Federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget have implemented 46 percent of the Government Accountability Office‘s 800 recommendations on information technology acquisitions and operations management.

GAO said Tuesday the number of implementations as of October 2016 reflects a 23 percent increase compared to the percentage reported in 2015.

Auditors added agencies closed 3,125 of 10,584 total data centers and achieved $2.8 billion in cost savings and avoidances through fiscal year 2015 out of the $8.2 billion goal that was set for fiscal year 2019.

A GAO report in June found that agencies did not fully consider risks when rating major investments on the IT Dashboard and that GAO’s assessments of risks facing 95 investments did not match the chief information officer’s ratings 73 times.

GAO reported in August that 22 agencies planned to deliver usable functionality every six months from 64 percent of 469 active software development projects for fiscal year 2016.

Seven selected agencies provided different percentages of such software projects on the IT Dashboard compared to what was reported to GAO.

The government watchdog noted it will continue to monitor agencies’ efforts to address the oversight and execution of the data center consolidation initiative; the IT Dashboard’s accuracy and reliability; and incremental development policies.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $76 million in research grants to 241 projects across 36 states and 129 institutions in an effort to study the scientific, engineering and socio-technical aspects of cybersecurity.

Projects under the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program will explore aspects such as hardware, software, network security and human incentives and behaviors, NSF said Nov. 30.

“No solution for securing cyberspace is complete without the integration of research that examines how people — from the users of internet commerce to the attackers who endanger networks — behave in the complicated systems that constitute the internet,” said Fay Lomax Cook, NSF’s assistant director for social, behavioral and economic sciences.

SaTC works to support computer science and engineering research as well as emphasize fundamental mathematics at the core of cybersecurity, NSF noted.

The program also highlights the need for sociotechnical methods that consider human, social, organizational and economic factors that affect systems and infrastructure creation, maintenance and operations, NSF added.

SaTC awards include $3 million grants each for three projects that will investigate the relationship between the Internet of Things and humans; the development of secure hardware; and cryptographic techniques to boost privacy.

Various SaTC projects involve collaboration with industry through the Secure, Trustworthy, Assured and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems joint effort of NSF and the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

The awards are part of NSF’s $160 million overall investment in cybersecurity research for the government’s current 2016 fiscal year.

The Center for a New American Security has said the Defense Department should implement a new approach to the acquisition of commercial mobile devices and introduce changes to its policies in an effort to advance workforce mobility and update information systems.

CNAS made the recommendation in the report “Leveraging Commercial Technology: Early Adoption of Emerging Mobility in the Pentagon.”

The Pentagon should work to implement a bring-your-own-device model in order to keep pace with technology advancements and realize the potential benefits of mobile device adoption, CNAS noted.

CNAS also recommended for DoD to launch a program based on a corporate-owned business-only model in order to facilitate the deployment of commercial-off-the-shelf tablets and handsets to employees as part of the adoption of a BYOD model.

“As the technology is verified and the BYOD model gains support, DoD can adjust policy as required and scale up over time, modernizing information technology infrastructure gradually to support and shift more capabilities to mobile devices as appropriate,” CNAS added.

Ben FitzGerald, director of the technology and national security program at CNAS, co-wrote the report with Alexandra Sander, a research associate at CNAS’ technology and national security program.