New U.S. census turmoil as Trump again pursues citizenship question

Reuters | July 03, 2019

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was moving ahead with adding a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census in a dramatic reversal after his own administration including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced a day earlier that the plan had been dropped. Following Trump is announcement, made in a defiant Twitter post, a senior U.S. Justice Department lawyer told a Maryland-based federal judge overseeing litigation in the matter that the administration was seeking a path forward to add a citizenship question after the Supreme Court last Thursday blocked it, at least temporarily.

Spotlight

Spotlight

Related News

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

ABBYY Expands Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Modernization of Government Agencies

Businesswire | April 28, 2023

ABBYY today announced it has expanded its partnerships that serve state and local government agencies. Data from the Government Accountability Office revealed that federal IT legacy systems cost over $330 million annually to maintain, while delivering sub-optimal service and carrying risks inherent to older platforms. To address the agencies’ needs to modernize both back-end and consumer-facing IT systems, ABBYY partnerships will expand the accessibility of its intelligent automation solutions to streamline cumbersome processes, enhance citizen experiences and improve the overall ability to meet constituents’ needs. Among ABBYY’s expanded partnerships is MCCi, which was recently named as a company to watch in the annual GovTech 100. MCCi has numerous ongoing initiatives to digitally transform government services, including unemployment and Social Security fraud mitigation and accounts payable automation. The city of Coppell, Texas is among their customers that have successfully automated accounts payable processes using ABBYY intelligent document processing solutions to turn key document insights into efficient outcomes. By leveraging ABBYY technology, Coppell reduced invoice processing time from days to minutes. “Right out of the box, ABBYY intelligent document processing was very impressive,” said Jerod Anderson, director of Enterprise Solutions for the city of Coppell. “We gave it a dozen of our invoices, and it processed with 99% accuracy on 90% of those. It uses machine learning, so once it’s corrected, the next time an invoice from that vendor comes through, ABBYY understands it and will process it with 100% accuracy.” Additionally, MCCi holds a contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) where ABBYY is a part of an approved distributor solution. ABBYY is also approved through several other government contracts, including the State of New York Information Technology Umbrella Contract, the State of California Software License Program, and the NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Contract via Carahsoft. Furthermore, our approval through Carahsoft has enabled state agencies to leverage ABBYY IDP and Proof of Identity in the motor vehicle sector to expedite document review and identity verification and proofing. “Our expanded partnership with ABBYY to serve the public sector is crucial because in many cases paper processes are necessary to provide services to constituents caught in the digital divide,” stated Donny Barstow, CEO of MCCi. “Paper forms do not have to slow modernization efforts. Clients like Coppell, TX are accelerating their adoption of automation technologies because of all the aforementioned drivers and are having proven, repeated success in improving their citizens’ experience.” Bruce Orcutt, SVP of Product Marketing at ABBYY commented, "Agencies in the public sector work with trusted, best-in-breed solutions that are scalable and easy to deploy. We have the expertise to address the growing document-centric challenges of these agencies, especially as rises in unemployment claims increase the need to accelerate processing while mitigating fraud risk. MCCi has deep connections and understands the public sector, enabling them to navigate citizens’ weariness toward poor service experiences. Strategic partnerships like these are instrumental to our growth and contributions in the public sector.” As citizens grow accustomed to exemplary customer experiences provided by Amazon and banking institutions, their expectations of government entities evolve. For example, a recent ABBYY survey identified the top three factors contributing to the public dropping out of registration for government services as taking too much time/too many steps (54%), requiring excessive and repetitive manual entry (50%), and making identity verification too difficult (26%). About ABBYY ABBYY powers intelligent automation. We reimagine the way people work and how companies accelerate business by delivering the intelligence that fuels automation platforms. Our solutions transform enterprise data and empower you with the insights you need to work smarter and faster. We help more than 10,000 companies globally, including many of the Fortune 500, to drive significant impact where it matters most: customer experience, profitability, and competitive advantage. ABBYY is a US-based global company with offices in 14 countries. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com. About MCCi MCCi is a business process automation company that accelerates digital transformation by adding intelligence to your processes. As an IT services company with expertise in delivering end-to-end professional services provider, we provide our clients some of the leading technologies for business process automation, including Laserfiche for content services, Blue Prism and UiPath for robotic process automation, ABBYY for intelligent capture, and One Span for digital signatures. We are a trusted partner to over 1,100 government organizations, including cities, counties, state agencies, special districts, K-12, and higher education and are a proud GovTech 100 company for 2023.

Read More

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, CYBERSECURITY

ConnectWise Partners with CISA JCDC to Enhance Cybersecurity for MSPs

Globenewswire | March 30, 2023

ConnectWise, the world’s leading software company dedicated to the success of IT solution providers (TSPs), is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to enhance cybersecurity for MSPs. The partnership aims to provide MSPs with the resources and tools necessary to strengthen their cybersecurity posture and protect their clients from cyber threats. As part of the collaboration, ConnectWise will work closely with CISA JCDC to develop new solutions and services that address the latest cybersecurity challenges faced by MSPs. "We are thrilled to partner with CISA JCDC to help MSPs improve their cybersecurity practices," said Patrick Beggs, CISO of ConnectWise. "MSPs are on the frontlines of protecting businesses from cyber threats, and it's our responsibility to provide them with the best tools and resources to keep their clients safe." CISA JCDC brings together experts from government, industry, and academia to collaborate on cybersecurity defense. Through this partnership, ConnectWise will have access to the latest threat intelligence, best practices, and training materials from CISA JCDC. In turn, ConnectWise will be well-positioned to share this information with MSPs to support ongoing efforts to defend against evolving cyber attacks. ConnectWise and CISA JCDC share a commitment to improving cybersecurity for businesses of all sizes, and this partnership is a significant step in achieving this goal. The strength of ConnectWise’s leading Information Security (InfoSec) program is applied across its cyber defense practices and procedures. Ensuring a collaborative effort is in place across the digital landscape is a priority for the company; this partnership demonstrates their commitment to InfoSec principles and how it allows MSPs to connect with confidence. About ConnectWise ConnectWise is the world's leading software company dedicated to the success of IT solution providers (TSPs) through unmatched software, services, community, and marketplace of integrations. ConnectWise offers an innovative, integrated, and security-centric platform—Asio™—which provides unmatched flexibility that fuels profitable, long-term growth for partners. ConnectWise enables TSPs to drive business efficiency with automation, IT documentation, and data management capabilities and increase revenue with remote monitoring, cybersecurity, and backup and disaster recovery technologies. About the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) Pursuant to new authority from Congress, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) established JCDC in August 2021 to transform traditional public-private partnerships into real-time private-public operational collaboration and shift the paradigm from reacting to threats and vulnerabilities to proactively planning and taking steps to mitigate them. JCDC combines the visibility, insight, and innovation of the private sector with the capabilities and authorities of the federal cyber ecosystem to collectively drive down cyber risk to the nation at scale.

Read More

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, CYBERSECURITY

Idemia Identity And Security North America Selected As Provider Of Tsa's Next Generation Credential Authentication Technology

Prnewswire | May 05, 2023

IDEMIA Identity and Security (I&S) North America, the leading provider of biometrics and secure identity solutions to federal, state, and local government agencies, is pleased to announce they have been awarded a contract by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the next generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT). The contract ceiling is $128M with a period of performance over seven years. CAT is utilized by the TSA to ensure ID authentication* and confirm boarding pass and Secure Flight pre-screening status at the airport security checkpoint. CAT provides enhanced fraudulent ID detection capabilities while confirming the identity and flight information of travelers and is currently being utilized at approximately 200 airport locations nationwide. The next generation CAT, CAT 2, enhances security screening and enables a touchless experience through biometric technology that includes face match ** and acceptance of digital identity credentials, like Mobile ID. "CAT is one of the most innovative programs we have worked on at IDEMIA, and we are proud to continue building robust identity validation and verification technologies for our partners at TSA, supporting our Homeland's security mission," said Donnie Scott, CEO, IDEMIA I&S North America. "The CAT program is setting the standard for us in our public private partnerships across government. Earlier this year we delivered our 2,054th CAT unit to the TSA, a milestone truly representing our team's hard work, dedication and subject matter expertise in identity and security." IDEMIA I&S North America has also been an authorized TSA PreCheck® enrollment provider since 2013, processing enrollments for over 17 million travelers to date. About IDEMIA Identity and Security (I&S) North America IDEMIA I&S North America is a leader in identity security and authentication services to governments and private companies, operating in North America. Our mission is to Unlock the World, Make It Safer - helping people access what matters most, more quickly, more safely, and more securely, in both the physical and the digital worlds. Our best-in-class technology helps to authenticate and secure physical and digital transactions. IDEMIA is recognized by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) as a top-ranking participant in the Institute's passenger facilitation simulation testing as well as in its regular Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) rankings, reinforcing the trustworthiness and reliability of IDEMIA's facial recognition solutions for government and consumers alike.

Read More