuesday about the establishment of the Commerce Data Governance Board (CDGB) and how the department transitioned from focusing on governance to actualizing deliverables.

“And that's really the incubator for what gets done,” Beach said of CDGB. “So the CDO Office, you can look at staffing and resourcing and things like that, but it's [about] what do you get done? The whole is much better than the parts, and the CDGB paves the way of facilitating the whole coming together.”

Beach discussed how Commerce made the shift from “first gear to third gear” when it comes to its data efforts.

“So last year, what we were able to do by partnering was to accomplish a couple areas—those dedicated to the Federal Data Strategy. There were a couple action steps there on data maturity assessment and data skills assessment, and then a follow-on skills gap analysis. And so those three components were sort of the main deliverable,” he said.

Beach talked about the advantages of working with people from bureaus and offices and asking them about their data journeys.

“And my last bit on that is, it was so important to have buy-in from the bureaus and offices as to what the deliverables were. I think we spent a lot of time meeting folks where they were on their data journey, not telling them where they need to be. And we were purposeful in doing that,” he said.

Beach also shared his experience with the CDO Council as part of the data skills and workforce competency working group.

Katy Kale, acting administrator of the General Services Administration and 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, and Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and fellow 2021 Wash100 Award winner, talked about the current administration’s four priorities and the future of ongoing programs.

Hashmi and Kale said GSA will play a key role in the administration’s priorities of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, advancing economic recovery, addressing the climate crisis and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

“And, as it turns out, FAS has an incredibly integral role to play in all four of them,” Hashmi said. “One of our key focus areas right now is to make sure that we’re maximizing the buying power of the federal government to bring to bear and moving the needle on all those priorities.”

The two GSA leaders also shared their insights on the future of Technology Transformation Services, the transition from DUNS numbers to unique identity identifier, migration of procurement tools to the beta SAM website, the impact of the SolarWinds breach on the agency’s programs and federal acquisitions and status of e-commerce pilots.

They also discussed the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and how it correlates with the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.

“We are, for example, integrating CMMC requirements into all of our schedule and [governmentwide acquisition contract, or GWAC,] programs so that when agencies buy through GSA, they already have built in confidence that those technologies are going to be, the providers are actually going to be compliant and can meet that compliance. Similar kinds of efforts are going to be underway for FedRAMP, as well,” Hashmi said.

“There’s a lot of [changes] coming for FedRAMP; some are focused on making it more efficient and streamlined, others are focused on making sure it’s more well integrated into overall supply chain efforts,” he added.

Hashimi will deliver a keynote speech at GovCon Wire’s Modernizing Federal Acquisition Forum on April 15. To register for the virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the GovConWire Events page.