AI Today in 5: August 7, 2025. The US v. China Episode
Podcast - Cybersecurity Roundup: Analyzing New and Proposed Rules for Contractors
Cybersecurity Insights: Updates on CMMC Implementation and CUI Identification
Podcast - Third-Party Assessments and NIST SP 800-171
Third-Party Assessments and NIST SP 800-171
[Podcast] AI Risk Management: A Discussion with NIST’s Elham Tabassi on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework
Compliance into the Weeds - ChatGPT for the Compliance Professional
Nota Bene Episode 150: Building an AI Risk Management Framework with Siraj Husain
DoD Cyber: A Conversation with Melissa Vice, COO for DoD’s Vulnerability Disclosure Program
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Year in Review: Major Breaches, Changes in the Law, and Upcoming Trends
The Government Contracts Cyber Café: Recent Developments Update
How to Respond to President Obama's Cybersecurity Executive Order
On June 6, 2025, President Trump issued a new executive order, “Sustaining Select Efforts to Strengthen the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Amending Executive Order 13694 and Executive Order 14144” (EO), signaling the construction...more
The FAR Council issued a proposed rule that would amend the several FAR provisions and add new clauses to provide guidance on the safe handling of CUI. Public comments on the proposed rule are being accepted until March 17,...more
Earlier this year, the FAR Council issued a proposed rule to implement the Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Program as it relates to federal contracts. The proposed rule is "just one element of a larger strategy to...more
On January 15, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council published a proposed rule (the FAR CUI Rule) that would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to impose government-wide cybersecurity, training, and...more
Over the last two decades, federal contractors have been frustrated by the Government’s hodgepodge approach to regulating Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Various agencies have implemented differing definitions,...more
After years of anticipation, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council has announced the arrival of its proposed rule to enhance the safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in federal contracts (the...more
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released an initial public draft of NIST SP 800-171, Revision 3, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations. Compliance...more
Almost two years ago, Executive Order 14028 – Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (EO) was issued requiring a host of actions be taken by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council, the National Institute of Standards...more
Yesterday we continued our series... with the Office of Management and Budget’s September 2022 memorandum requiring federal agencies to only use software from software producers that attest compliance with secure software...more
On May 12, 2021, President Joe Biden issued a wide ranging Executive Order “On Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” which was in the works after the SolarWinds cyberattack and arrived soon after a ransomware attack on the...more
There is a new federal IoT law, H.R. 1668, the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020, that recently passed the House and Senate and was signed by the President on December 4. ...more
On November 17, 2020, by unanimous consent, the United States Senate passed bipartisan legislation to secure internet connected devices—The Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020. This bill, which was...more
- DoD has released the final version of the CMMC framework. - DoD anticipates that CMMC requirements will appear in a limited number of solicitations starting in October 2020 and that they will appear in all DoD...more
In 2019, cybersecurity has become top-of-mind for most federal government contractors and agencies that share sensitive information. In addition to updated Department of Defense guidance and procedures for evaluating...more
Since last year, I have been writing about the increasing impact of cybersecurity on contract awards. DoD has issued guidance on how it will evaluate system security plans, and it has indicated that, along with cost,...more
The Department of Defense (DOD) and its component services and agencies are taking several independent steps to assess and enhance their cyber and supply chain security that will directly or indirectly affect DOD contractors...more
Under the Department of Defense (DoD) final Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) rule on Network Penetration Reporting and Contracting for Cloud Services, DoD contractors maintaining, processing, or...more
Government agencies collect and hold massive amounts of personally identifiable information (PII), creating valuable targets for cybercrime. Recently proposed legislation would impose baseline standards for cyber hygiene on...more
The U.S. federal government announced on May 16, 2016, new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules that set high-level standards for the basic safeguarding of contractor information systems that process, store or transmit...more
The Department of Defense (DoD) issued an interim cybersecurity rule in August 2015 that, among other things, revises the existing Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) cybersecurity clause and increases...more
Is Controlled Unclassified Information Out of Control? The OMB apparently thinks so. On August 11, 2015, the Obama administration, through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is the largest office within the...more
In a move that highlights the changing winds of federal cybersecurity policy, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) has issued an interim Rule (“Rule”) that imposes new security and reporting requirements on federal contractors,...more
The Department of Defense (DoD) released interim rules implementing provisions of the 2013 and 2015 National Defense Authorization Acts. The rules, released on Aug. 26, 2015, are effective immediately and establish the...more
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a draft guidance document on Aug. 11, 2015, titled “Improving Cybersecurity Protection in Federal Acquisitions” (the “OMB Guidance”). The OMB Guidance instructs agencies on...more
Federal government contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) should take notice of two recent executive agency actions. Combined, they lay the groundwork for a new cybersecurity clause to be added to the...more