Halloween is scary, but for the federal government, few things scare more than a security breach. Despite recent high-profile incidents shining a light on the problem, reports show that agencies continue seeing a dramatic upward trend in cyberattacks – and hackers are bent on stealing sensitive information, information useful to identity thieves and anything else they can get their digital hands on.

A blustery lady named Sandy may be the motivation some agencies need to finally jump aboard the cloud. The full effect of Sandy -- the “frankenstorm” that started as a tropical system, grew into a hurricane, then collided with two other systems to become a different kind of devastating event -- is yet unknown. But as one former federal CIO said Oct. 31 agencies often have the newer systems and data centers because of their recent transition to the cloud. And those newer data centers, which are designed to handle natural disasters, likely rode out the storm without significant disruption.

Blanket service agreements totaling an estimated $2.5 billion were awarded to cloud service providers by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The 17 companies chosen will have an opportunity to compete for task orders for email, collaboration, office automation and electronic records management services. Open to all U.S. federal, state, local and tribal governments, this program has a two-year base period followed by three one-year option periods to be used at the government's discretion.

Cloud computing is moving from being viewed as an innovation on the edges to being widely accepted among state CIOs as they focus on moving and managing services such as e-mail and storage to the cloud.

The coolest cloud computing application in the world -- and in our solar system -- comes from NASA. The space agency is using commercial cloud services to process the digital images being transmitted to Earth from the Curiosity rover as it searches for signs of life on Mars.

The majority of federal employees want their agencies to implement a policy that allows them to use their own devices for work, with many arguing that doing so will lead to cost savings and improved productivity, according to a new survey by GovLoop and Cisco.

Even as the word "compliance" gets increasingly weighted with negative connotations in federal cybersecurity, a report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers says it should be a lever utilized by state chief information security officers when securing their own and contractor-based infrastructure.

Unisys Corp. said Thursday it was one of 17 companies selected by the General Services Administration to compete for task orders under a blanket purchase agreement with an estimated ceiling of $2.5 billion.

The ruling by EU Data Protection Authorities that Google’s privacy policy fails to offer adequate protections to end-users has significant implications for U.S. public sector organizations deploying cloud computing.

The FTC’s public-facing websites are heading to the cloud. CGI Federal announced Tuesday it won a five-year contract worth $3.5 million to migrate, implement and host the commission’s websites — including FTC.gov — in the company’s public cloud.