The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is finishing up a 90-day sprint geared toward further cloud service adoption, and the agency’s acting CIO advised other organizations during MeriTalk’s virtual Cloud Cafe event on July 15 to toss out the on-prem rulebook when planning for their own cloud transitions. […]

With President Biden’s Cybersecurity Executive Order adding urgency to requirements for Federal agencies to improve cybersecurity by further implementing core tenets of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, a new survey from MeriTalk and Elastic finds that the continued rollout of the next generation of CDM dashboard technology will go a long way toward addressing agency security gaps. […]

A newly issued Office of Inspector General (OIG) report shows that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was making only limited progress in implementing the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program in several years leading up to an audit completed in 2020, but has since taken action on several recommendations from the OIG that puts the agency in better position to benefit from CDM. […]

Federal agency progress in implementing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program would benefit from a kick-start from Congress in the form of more funding for the program, along with money for agencies that have to pay for the additional security capabilities on an ongoing basis. […]

Education Department CISO Steven Hernandez joined MeriTalk’s CDM Central: the Age of the Cyber Defenders virtual conference on May 12 to discuss how the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program and automation are impacting the agency. […]

In the wake of recent high-profile cyberattacks, IT experts gathered at MeriTalk’s CDM Central: The Age of Cyber Defenders virtual event on May 12 agreed that the Federal government needs to accelerate innovation when it comes to cybersecurity, and that includes implementing the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, along with zero trust security concepts. […]

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program manager Kevin Cox delivered an upbeat assessment of the program’s progress in helping Federal agencies fortify their networks against cyber attacks at MeriTalk’s CDM Central: the Age of the Cyber Defenders virtual conference on May 12. […]

Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha explained today that the foundational elements of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program are fundamental to moving Federal government network security to zero trust concepts and that implementation of the program only becomes more important as cyber threats increase. […]

Federal agency chief information security officers (CISOs) told a Senate panel today that the security payoffs yielded by the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program are well worth the challenges that agencies have faced in implementing the program run by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

The line between cybersecurity that keeps the Federal civilian government humming toward pandemic recovery – and the mayhem threatened by mounting waves of nation-state and criminal cyber assaults on government networks – in large measure passes through the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program run by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

Members of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission are asking the chair and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee to increase funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by at least $400 million, with some of that funding intended to make sure that CISA’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program can quickly deploy security tools. […]

While a clear majority of stakeholders in the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program believe that CDM is more important than ever in defending against cyber breaches, only a small fraction praise CDM for its ability to build civilian government network resilience following a breach. […]

Kevin Cox, who has led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program for the past five-plus years, will be leaving the agency later this year to take on deputy CIO duties at the Department of Justice (DoJ). […]

The acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told senators on March 18 that CISA is making efforts to complete deployment at Federal civilian agencies of the first two phases of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program by the end of this year as part of a push to shore up Federal cybersecurity after the SolarWinds Orion hack. […]

The Federal government’s response to the Russia-backed SolarWinds cyberhack – and the pressing need for government agencies to speed progress on putting in place cybersecurity protections including through the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – […]

Strengthening cloud service capabilities over the past year has been an important step for Federal agencies to both deal with pandemic-era network service demands, and bolster cybersecurity by meeting requirements of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program while using cloud services. […]

To protect high value assets (HVAs), Federal agencies need to fully deploy the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, clearly communicate strengths and weaknesses to leadership, and ensure system owners have a stake in their CDM deployment, explained Jeff Eisensmith, former CISO at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a MeriTalk webinar on January 12. […]

Kevin Cox, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program manager, said today that he could not directly address the Russian government hack of thousands of government and private sector networks that came to light in December, but emphasized the importance of network resilience to quickly recover from intrusions and breaches. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is due to receive a much-needed funding increase for Fiscal Year 2021, helping to address a shortfall for the program that aims to improve network security at Federal government civilian agencies. […]

The changing cybersecurity landscape demands evolving technology and policy to help Federal agencies combat cyber threats and build resilience. MeriTalk spoke with Bryan Rosensteel, public sector cybersecurity architect at Cisco’s Duo Security, about the expansion of agency networks beyond traditional perimeters, how the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is adapting to the changing landscape, and how dynamic authentication can help agencies stay ahead of bad actors. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic moved the zero trust network security model from a theoretical discussion in many government agencies to a priority, government and industry executives said Dec. 3 during MeriTalk’s virtual CDM Central conference.  […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is making progress but has run into issues with the data that commercial capabilities report to its dashboards, making it difficult for the program to quickly pull insights from that data, said Judy Baltensperger, project manager for CDM program dashboard operations, today at MeriTalk’s CDM Central event. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – the Federal government’s primary program to improve civilian agency cyber security – is running short on money and putting its four prime contractors on half rations until the funding situation improves. […]

The crown jewels of Federal agency network and data assets need better protection from cyber adversaries, but the jury is still out as to whether and when the government’s primary security program to protect them – the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program – will provide the kind of protections that those assets require. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is employing a multi-year view on helping Federal agencies to better protect their high-value assets (HVA), CDM Program Manager Kevin Cox indicated today. […]

The new draft budget bills released by the Senate Committee on Appropriations on November 10 include multiple provisions across departments that will have implications for Federal IT and other modernization projects. […]

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox said on Oct. 13 that the program office is making progress on one of its key goals for Fiscal Year 2021 – connecting Federal agencies to its second-generation Elasticsearch dashboard. […]

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox said Sept. 9 that his office’s high-level aims for Fiscal Year 2021 feature an extensive menu of goals – fuller “operationalization” of CDM data, progress on installing the latest version of the CDM dashboard at the agency and Federal levels, and helping agencies to better understand and handle security for data in the cloud and from mobile services. […]

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Indian Health Service, and Small Business Administration (SBA) are using security tools given to them by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they’re intended: to identify hardware and software on their networks that may have vulnerabilities and insecure configurations. But GAO said the agencies have more to do manage their network in order to optimize the value of the tools. […]

A collection of trade groups representing the nation’s biggest tech firms is urging Senate leadership to match or exceed the $1 billion in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) approved by the House last month as part of the HEROES Act pandemic-relief legislation. […]