We’ve reached the halfway point of 2013, which also signals the beginning of the federal fiscal year end (FFYE). This is a good time to take a second and survey what we’ve seen so far and what we can expect over the next six months. This is part two of my CEO Insight in which I'll talk about cybersecurity, state and local, financing, and the federal fiscal year end.

This week in Technically News: NASA’s Shadow IT Issues with Cloud Computing All Too Common; The Rise of the Citizen CIO; How CISOs Help Lower Breach Costs; Google Poised to Become the Next Amazon in Cloud, Analyst Says.

This week in Technically News: Striking The Right Balance Between BYOD & Security; Q&A: HHS CTO Bryan Sivak On Disrupting Government Culture; Big Data – Big Exposure. What Can You Do About It; NIST Cybersecurity Center Moves Into High Gear; Do We Need a US Department of Technology; Virtualization Has Changed Disaster Recovery: 15 Data Points.

This week in Technically News: Federal IT Efforts Slowed by Weak CIO Roles, Uneven Reporting; Cybersecurity: You Can't Firewall Human Nature; FBI Data Center Efficiency Program the Way of the Future; The Positive Side Effects of Data Center Consolidation; Red Hat Exec Debunks Open Source Myth.

This week in Technically News: Cloud Solutions Grab Big Slice of Government IT Budgets; Despite Sequestration, Cybersecurity Funding Growing; IRS Needs Better Data Center Consolidation Plan; Does Your Cybersecurity Strategy Include Shadow IT?; NASA Laser Comm Will Rocket Data To and From Space

During this panel, experts compared and contrasted security risks, responsibilities, and approaches of on-premise IT and the shared security model of the public cloud. Conversations explored topics from FedRAMP, shared resources, continuous monitoring, data management, and automation.

In this week's Technically News: Five Critical Cyber Questions for the Next DHS Chief; Why a Hacker Conference’s Fed Ban is Bad News for U.S. Cybersecurity; What Economists Can Teach Us About Cloud Computing; Man Behind the Cybersecurity Framework; AWS Cloud Security Compliance Beats On-Premises.

Jim Wiggins is the Executive Director of the Federal IT Security Institute (FITSI). FITSI is a non-profit organization that provides a role-based IT security certification program targeted at the federal workforce. Jim was a keynote speaker at our recent GovDefenders Cybersecurity Virtual Event. His presentation was, “Building the Next Generation of Cyber Defenders" which you can now watch for free.

This week in Technically News: Google Adds BYOD Management Tools for Android; 4 Government Programs that Drive Innovation; CIA, NSA See Benefits in Double-Barreled Approach to the Cloud; Top 10 Virtualization Killers; Can State & Local Govs Benefit From the US Commerce Department’s Cybersecurity Program; Oracle Launches Database 12c for Clouds.

This week in Technically News: Speeding Up IT Procurement; Saving Government Tweets is Tougher Than You Think; Enterprise Cybersecurity: The Case for Using Analytics to Manage Risk; Defense Dept. Seeks $450M Cloud Building; What's Wrong with Cybersecurity Training; Five Steps to Make FedRAMP Work for You – According to DLT’s Chief Cloud Technologist.