The State Department’s law enforcement arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, defends the department and the foreign affairs community by applying cybersecurity, technology security and law enforcement expertise to help advance U.S. foreign policy and safeguard national security interests. Specifically, the bureau’s Directorate of Cyber and Technology Security is responsible for ensuring tactical cyberdefense for all U.S. diplomats and data held by the department, spanning more than 260 locations in 170 countries around the world. From a cybersecurity standpoint, the State Department is the ..read more

Federal IT modernization is often a many-headed creature. Expert technologists must determine the requirements for an IT refresh. Administrators use their years of experience to plan within budget cycles. Leadership approval must be sought, and officials must be apprised of progress. At its most basic level, however, federal IT modernization initiatives focus on two elements: applications and infrastructure. Applications perform specific tasks, and infrastructure provides the foundation for managing those resources. A recent white paper from CDW Government, “How a Modernized IT Environment ..read more

Cloud security posture management offers a lifeline to agencies struggling to implement cyber best practices, such as continuous monitoring, when going multicloud. The Senate’s consideration of the Multi-Cloud Innovation and Advancement Act of 2023, which would help agencies modernize and streamline their IT environments, also underscores these conflicting priorities amid increased multicloud adoption. An audit of four agencies found they’d implemented continuous monitoring for only three of 15 systems collectively as of May 2023, according to the Government Accountability Office. CSPM can ..read more

Dear FedTech reader, We at CDW want to thank you for being a part of the FedTech community and hope you find our content helpful as you’re researching the latest technology trends and best practices in the federal government industry. As we continue to evolve our offerings and better serve our readers, we want to get your feedback on what aspects of our content you like and what we can do better.  Please take a few minutes to answer the survey below. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us. Thank you.  Ryan PetersenEditor-in-ChiefFedTech Magazine     ..read more

U.S. Navy IT leaders received notification from an aircraft carrier on deployment that the ship’s entire unclassified network was inoperable in April 2022. “The impact is tremendous,” says Jeff Myers, deputy program manager for PMW 160, the Navy’s tactical networking program office. The office oversees the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services, or CANES, program, providing a tactical edge network for all ships and submarines in the Navy. Although the network does not govern navigation or warfighting applications, an outage can bring huge portions of a ship’s operations to a ..read more

Gartner claims the goal of platform engineering is a “frictionless, self-service developer experience that offers the right capabilities to allow developers and others to produce valuable software with as little overhead as possible.” That goal is admirable, but is it realistic? With the migration from on-premises to hybrid cloud to cloud-native apps, DevOps matured from lone-wolf team aggregation to rigorous teamwork and side trips to agile, scrum and cloud-centric approaches that were productive, if sometimes loose and fast. In the public sector, “go fast and break things” doesn’t mean what ..read more

Agencies rely on multiple tools and vendors for cybersecurity. According to Cisco, 23% of agencies use 11 to 20 security vendors whose tools often function independently rather than as a cohesive system. Such fragmentation limits visibility and increases security threats, highlighting the need for interoperability, especially with the upcoming deadline for adopting zero-trust architectures. Zero-trust security, which requires constant verification of users and devices, depends on the integration of security tools. Find out how your agency can achieve interoperability among zero-trust tools by ..read more

Every industry is unique, and the federal government is no exception. But when it comes to cybersecurity, organizations are more similar than different, according to new research from CDW. A March 2024 survey of more than 950 technology and security professionals in diverse U.S. industries found widespread commonalities in the areas of zero trust, staffing and cyber resilience. “There is a huge amount of value in understanding that you are not alone as an institution going through these challenges,” says CDW Vice President of Security Stephanie Hagopian. “The more you’re talking to your peers ..read more

Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida has unusual guards on patrol: Robotic dogs augment its other physical security measures. Authorities say they are especially effective in situations that could endanger human lives, such as detecting or disposing of weapons or bombs, responding to chemical spills and much more. AT&T’s robotic dogs, developed in partnership with Ghost Robotics, offer almost limitless potential for facility safety, says Arthur Hernandez, technology program manager at AT&T. “They offer a nonlethal way of immobilizing and de-escalating threatening situations,” Hernandez ..read more

Hyperconverged infrastructure offers agencies a chance to bolster their edge computing capabilities by enhancing security, reducing costs and improving management — even in the most unconventional locations. The evolving demands of data management and processing at the edge have more agencies looking to HCI, particularly as technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning become more prevalent. HCI is software-defined IT infrastructure that virtualizes traditional hardware system components. Two years ago, it was primarily used for accumulating data at the edge, often for ..read more