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.

In the seven years since it was launched, the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Challenge.gov platform has demonstrated that crowdsourcing can be a winning approach to problem solving in government.

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.

The Center for Digital Government (CDG) announced the 2017 Digital Cities Survey Winners. The Digital Cities Survey, now in its 17th year, seeks to recognize cities that are using technology to improve the citizen experience, increase government transparency, and encourage citizen engagement with the government.

For the first time a majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Increased urbanization brings new demands for technology to make city life more pleasant, healthy, and efficient. New low-cost sensors and advanced data analytics, among other technologies, have given rise to smart cities across the United States. However, many cities are struggling with how to best select, deploy, and maintain smart city technologies. In its recent report, the Center for Data Innovation (CDI) said that national governments have an important role to play in accelerating and coordinating smart city development.

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.