Wednesday, June 6th marked the launch of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) application process for cloud service providers. As required by the Office of Management and Budget, all cloud service offerings must meet FedRAMP requirements when working with Federal agencies.

The days of identity thieves digging through your trash can or calling you requesting your personal information are long gone. Those methods took up their time and resources with limited results. Now, fraudsters can reach millions of people in a day with a click of a button, or create a webpage that is similar to a target agency in content and URL for just a few dollars. Malware can be downloaded just by clicking on these websites and will lay dormant until key words are inputted into your PC.

Federal agencies are getting more comfortable as they transition to a mobile landscape. As this transition progresses discussions have become more focused on securing actual data rather than securing devices as the concept of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) fits into the architecture.

“Big Data” has been the buzz word floating around federal, state, and local agencies this year. Big Data is a loose term used to describe mass amounts of structured and unstructured digital data flooding government agencies, and it is proving to be problematic. Expanding legacy data combined with growing real-time data requires agencies to devote manpower, funding, and new technology to address changing needs. The FY12 fiscal cycle has been a feeding frenzy for private sector IT giants all battling for a piece agency IT budgets devoted to data management. In response to the Obama Administration’s March announcement of a $200 million Big Data R&D Initiative, the non-profit TechAmerica recently announced the launch of a new Commission. The Big Data Commission, chaired by Steven Mills, Senior Vice President at IBM, is comprised of industry IT leaders, academics, and government advisors and will focus on providing recommendations on how to secure data, how to do more with less, and the relationship between cloud and Big Data.

Over the past few years, the increase in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks has become mainstream media topics. Hostile Foreign Government, Terrorists, and Hacktivists are using these attacks to cause major problem for the U.S. government. The attacks have been successful against the CIA, DOT, FTC along with other agencies. DDoS attacks are not only a major headache but also can be very costly. A DDoS attack is regarded as an unequivocal attempt by hackers to thwart authentic users of a service from using that service.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is addressing an agency-wide concern with the current use and future of GSA Schedules. DoD officials are working with the GSA to explore new options for contracting. In light of recent budget cutbacks, the looming threat of sequestration, and task forces dedicated to eliminating redundancy in procurement across the department- contracting is at the forefront of reform.