Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and LinkedIn are great because they allow us to maintain friends and connections across the country without leaving our homes and offices. The downside of social media is the casualty with which we use it.

This week in Technically News: Senate Intelligence Panel Approves Cybersecurity Bill Encouraging Data Sharing; GSA Wants to Add Cloud Category to IT Schedule 70; NIST Maps the Frontier of Cloud Forensics; DLT to Offer CloudBees Continuous Delivery Tools in Public Sector; Jim Propps Comments

The Akamai Government Forum 2014 event helped customers dive deep into the efficiencies of moving to the cloud and innovations in cybersecurity. Below are the two questions I found most interesting along with summarized answers given by R.H. and Mike.

Last week, I attended the AFCEA NOVA chapter luncheon where the guest speaker was Brigadier General (retired) Gregory J. Touhill, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Operation and Programs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In his insightful and practical message, Mr. Tourhill demonstrated that protecting our critical infrastructure is a team effort that requires vigilance and broad participation.

This week in our government IT news round-up: Successful Software Projects Are No Accident; Symantec Launches Cybersecurity Program to Bridge Workforce Gap; CIA Information Chief Talks Cloud Computing, Culture Clash at Amazon Event; 5 Tips for Building BYOD Programs for Local Government; Chris LaPoint on Info Security and Automation in Government IT

Aneesh Chopra, the first and former Chief Technology Officer of the United States, gave one of this year's GovDefenders keynotes. During his presentation – The Promise of Open Innovation: Securing Data to Solve Problems – Aneesh took time to talk about his work during his years in President Obama’s administration within the context of security.

Dr. Ross’ GovDefenders keynote focused on continuous monitoring, a topic NIST has been working with for over eight years. In his presentation, he zeroes in on two big questions: What is continuous monitoring and how does it fit into an agency’s risk management program?

John Slye’s GovDefenders keynote, “Meeting the Cybersecurity Challenge,” was one of the most watched presentations during this year’s annual virtual event. In it, he breaks down what federal public sector agencies are doing to combat cyber threats.

SolarWinds recently published an interesting infographic on cybersecurity based on a series of surveys they did with the federal IT community.

This week in Technically News: What Are IT Security’s Biggest Mistakes? This Might Surprise You; Is Government IT Built to Fail? DHS Launches Mobile Technology Security Project; Four Cloud Hurdles and How to Clear Them