This Week in Government Tech Media – March 6, 2026

By Brad Bass /

The big news this week – the U.S. attack on Iran – extended beyond the world of government technology, but government tech reporters still covered the news closely. We also saw lots of coverage on the fallout from the previous week’s executive order prohibiting federal government use of Anthropic AI products.

Iran Coverage

Across the nation, the media has been focused on the U.S./Israel bombing of Iranian targets throughout the week. The government tech media provided its own take on the news, including reports about possible cyber attacks from both sides of the conflict:

  • At a press conference this week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined how the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) systematically targeted Iran’s command and control infrastructure, naval forces, ballistic missile sites and intelligence infrastructure, according to coverage by Evan Lynch for SIGNAL Media.
  • Covering the Iran operation in DefenseScoop, Brandi Vincent wrote that the U.S. military targeted infrastructure and assets that enable Iran to move data and conduct warfare operations in space.
  • Military officials said the move degraded Iran’s ability to coordinate retaliatory strikes, but experts told Thomas Novelly of Defense One that the country’s nascent space capabilities never posed a significant threat.
  • Mathew Schwartz noted in GovInfoSecurity that cyber operations underpinned the initial joint strike against Iran by the United States and Israel.
  • Cyber intelligence firms warned that Tehran-linked hackers are stepping up digital reconnaissance and preparing for potentially disruptive cyber activity following recent U.S. and Israeli strikes, according to an article by David DiMolfetta in Nextgov/FCW.
  • Weslan Hansen of MeriTalk noted that cybersecurity leaders are on high alert and warning that Iran-linked actors could increase their targeting of vulnerable systems and critical infrastructure.
  • In DefenseScoop, Drew Lawrence reported early in the week that a viral message warning troops that multiple commercial applications were compromised was not sent from the U.S. Cyber Command as the message claimed.
  • David Jones of tech trade publication Cybersecurity Dive wrote that pro-Russia threat actors formed a loose coalition with Iran-nexus hacking groups in response to the bombing of Iran.
  • In light of dwindling weapons stockpiles exacerbated by the Iran action, the White House’s push for defense contractors to make weapons faster is gaining more urgency, according to a column by Lauren C. Williams in Defense One.
  • Defense executives were set to meet with Trump administration officials late this week to discuss plans to replenish munitions and other weaponry expended in Iran, as well as a possible supplemental funding request that could exceed $50 billion, Valerie Insinna and Ashley Roque wrote in Breaking Defense.
  • Reporting from a state and local government perspective, Chris Teale of Route Fifty quoted observers who said escalating hostilities could leave state and local governments in the crosshairs of hacktivists aligned with Iran as they look to retaliate in cyberspace.
  • In Governing, another state and local government-focused publication, Jule Pattison-Gordon noted that those governments could feel the effects of the conflict via third-party cyber attacks and cloud service disruptions.

The Pentagon/Anthropic Saga Goes Governmentwide

Late last Friday, the White House issued an executive order directing agencies to stop using Anthropic AI products within the next six months – a result of the company’s dispute with the Pentagon over the use of its tools. This week, we saw several articles on the consequences of that order:

  • Madison Alder wrote in FedScoop that a range of AI use cases — from coding assistance to workflow automation — face alteration or retirement as federal agencies work to comply with a Trump administration directive to remove Anthropic tools from their systems within the next six months. 
  • In a separate piece, Alder reported that the Office of Personnel Management removed Claude and added Grok and Codex in an update to its public disclosure of AI use cases this week.
  • In Nextgov/FCW, Alexandra Kelley and Frank Konkel reported that several agencies have started to phase out use of Anthropic tools, with the Departments of Treasury, State and Health and Human Services confirming they will stop using Anthropic products, including Claude.
  • In a related story, Kelley reported that a proposed amendment to the Defense Production Act that would have specifically forbidden government agencies from blacklisting firms that refuse to deploy their high-risk technology products in situations that could harm U.S. citizens failed to move forward.
  • Meanwhile, seven of Anthropic’s competitors signed on to the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge this week, agreeing to cover the cost of all power needed to fuel their data centers, according to coverage by Hansen in MeriTalk.
  • In a piece for GovInfoSecurity, Chris Riotta noted that Anthropic competitor OpenAI reached an agreement with the Pentagon that the company said allows the Pentagon to deploy its large language models for “all lawful purposes” but that it laid out “red lines” including “no use of OpenAI technology for high-stakes automated decisions.”

Upcoming Industry Events

Once again, we noted just a few industry events in the coming week we think are worth your time:

If you would like your event included in this list, please fill out this form.

That covers the biggest trending government tech stories for this week. I hope you’re finding these roundups useful. If so, please share this with a friend. And if a friend shared this with you, subscribe on LinkedIn or via the form below to receive it every week.