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Nextgov
The White House's top tech adviser redoubled the Trump administration's commitment to deregulate the tech sector and scorned countries that seek to restrict the information flowing across their borders.
Michael Kratsios, the deputy U.S. chief technology officer within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, outlined the administration's strategy for spurring the growth of emerging technologies. The plan echoes the president's overall laissez-faire approach to economic policy while calling for stronger intellectual property protections on technologies developed in the United States.
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GMIS International wants to recognize your agency and employee achievements at the 2018 Annual Conference in St Louis, Missouri. Don't miss this tremendous opportunity to get the acknowledgement you deserve for contributions to your agency, and to your profession! The deadline for nominations for the 2018 GMIS Awards Program is Friday, June 15, 2018. To learn more about each award, visit the GMIS Awards webpage.
Nominations are now being accepted for the GMIS International Executive Board through Friday, May 18, 2018. Individuals may nominate themselves or another member they feel would be an excellent candidate to serve on the International Board.
Nominations are being accepted for the following elected positions, to serve for 2 years:
- 1st Vice President (President-Elect)
- Membership Director
- Secretary-Treasurer
- Marketing Director
Nominations are also being accepted for the following appointed positions, to serve for 2 years:
- Conference Director
- International Director
- Vendor Relations Director
Submit a Nomination!
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With industry-leading components from Cisco and Pure Storage, FlashStack is a powerful, efficient, and evergreen converged infrastructure solution that will shorten your time to value and deliver serious ROI. It scales, without disruption, as your needs grow and provides a powerful and reliable platform.
Watch the video to learn more!
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Registration & Scholarship Application Deadline June 30, 2018.
Don't miss your opportunity to register!
For more information on the CGCIO program, registration, and scholarships, click here.
CIS
Security in the cloud is just as vital as security in on-premises environments. Hardening a system is a way to protect it by reducing vulnerability. While hundreds of security recommendations may exist to harden any one technology, this post focuses on a few suggested in the CIS Benchmarks — objective, consensus-driven security configuration guidelines.
This list contains just a few of the 270+ configuration recommendations for Microsoft Windows Server 2016. Want the full list for this technology? Download the CIS Benchmark for Microsoft Windows Server.
- Disconnect After Hours
Your organization's workforce probably adheres to a specific work schedule. And even though operating cloud-based systems means you can theoretically work from anywhere (and at any time), it's unlikely most employees would need to log on at 2 a.m.
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 can be configured to have set logon hours when users can work and automatically force logoff outside those hours. Of course, hours can be adjusted for those who work the night shift!
- Firewall
The benefits of firewalls for preventing unauthorized users from accessing networks are well known — they keep unauthorized users away and stop the activity of malware that might attempt to retrieve data. The CIS Benchmark for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 reminds you that the firewall should be turned on — along with nine other recommendations for firewall configuration that include connections, display notifications, and logging.
- Driver Installation
Consider whether users need to install their own shared printer drivers. Trojan horse programs can masquerade as printer drivers and spread problems throughout the server if installed. Limiting installation of shared printer drivers might be better suited to Administrators only.
- Account Lockout
Between today's complicated password requirements and the likelihood of typos, it's certainly possible for a user to have several incorrect password attempts. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to tell the difference between a struggling user and a malicious actor attempting to gain entry to an account by guessing passwords.
Setting an account lockout duration can help prevent a malicious attempt at breaking into an account by reducing the number of password attempts in a given time period. One caveat — a longer lockout period doesn't necessarily mean better security; it could equal more calls to the help desk to unlock a frustrated employee's account.
- Audit Logon
Speaking of account lockouts, it's important to keep track of them by setting the system to report when a user's account is locked out as a result of too many failed logon attempts. Auditing these events may be useful when investigating a security incident. You can achieve this in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 by setting the "Audit Logon" configuration to "Success & Failure."
How to Harden Systems
Hardening your systems is a solid approach to protect against cybersecurity threats. Outlined above are just a few of the steps recommended to harden a system. CIS works with a global community of cybersecurity experts to develop configuration guidelines called CIS Benchmarks. They are available three ways to help harden systems:
- Manually apply the security recommendations for Microsoft Windows Server using the free CIS Benchmark PDFs.
- Obtain CIS SecureSuite Membership to leverage CIS-CAT Pro Assessor to assess systems conformance, download CIS Benchmarks in additional formats (i.e., Excel, Word, XML), access remediation kits to apply secure configurations directly to select systems, and reassess to monitor compliance over time.
- CIS Hardened Images are available in the cloud and are preconfigured to meet CIS Benchmark recommendations†. CIS Hardened Images make running secure operations in the cloud fast, easy, and affordable.
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Unlike ordinary managed service providers, backup and disaster recovery is all we do.
We even write, test and maintain your DR plan while keeping costs predictable.
There’s a reason the majority of ThinkGard’s customers are public sector agencies.
Perhaps you should find out why.
Visit our website! See Case Study.
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Personalized, Connected, Secure Cloud
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A modern cloud platform. What if your cloud was truly personalized to your business? What if it seamlessly connected your entire organization from anywhere and from any device? What if you were confident that your cloud data was more secure than ever? It can be with Oracle’s modern cloud.
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CSO
Most organizations are in the phase of rapidly gearing up to contain and manage cybersecurity threats.
In many ways the U.S. Federal Government went through this same difficult phase in 2015. There are some worthwhile lessons to be learned. One of the key elements of the Federal response was to set cybersecurity at the forefront of a chief executive’s responsibility with clear assignment of accountability. The second element was to provide funding and investments to upgrade the cybersecurity posture.
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Computerworld
Fintech firms, software makers, telecom providers and other businesses have joined forces develop a blockchain-based network that will enable anyone to exchange digital credentials online and without the risk of unintentionally exposing any private data. The companies are part of the Sovrin Foundation, a new nonprofit organization now developing the Sovrin Network, which could enable anyone to globally exchange pre-verified data with any entity also on the network.
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Information Age
It's fair to say that if you're looking to build a cloud platform strategy today or in the near future, you're likely evaluating the three top options: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. "The Three Horsemen," as the industry has playfully come to know them, simply offer the hyperscale, computing infrastructure and efficiency that smaller companies can't compete with.
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FCW
IT modernization is a top priority for the current administration, and is expected to transform activities as diverse as cybersecurity, citizen services and data analytics. So it's not surprising agency IT teams are being pulled in a dozen different directions.
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CompTIA
Finding a technology job that suits your skills, needs and wants is a lot easier than it used to be thanks to social media. First, social media helps you highlight who you know — a good first step to getting a foot in the door — with direct links to people who have offered you testimonials and endorsements and visible connections to your allies in the industry.
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TechTarget
Robotic process automation, or RPA, is the use of software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform. Simply put, RPA technology enables companies to automate manual processes across the enterprise using software robots, in turn reducing human error and saving money on labor. One key area where this sort of automation will make particular sense in the near term is configuring and managing disparate components of an IoT deployment.
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TechRepublic
Being a manager is like leading a band: You want every member of the group to have the resources and motivation to be successful, according to Sue Freas, director of software engineering at Appriss.
Plenty of managers are laser-focused on timelines and productivity, Freas said during a session at the 2018 Code PaLOUsa conference in Louisville, Kentucky. But if they don't have people to follow them, they are essentially performing on an empty stage to an empty room.
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