North Korea’s persistent efforts on nuclear weapons development and some loose talk about red buttons have raised new fears internationally about the possibilities of nuclear conflict. At home, government agencies also are addressing the questions about what to do in the case of a nuclear detonation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, will hold one of its Public Health Grand Round teaching sessions Jan. 16 on how medical professionals should respond–and although the event has been planned for months, it’s timing suddenly seems to be on the mark.

Password manager company, Dashlane, has added a twist with its list of the “Worst Password Offenders” of 2017, naming high-profile people and organizations that fell into the bad-password trap. President Trump was deemed the worst offender, primarily because of simple passwords reportedly used by cabinet members and policy directors. Outside parties were also the culprits for the Department of Defense, specifically for its contractor, Booz Allen, as well as the Republican Party (stemming from a careless data analytics firm). Paul Manafort, for using “Bond007” as a password, and Sean Spicer, for apparently tweeting his passwords, also came in for scorn.

The flood of surveys and reports detailing the shortage of qualified IT and cybersecurity professionals is unrelenting. Estimates put the shortfall at anywhere between 1.8 million to 3.5 million in the next five years.

With the midterm elections of 2018 fewer than 12 months away, Congress is showing heightened concern over the potential for disastrous cyber attacks on the nation’s electronic voting systems.

TJ Kennedy will leave his role as president of FirstNet at the end of the year. Kennedy has been with FirstNet, the Federal organization tasked with establishing a nationwide network for public safety and first responders, for more than four years.

A month after experiencing catastrophic devastation due to Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover. With 48 percent of cell sites still out of service, residents and officials struggle to communicate across the island. To help get residents connected again AT&T deployed its Flying Cell on Wings (COW) for the first time.

The Sunlight Foundation released a report that found that cities use Federal data to make strategic decisions including identifying local issues and informing policy decisions. The majority of cities began using Federal data more than a decade ago and 43 percent plan to increase their use of Federal data in the future.

With a desire to improve cross-agency communication and streamline IT service delivery, Ohio turned to ServiceNow for an enterprise IT service management tool.

A bill proposed in the Florida legislature would take away the authority of the Agency for State Technology to oversee statewide IT projects, which could ultimately drive up costs, according to Eric Larson, chief technology officer at AST.