Technically Speaking

The United States is facing a significant cybersecurity workforce shortage, with NIST identifying over 500,000 open cyber positions and estimating there are 74 workers for every 100 cyber jobs. This shortage threatens both the nation’s private sector security profile and federal agencies struggling to compete for cybersecurity professionals. As such, the government is working to support cyber education in the United States. In the meantime, departments will also likely need to implement cyber solutions that can aid in accommodating for the workforce shortfall.

In 2018, the federal government started implementation of Trusted Workforce 2.0, a whole-of-government approach to establish a single employee vetting system for the US government which promises increased security and reduced background check times.

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. 2025 has been a year sprinkled with updates to security needs across federal agencies, with new rules and enforcement attempting to reshape how IT vendors and partners engage with the government. Here’s the most prominent Need to Know topics and insights across the space, starting with CMMC.CMMC 2.0The Department of Defense is set to begin enforcing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) regulations on November 10, 2025.

At this point, anyone keenly watching the budget process every year can tell you the likelihood of a continuing resolution (CR) being passed as opposed to a new budget by Oct 1st is all but guaranteed. CRs act as a temporary stopgap designed to avoid a government shutdown. However, it also locks funding to the previous fiscal year’s level and prevents new projects from getting started. Projects then remain under operations and maintenance until a new budget, with new requirements, is passed.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), enacted on July 4, 2025, is a significant piece of legislation outlining President Trump's executive agenda and guiding future U.S. tax and spending policies.

On July 23, 2025, the Trump administration released an AI Action Plan, highlighting 90 federal policy directives across three key pillars: Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure and Leading in International Diplomacy and Security. The Plan also supports the tenants of the President’s earlier January 23, 2025, Executive Order 14179, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.”