This Week in Government Tech Media – May 8, 2026

By Brad Bass /

Cybersecurity and AI were once again the top trending topics across government tech media this week – but with a bit of a twist. Much of the coverage reflected progress in these areas – including a major critical infrastructure protection initiative announced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as well as reports on how government agencies are leveraging AI for healthcare. Find those stories and more below in this week’s roundup:

This Week’s CISA Highlights

CISA made a major announcement about a new critical infrastructure protection project this week but was also the subject of scrutiny from Congress regarding concerns about election security. Here’s a sampling of some of the week’s CISA-related stories:

  • In the face of ongoing infiltration of U.S. critical infrastructure by China and others, CISA announced the release of its CI Fortify project to help critical infrastructure owners and operators defend themselves against hackers and maintain continuity during a geopolitical conflict, David DiMolfetta wrote in Nextgov/FCW.
  • Covering the announcement for GovInfoSecurity, Chris Riotta noted that CISA is calling for operators to sever operational technology networks from business networks at a moment’s notice and to ensure that backups are ready to step in for corrupted files.
  • Justin Doubleday reported in Federal News Network that the project pushes water utilities, the transportation sector and other critical infrastructure organizations to plan for a “geopolitical crisis” involving cyber attacks that could break their connections to internet, telecommunications and other technology services.
  • Derek B. Johnson wrote in CyberScoop that the project will include CISA-conducted technical assessments of critical infrastructure entities, resulting in the creation of plans that “allow for safe operations for weeks to months while isolated” from IT networks and third-party tools. 
  • In addition, CISA will be adding back 329 employees it had previously cut from its ranks as part of an effort to support the critical infrastructure project, Kimberly Underwood wrote in SIGNAL Media.
  • On Capitol Hill, Sen. Mark Warner expressed concern about reports he has received from state and local election officials that CISA is not providing the election security training, resources and information it has offered since the agency was created in 2018, according to an article by Weslan Hansen in MeriTalk.
  • DiMolfetta reported that Warner demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security over what he called a sharp decline in federal election security support ahead of the 2026 midterms, warning that cuts to the CISA could leave states more exposed to cyber threats and foreign interference.
  • Underlining Warner’s concerns, Chris Teale of state and local government publication Route Fifty shared the results of a recent survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers showing that state cybersecurity officials appear less confident they can protect themselves against threats to their systems and assets – partially due to reduced support from CISA.
  • Also this week, CISA officials touted that the agency has obtained “by far” the biggest gains from AI automation in its security operations unit to help analysts sift through threats, while the technology has also proven valuable elsewhere within the agency for tasks such as data migration, according to coverage by Tim Starks in CyberScoop.

A Healthy Dose of Technology

We saw a grab bag of healthcare tech-related news this week, ranging from reports on the expanded use of AI in the sector to news about one agency’s focus on cybersecurity and progress related to electronic health records:

  • Jeneen Iwugo, the acting director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said at a conference this week that the agency is using AI every day to flag suspicious claims and has generally enjoyed a “much longer leash” to pursue fraud, Matt Bracken reported in FedScoop.
  • In his coverage of the speech, Sean Michael Newhouse of Government Executive quoted Iwugo, stating: “I cannot investigate everything that looks weird, so I have to restratify my work to make sure that I am auditing and reviewing those instances where we have the biggest risk for something fraudulent happening.” 
  • Marianne Kolbasuk McGee wrote in GovInfoSecurity that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) – part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – is hoping to speed up breakthroughs in tackling complex diseases and chronic illnesses ten-fold with an AI-enabled ecosystem of shared research and experimental procedures.
  • Francis Rose, the host of the Fed Gov Today program, interviewed ARPA-H director Alicia Jackson about how cybersecurity is becoming a central pillar of that mission, especially as the healthcare sector faces growing and increasingly complex threats.
  • Alexandra Kelley reported in Nextgov/FCW that another HHS agency, the Food and Drug Administration, announced a new version of its internal AI tool, called Elsa, that is being integrated with a consolidated data platform to enable faster search capabilities.
  • Elsa will also boost tasks such as document generation, quantitative data analysis and visualization, voice-to-text dictation and optical character recognition, according to an article by Kristen Smith in ExecutiveGov.
  • Natalie Alms noted in Nextgov/FCW that nearly a month after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ended a yearslong pause on the rollouts of updated software for electronic health records, the VA is reporting that the new EHR is working well.
  • In healthcare AI-related news at the state government level, Keely Quinlan reported in StateScoop that the Pennsylvania Department of State on Tuesday announced that the agency filed a lawsuit against Character.AI over its AI-powered companion chatbots impersonating medical professionals.

Upcoming Industry Events

As always, we want to keep you up to speed on upcoming industry events you might find interesting. See our list below to find out what’s happening in the coming week:

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

Also, don’t forget to purchase your tickets for The Echo Awards, recognizing the achievements of government technology media reporters and editors over the past year. The awards will be presented on June 11 from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at the Carahsoft Conference & Collaboration Center in Reston, Virginia, and veteran editors Anne A. Armstrong and Tom Temin will receive Lifetime Achievements Awards. Get tickets here.

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