Many state chief information security officers say the increase in sophistication of cybersecurity threats is outpacing the amount of resources states are allocating to address them, according to the 2024 edition of the Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study.
Deloitte said Monday that it and the National Association of Chief Information Officers have been conducting the study every two years since 2010 with the aim of updating state leaders concerning the cybersecurity threat landscape. The 2024 study, which was completed this spring, covers input from the CISOs of all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Of the CISOs surveyed, four said less than one percent of their state’s IT budget is allocated for cybersecurity while more than a third said they do not have a budget dedicated specifically for cybersecurity. In contrast, federal agencies allocate over 10 percent of their budgets for that purpose.
CISOs have nevertheless undertaken efforts to mitigate cyber risks, including by onboarding specialists who can focus on cybersecurity-related matters, according to NASCIO Deputy Executive Director Meredith Ward.
“In addition to growing their teams, our research found these leaders are determined to find creative solutions to protect their organizations and the public,” Ward, who co-authored the 2024 report, added.
The same report reveals that many state CISOs have turned to generative artificial intelligence to bolster security operations, even though the same technology is seen as a potential source of threats.
“The attack surface is expanding as state leaders’ reliance on information becomes increasingly central to the operation of government itself, and CISOs have an increasingly challenging mission to make the technology infrastructure resilient against ever-increasing cyber threats,” commented Srini Subramanian, the global government and public services consulting leader at Deloitte and co-author of the 2024 report.
In the September report, OSTP noted that 19 federal agencies have updated or issued new policies to strengthen scientific integrity in government, the White House said Monday.
One of those agencies is the Department of Homeland Security, which released in September a directive that outlines the policy and requirements to promote a culture of scientific integrity and protect scientific processes from research misconduct and political interference, among others.
The final directive came a year after DHS sought public comments on the draft scientific integrity policy.
The biennial report also provided details on key measures to strengthen federal scientific integrity policies, including a January 2022 report on safeguarding the integrity of government science and a January 2023 framework for federal scientific integrity policy and practice.
Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 13 to learn more about technology initiatives to protect the country amid the evolving geopolitical landscape. Register now!
The U.S. Navy needs to better manage the risks associated with its project to acquire 12 Columbia class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines for $130 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In a report published on Monday, GAO said design and construction challenges continue to plague the program, noting that the first vessel will be delivered over a year late and will cost the government more money.
The office reviewed the program’s latest construction performance and concluded that the first submarine will come out between October 2028 and February 2029.
Consequently, the late delivery would push back the initial submarine’s scheduled availability for operations in 2030 and affect the United States’ nuclear deterrence efforts, the report warned.
To address the delays and cost overruns, GAO urges the Navy to implement specific measures, such as establishing realistic program cost estimates and analysis to address the risk of further degrading the project’s performance.
It is also crucial for the service to rethink whether its investments in the supplier base led to higher production, resulted in significant cost savings and created the intended program benefits, the report stressed.
Overall, GAO submitted five recommendations, including that the Navy must direct its partner shipbuilder to revise the program’s estimated cost at completion.
For its part, the Department of Defense agreed with the suggestions and outlined the actions it would take to address them.
The 33-page PDFin calls for health IT and electronic data deployment to achieve four goals, including accelerating research and innovation, the HHS said Monday.
The roadmap also calls for health IT and technology to drive health and wellness promotion, enhance care delivery and experience, and establish health system connection with health data.
The HHS Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, or ASTP, collaborated with over 25 federal agencies to develop the strategic plan and requested industry feedback after publishing it in March.
Micky Tripathi, assistant secretary for technology policy and national coordinator for health information technology, said the plan’s strategies “signal priorities to industry,” describing PDFin as “a guide” on prioritizing HHS resources, aligning and coordinating federal health IT initiatives and activities.
Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit to keep pace with the trends and innovations shaping the future of the healthcare sector. Register here.
The U.S. Navy has awarded BlackSky Technology a research contract to investigate technology that would provide warfighters with immediately available imagery during critical international and domestic missions.
Under the contract, BlackSky will identify uses and capabilities for advanced optical intersatellite link terminals on board its Gen-3 imaging satellites, the Herndon, Virginia-based company announced Thursday.
Brian O’Toole, BlackSky CEO, said, “BlackSky is making space a viable option for the tactical ISR mission.”
“Extending our Gen-3 satellite capabilities with optical inter-satellite link terminals will give Navy customers assured access to real-time earth imaging capabilities across the full range of warfighting scenarios both while underway and ashore,” O’Toole stated.
Optical intersatellite links are laser-based communications relays that reportedly transfer faster and more resilient data transmission rates than radio frequency systems. Through the contract, BlackSky will modernize its systems to accommodate an optical inter-satellite link terminal aligned with the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer and commercial transport layers.
“End users will receive BlackSky data and insights ten times faster, with data volumes five times greater than current systems,” O’Toole added.
BlackSky will also look to develop innovative operating procedures that inform the acquisition of commercial transport network nodes, how data is transported and how to maintain the core Earth-imaging mission.
The new major candidates for vice president, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, squared off in the first and only running mate debate for the 2024 election, offering a tamer and more policy-oriented discussion than the presidential debate last month.
Walz described himself as a “union guy” while Vance, in at least one instance, described the need for a robust and well-functioning government. They defended the records of Vice President Harris and former President Trump, respectively, while attacking their opponents as dangerous threats to the country.
Here is a summary of the notable comments and promises the candidates made related to the functioning of the federal government:
Border security:
On immigration, both Walz and Vance spoke of a need to ramp up law enforcement at the border. Vance spoke more of interior enforcement, promising to follow through on former President Trump’s plan to implement mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. He did not detail how such a plan would be carried out, which would require a significant infusion of resources and staff. Walz, meanwhile, promised to hire 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, a proposition that could face headwinds due to hiring challenges.
Walz and Vance traded barbs over the bipartisan border bill that failed in Congress earlier this year, in large part because Trump lobbied Republicans against it. The measure would have instituted a hiring surge at several border agencies, which Walz touted. Vance countered that “additional resources would help,” but more important was to “empower” federal officers and agents.
Emergency response
In the wake of Hurricane Helene and the widespread damage it has wrought, the candidates spoke briefly of the role of the federal government in disaster recovery. Walz stressed that state and local governments take the lead in those efforts and the federal government steps in to provide resources and support as necessary.
Vance said “we want as robust and aggressive a federal response as we can get,” and suggested a second Trump administration would “put the citizens of this country first when they suffer from a disaster.” The Biden administration has deployed 3,600 employees from agencies across government to Southeast and Appalachia to assist in Helene response and recovery.
Federal land management
Vance touted Trump’s plan to develop housing on federal lands, suggesting there are many areas “that aren’t being used for anything.” Non-National Parks lands, he said, could be used to “build a lot of housing.” Walz countered that would not help in the many of the nation’s most populated areas, where housing is typically in the shortest supply: “There’s not a lot of federal lands in and around Minneapolis, for example,” Walz said.
Presidential transition
Asked about Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election and his role in organizing the violent riots at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, Vance said Trump deserved plaudits because he “peacefully gave over power on Jan. 20.” While Trump ultimately stepped aside without further violence, his refusal to admit defeat significantly delayed Biden’s transition and his team reported several instances of resistance from the outgoing administration.
Transition efforts for 2024 are well underway and while both campaigns have named transition team leaders, Trump has yet to accept the formal services the federal government offers to both campaigns.
The Commerce Department said Monday the TraCSS program, a cloud-based information technology system that warns satellites against possible collisions through conjunction data messages—a.k.a. CDMs—has started providing spaceflight safety services to a beta group of satellite operators.
This marks the first time satellite operators are given space situational awareness and space traffic coordination services by the DOC.
The nine satellite operators currently receiving notification warnings or CDMs include:
Aerospace Corp.
Eutelsat Oneweb
Georgia Institute of Technology
Intelsat
Iridium
Maxar
NOAA
Planet Labs
Telesat
Don Graves, deputy secretary of Commerce, pointed out the significance of the TraCSS program to the department’s efforts to boost the nation’s presence in the global commercial space industry. “The Department of Commerce is building this system in close cooperation with industry partners to harness and promote commercial innovation in space.”
NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, added, “As space has become more congested, NOAA has risen to the challenge to prevent catastrophic collisions in space by developing TraCSS.”
Richard Dalbello, director of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, said, “TraCSS represents a modern approach to spaceflight safety, integrating the latest technologies and providing on-ramps for continuous improvements that will scale into the future.”
Mike Kushin, president of defense and intelligence at Parsons, said, “This important milestone is a significant step toward developing a robust and secure system for space situational awareness, which is vital for the safety of our shared space environment and its assets in orbit.”
Congress may break from its six-week recess and return to D.C. in the last days before an extremely close election to approve emergency spending for Hurricane Helene recovery and response.
Lawmakers aren’t set to return to Washington, D.C., until after Election Day on Nov. 5, but President Joe Biden indicated Monday during remarks on the storm that he may ask Congress to return sooner to take up an emergency spending request.
Whether to do so would be up to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
How much pressure those two feel to cut the recess short will likely depend on when the White House budget office sends Congress the emergency supplemental spending request, how soon federal agencies expect to run out of cash and how urgent the need appears.
The death toll by Monday afternoon topped 100 over six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — and White House advisers said that hundreds more are missing. Two million people are without power and many others are lacking water and mobile phone service.
Scott calls for return
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., released a statement calling on Schumer to bring that chamber back into session after the White House sends the emergency funding request.
“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and SBA damage assessments take time, I am today urging Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate when those assessments are completed so that we can pass the clean supplemental disaster funding bill and other disaster relief legislation, like my Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, needed to ensure the full recovery of families in all impacted communities,” Scott wrote.
That process of putting together a White House supplemental spending request includes determining which federal departments and agencies have enough money to handle their portion of the disaster response and which need additional funds. That can take weeks, especially after large-scale disasters like Helene.
It appeared more likely as of Monday that Congress would return to work on Capitol Hill on Nov. 12 as scheduled and consider the emergency spending then.
In the interim, staff on the House and Senate Appropriations committees as well as in leadership offices will likely begin negotiating the supplemental spending package, once the Office of Management and Budget actually sends the request.
Lawmakers can then pass the bill sometime during the lame-duck session in November or December, possibly attached to one or a package of the overdue full-year government funding bills.
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said on C-SPAN on Monday that she felt “exceptionally confident” Congress would approve emergency funding for disaster relief after members return to Washington, D.C.
“I’m absolutely certain there will be a supplemental,” Cammack said. “My fear is that it turns into a political football. And quite frankly things like this, there’s no room for politics when it comes to disasters and emergencies.”
Men on a four wheeler pass a storm damaged house Sept. 30, 2024, along Mill Creek in Old Fort, North Carolina, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. According to reports, more than 100 people have been killed across the southeastern U.S., and millions are without power due to the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. The White House has approved disaster declarations in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, freeing up federal emergency management money and resources for those states. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The Disaster Relief Fund
FEMA can spend as much as it needs to on disaster recovery thanks to a provision Congress approved a few days ago and special caveats for emergencies.
The stopgap spending bill Congress approved last week, which keeps the federal government running through Dec. 20, included a provision allowing FEMA to spend money from its Disaster Relief Fund at a faster rate than would have otherwise been allowed.
FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund can operate on something called immediate needs funding, which the agency can use as a safety net when that account runs low on money.
Immediate needs funding allows FEMA to pause “funding for long-term recovery projects and hazard mitigation projects that FEMA does not have in its system,” according to a Congressional Research Service report.
“These INF restrictions do not affect individual assistance, or public assistance programs that reimburse emergency response work and protective measures carried out by state and local authorities,” according to CRS.
FEMA has used immediate needs several times, including in August 2017 after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as well as during fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and in fiscal 2010, according to CRS.
Earlier pleas for funding unheeded
The Biden administration sent Congress a supplemental spending request in October 2023 asking for additional funding for natural disaster response and recovery. A deeply divided Congress, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats with a narrow majority in the Senate, did not approve the request.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young sent Congress another letter this June, urging lawmakers to approve billions in additional funding for natural disasters.
Young wrote that she wanted to “reiterate the October request and submit revised estimates of an additional $4 billion for certain disaster needs, including funding to help respond to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the devastating fires on Maui last summer, and tornado survivors in Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and throughout the Midwest.”
“Particularly as we enter what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is describing as an ‘extraordinary’ hurricane season, the Administration urges prompt congressional action on this request, including for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), to ensure that we can uphold the Federal Government’s responsibility to both rebuild from past disasters and respond to future events,” Young wrote at the time.
The supplemental spending request the Biden administration sends to Congress in the coming weeks will likely build off those prior requests.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during a briefing that the Biden administration is “disappointed” Congress hasn’t yet approved the supplemental spending request.
“We are disappointed that that didn’t go through,” she said. “We’re going to continue to have this conversation. As the president said, we’re in constant communications with members in Congress, and we want to make sure that they move quickly on this.”
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.
According to the DIU, the proposals will address the need for advanced one-way UAS to be utilized in modern warfare and bolster the Department of Defense’s operational capabilities.
The DOD is seeking proposals for ground-launched, one-way UAS platforms that can operate at ranges from 50 to over 300 km and navigate at low altitudes while carrying a payload of 10 to over 25 kg.
These quick-launching UAS should be able to avoid detection by broad-area search systems and stay beyond line of sight in disrupted, disconnected, intermittent and low-bandwidth and Global Navigation Satellite System-denied environments.
Furthermore, the UAS is expected to continue operating even without stable communication with the operator.
Interested vendors have until Oct. 14 to submit their proposals.
The U.S. Department of Education is launching the first testing period for its phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial student aid on Tuesday, with more students set to partake in this beginning testing stage than initially expected.
The department announced in August it would be using a staggered approach to launch the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — in order to address any issues that might arise before the form opens up to everyone by Dec. 1. The number of students able to complete the form will gradually increase throughout four separate testing stages, with the first one beginning Oct. 1.
The phased rollout makes the form fully available two months later than usual and comes as the 2024-25 form — which got a makeover after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in late 2020 — faced a series of highly publicized hiccups that the department has worked to fix.
Earlier in September, the department announced six community-based organizations chosen to participate in the first testing period: Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life, in Florida; College AIM, in Georgia; Education is Freedom, in Texas; the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, in California; and the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, in Virginia.
“Thanks to the wonderful organizations, we expect closer to 1,000 students in Beta 1 as opposed to the 100 we initially thought,” FAFSA executive adviser Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Monday regarding the 2025-26 form.
During this first testing stage, U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said the department will process students’ FAFSAs, “give students an opportunity to make corrections, if needed, and send the records to colleges and state agencies.”
“Colleges will be able to use these same records when it’s time for them to make financial aid offers,” said Kvaal, who oversees higher education and financial aid, including the Office of Federal Student Aid.
Three more testing periods
The department on Monday also named 78 community-based organizations, governmental entities, high schools, school districts and institutions of higher education to participate in its three subsequent testing periods for the 2025-26 form.
Three of the community-based organizations chosen to take part in the first testing period — Florida’s Bridge 2 Life; Texas’ Education is Freedom; and Virginia’s Scholarship Fund of Alexandria — will also participate in subsequent testing stages.
To help students and families prepare for the 2025-26 application cycle, the department said this week it’s releasing a revised Federal Student Aid Estimator, updated resources for creating a StudentAid.Gov account, including a “parent wizard,” as well as an updated prototype of the 2025-26 FAFSA.
Last week, the department released a report outlining 10 steps it’s taking to improve the FAFSA application process. Part of those efforts include the department strengthening its leadership team and working to address issues for families without Social Security numbers when completing the form, in addition to vendors adding more than 700 new call center agents.
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and X.
