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President Donald Trump has created a new White House office dedicated to bringing private sector tech practices to the government.

Initial projects may include revamping the Veterans Affairs Department, modernizing federal IT and re-designing government workforce training. The office could also tackle opioid abuse, among other issues. Right now, it’s unclear what the new group will mean for the federal tech and innovation groups created in the Obama administration, including the White House’s US Digital Service—itself described as a tech troubleshooting SWAT team—and 18F, the digital consultancy housed within the General Services Administration. Those groups also recruit tech talent heavily from the private sector, often for 1- or 2-year stints, and emphasize shaking up Washington’s bureaucracy with concepts from tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, Austin (TX) and Boston (MA).

In recent years, legacy IT has shaped up to be one of the government’s biggest tech challenges. There’s a reason the legacy tech challenge is so widespread across government: Modernizing is hard and can be expensive. Yet, some agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, have done just that. In 2013, the year CIO David Bray took over as the agency’s top tech official, FCC was spending 85 percent of its $64 million IT budget on legacy systems. Less than four years later, FCC has reduced its legacy spend by 35 percent on the back of an ambitious modernization plan heavy on achieving small wins, moving to cloud computing and ultimately reducing contracted personnel.

President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint touts major investments in cybersecurity, including a $61 million hike to help the FBI and the Justice Department combat criminals and terrorists’ use of encrypted communication tools. The document is light on specifics, however, and does not include a top line figure for cyber investments.

The budget proposal would give the Defense Department a boost of more than $50 billion, largely by ending the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, for a total request of $639 billion. That money would be aimed at building a “more capable, and more lethal joint force” and at ensuring US superiority in major domains including cyberspace. That Pentagon budget would include $7.2 billion for operations and maintenance, including improving cyber capabilities, according to a White House memo. The blueprint lacks a specific figure, however, for all DOD cyber priorities at US Cyber Command and elsewhere.

A senior tech leader under the Obama administration is staying on under President Donald Trump. Haley Van Dyck helped create the US Digital Service, a White House tech trouble-shooting team that tackles large-scale federal IT projects. It was founded as a continuation of the team that helped salvage the HealthCare.gov rollout.

Though Van Dyck resigned toward the end of the Obama administration, she is reportedly re-joining USDS. Until recently, it was unclear whether Trump's administration planned to maintain tech efforts including USDS. Trump's pick for White House chief digital officer, Gerrit Lansing, tweeted support for the group in January, stating: "FYI: USDS is here to stay with the new administration. Period." But less than a month later, Lansing left the White House because he was unable to pass an FBI screening.

A former technology counsel for the House Commerce Committee will be heading up technology and cybersecurity policy for the National Economic Council, the White House announced. Grace Koh’s official title will be special assistant to the president for technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy. Koh was previously a policy counsel for the cable company Cox, where she focused on video, data and broadband issues and represented Cox before the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies. Koh was one of 13 National Economic Council officials named by Director Gary Cohn. Other officials will focus on energy, infrastructure, health care and other topics.

The tech group 18F took some heat when a General Administration Services inspector general audit found it skirting compliance rules and security procedures, but the department’s leader says the Obama-era tech unit is still committed to hacking bureaucracy. “Our job is transforming technology in government, and our job is to push against policies and regulations that are in the way of government being effective and delivering good services,” saidTechnology Transformation Service Commissioner Rob Cook. “We’ve realized we need to do that, and we’re emphasizing changing what the compliance is rather than going around it.”

Cook said 18F was alerted to the aforementioned IG report in the summer and has spent the past six months “addressing most everything” in it. Those issues included failing to get chief information officer approval on $24.8 million worth of contracts and foregoing approval on 100 of 116 software tools the tech unit used.

Hundreds of documents obtained by CityLab from the country’s top fifty largest police departments over the last ten months reveal that cellphone surveillance devices have been quietly acquired by local authorities nationwide. The majority of these departments have at least one of two main types of digital-age spy tools: cellphone interception devices, used to covertly track or grab data from nearby mobile devices, and cellphone extraction devices, used to crack open locked phones that are in police possession and scoop out all sorts of private communications and content.

Access to such devices was once largely limited to intelligence agencies like the NSA and the FBI; their acquisition by local police departments is a relatively recent, less-discussed part of a wider police militarization trend. With only a few clicks, police can now map out individuals’ social networks, communication timelines, and associates’ locations, based on the data captured by these surveillance tools.

[Commentary] Cellphone technology is amazing, but it has its limitations. While the Women’s March on Washington brought up vitally important issues, it also incidentally demonstrated the need for FirstNet to be a success. Our first responders need to be able to communicate, with each other and outside agencies, regardless of the conditions or the number of people also in the area, especially if those people need help. I can’t think of any other technology where its upgrading is so vitally needed, or which could have such a positive and immediate effect on our nation.

[John Breeden II is currently the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau.]

Donald Trump will be sworn in as the nation’s 45th president Jan 20 with cybersecurity looming larger than it has for any of his predecessors—and with many unknowns about how he’ll tackle the issue. Here’s a rundown of what we know and what we don’t.

‘Review on hacking’: Trump has promised a “major review on hacking” within his first 90 days in office, declaring, “we have no defense” and “we’re run by people that don’t know what they’re doing.”
The Giuliani Factor: The day after that press conference, Trump announced former New York City Mayor and Trump campaign supporter Rudy Giuliani would advise him on cybersecurity and help convene a rotating panel of private-sector leaders to discuss the issue. It’s unclear, however, what role that private-sector group will play in the 90-day review.
Who’s on First?: It’s also unclear if Trump will seek to rejigger the current governmental structure for cyber responsibilities and cyber incident response.
An Energized Cabinet but Few Details: Trump’s cabinet nominees have pledged to make cybersecurity a priority if confirmed, though they’ve made no hard promises and none have extensive backgrounds in the field.
An Attentive Congress: Whatever moves Trump and the executive branch make on cybersecurity, it’s clear Congress will be paying close attention and the battle over Russian sanctions will only be the starting line.

President Donald Trump’s administration Jan 20 highlighted offensive cyber actions among its first digital messages to the American people. Updates to the White House website’s issues page, posted moments after President Trump’s inauguration, included developing “defensive and offensive” capabilities at US Cyber Command and engaging in “cyber warfare” to disrupt recruiting and propaganda by the Islamic State.

The Defense Department was wary of discussing its offensive cyber capabilities during the Obama administration, acknowledging for the first time it might go on cyber offense when directed by the president in a 2015 cyber strategy update. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged in 2016 the military was using cyber tools to combat ISIL. Trump pledged to surge U.S. cybersecurity during his campaign and after his election, though numerous questions remain about how precisely he’ll attack the issue. Trump has signaled he may shift some domestic cyber responsibilities from the Homeland Security Department to the Defense Department, a move that would likely require the consent of Congress.