IntelliDyne brings you a weekly digest of some of the latest news and insights about COVID-19, how federal agencies and IT officials are dealing with the pandemic, and best practices in order to bolster security and privacy in teleworking environments.
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How will DOD’s workforce shift post-COVID-19?
Social distancing, masks and virtual meetings are the new normal across government, including at the Department of Defense. But what will working in DOD look like on the other side of the COVID-19 curve?
“You will see more interest in general in mobility and telework … [a]nd much more interest in better security, and the ability to do multiple levels of security on single devices.” – Terry Halvorsen, former DOD CIO
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Trusted Internet Connections: CISA Update Relating to Coronavirus
The Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative is designed to enhance network and perimeter security across the Federal Government. With the COVID-19 pandemic now a fact of life for agencies and their IT contractors, we believe it is a good time for relevant stakeholders to revise their understanding of TIC.
CISA recently published a guidance document in the wake of the coronavirus situation in order to assist with telework surge concerns. The document provides security capabilities for remote federal employees securely connecting to private agency networks and cloud environments.
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DOD Launches Task Force of CIOs to Address Teleworking Challenges
The Department of Defense is experiencing an “unprecedented” strain on its networks brought on by a “maximum telework” policy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. FedScoop reports that DOD CIO Dana Deasy meets multiple times each week to work on a range of issues, including protecting a “dispersed workforce from cyber threats” – all while departments such as the US Navy are in the midst of IT modernization networks.
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NIST: Steps to Take to Prevent Eavesdropping and Protect Privacy
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published some helpful guidance to assist teleworkers at a time when internet piracy and hacking are serious concerns. Even though teleworking is now ubiquitous (especially in light of COVID-19), the NIST article correctly asserts that “virtual meeting security is often an afterthought, at most.”
The advice from NIST includes limiting reuse of access codes, using one-time PINs, using a “green room” or “waiting room” in order to prevent meetings from beginning until the host joins, and using a dashboard to monitor attendees and identify all generic attendees.
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National Public Health Week and COVID-19
Did you know that the first full week of April is National Public Health Week (NPHW) every year? Given that we are all dealing with the threat and fallout from the coronavirus, we thought it would be good to revisit some of the messages from the American Public Health Association (APHA), organizer of NPHW.
APHA shared a document from the World Health Organization titled, “Mental health and psychosocial considerations during the COVID-19 outbreak.” The document offers helpful information on how to reduce anxiety and stress and how we may be able to lessen the load for our frontline healthcare workers.
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