This Week in Government Tech Media – January 30, 2026

By Brad Bass /

As expected, worries about a federal government shutdown reappeared this week, although a deal late this week will apparently buy some time. We also saw more headlines focused on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – much of it related to AI – and the Pentagon taking a more aggressive stance on offensive cybersecurity operations:

Imminent Shutdown?

The mainstream media has kept a close watch on congressional negotiations this week to avert another federal government shutdown. Government tech media outlets are watching too:

  • GovExec Editor-in-Chief Frank Konkel noted on LinkedIn this week that a partial shutdown was “now unfortunately more likely than not.” But later in the week, Konkel and reporter Eric Katz reported that Senate Democrats and the White House agreed late Thursday to fund the vast majority of federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year, and a two-week stopgap measure to fund the Homeland Security Department while continued negotiations take place over reforms at DHS.
  • Jory Heckman reported in Federal News Network wrote that the agreement will buy both sides more time to negotiate over guardrails on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

DHS AI and More

The DHS popped up in headlines across several publications – and not just related to the department’s controversial actions in Minneapolis. The government tech media focused more on the department’s increasing use of AI as well as cybersecurity-related news from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA):

  • DHS’ use of AI was spotlighted in several reports, including one from Alexandra Kelley for Nextgov/FCW, noting that the department’s most common application for AI in 2025 was in law enforcement operations, according to an AI use case inventory released this week.
  • Covering the inventory’s release for FedScoop, Lindsey Wilkinson and Madison Alder reported that DHS is actively working on 200-plus artificial intelligence use cases, a nearly 37% increase compared to July 2025.
  • In Wired, Caroline Haskins and Makena Kelly wrote that DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is leveraging generative AI tools to sort and summarize immigration enforcement tips from its public submission form.
  • In a related report, ICE has requested help from industry on commercial off-the-shelf big data and advertising technology (ad tech) tools to support its investigations, Weslan Hansen reported in MeriTalk.
  • Madhu Gottumukkala, DHS’ acting leader of CISA, was in the news again this week amid a report by John Sakellariadis of Politico that he uploaded sensitive contracting documents into a public version of ChatGPT last summer, triggering multiple automated security warnings that are meant to stop the theft or unintentional disclosure of government material from federal networks.
  • Hansen reported on a statement from CISA that Gottumukkala was given permission to use ChatGPT last summer, despite a DHS prohibition on the tool for most employees. 
  • Covering the incident for GovInfoSecurity, Chris Riotta quoted experts who expressed concern, including a former White House official who said the report was “troubling” and that foreign adversaries “enthusiastically exploit mistakes like the one alleged here.”
  • In other CISA news, Hansen also noted that the agency published a new cybersecurity resource for critical infrastructure and government entities to prevent, detect, and mitigate insider threats.
  • Officials from CISA – as well as the FBI and National Security Agency – pulled out of participating in this year’s RSAC cybersecurity conference after Jen Easterly, a former Biden-era official, was named as the conference’s CEO, according to an article by Eric Geller in Cybersecurity Dive.
  • A statement from CISA quoted by David DiMolfetta in Nextgov/FCW said, “CISA has reviewed and determined that we will not participate in the RSA Conference since we regularly review all stakeholder engagements, to ensure maximum impact and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

Aggressive Cybersecurity

Following the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela, Pentagon officials are publicly discussing improving cyber integration into military operations and going on the offensive with cyber tools:

  • Jon Harper of DefenseScoop reported that weaving cyber capabilities into American military operations has been a priority for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine.
  • Caine told reporters that cyber and electronic warfare played a pivotal role in the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to an article by Greg Hadley in Air & Space Forces Magazine.
  • Joint Staff Deputy Director for Global Operations Brig. Gen. R. Ryan Messer testified before the Senate this week that the U.S. military developed a “non-kinetic effects cell” that has helped push cyber operations to the forefront of specialized U.S. missions ahead of its recent operation in Venezuela, according to coverage by DiMolfetta in Nextgov/FCW.
  • Against this backdrop, Matt Seldon of Homeland Security Today wrote that some observers cautioned that extending the use of offensive cyber operations to counter China would be a dangerous miscalculation.

Upcoming Industry Events

Perhaps due to the weather, the number of upcoming industry events has dwindled. But here are a couple for your consideration if you don’t mind going out in the cold:

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Thanks for reading. I invite you back next week for another roundup of the trending coverage from government technology media outlets. You can subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn or via the form below.