Executives of some of the largest players in the IT and software space say they aren’t losing sleep over the potential impact the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will have on their business as the temporary federal agency continues to embark on its purported cost-cutting operations.

It’s been almost one month since President Trump signed an executive order that rebranded the US Digital Service as the unit, which has been tasked with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

All for DOGE. The freshly minted agency quickly became a topic of discussion among executives across the IT and infosecurity industry, with some seeing ample opportunity for their companies. Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp, for example, told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings call that he welcomes the “disruption” that DOGE will bring.

Read the rest here.—BM

Auditing federal IT systems doesn’t have to be chaotic.

In fact, for Gerald Auger, a former cybersecurity auditor for public sector systems, the week-long checklist efforts involved little tension or shock for the auditees. Because everybody knew he was coming.

“I’ve never been part of a surprise audit,” Auger told IT Brew.

Auger, now adjunct faculty at military college The Citadel and CEO of his consulting firm Coastal Information Security Group, used to validate cybersecurity practices of federal systems, as mandated by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2002.

Such audits required Auger and his team to check federal systems and assess the implementation of security controls found and categorized in the playbook NIST 800-53. The former professional services contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton and Honeywell shared with us how he interacted with in-house IT teams to perform the cybersecurity checks.

The cooperative process involves liaisons, dummy accounts, request forms, junior auditors, and few surprises.

Read more here.—BH

Sometimes throwing money at the problem isn’t enough to win the big game, and the EU is discovering that the same applies to AI development. The union’s new investment in AI may not be enough to catch up to the US and China.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a €200 billion union investment in the technology on Feb. 10, calling it a “supercharged” approach to get on par with competitors. The investment will funnel cash into “AI gigafactories,” data centers aimed at making up the difference between the union, the US, and China.

US and Chinese competition is putting the EU in a situation where it feels it needs to act, F5 Field CISO Chuck Herrin told IT Brew.

“They realize that we’re in a race, but they’re joining the race late and they’re slower than the other racers, so it feels like a very defensive move,” Herrin said.

Keep reading here.—EH

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