March 31, 2023
Security: Lawmakers want to know if the government should validate digital identities
SC Media
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 11-1 to pass the Improving Digital Identity Act, which would establish an Improving Digital Identity Task Force. 

The legislation’s passage joined the approval of nearly two dozen critical cyber bills, including the bipartisan Securing Open Source Software Act that would task the federal government with ensuring the security of open-source software like ChatGPT to prevent another Log4J debacle. Read More
Healthcare IT: Experts 'cautiously optimistic' about extended reality for mental healthcare
MobiHealthNews
During Thursday's vMed 2023 conference hosted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, speakers discussed medical extended reality's place within mental healthcare and the risks and benefits associated with mental health treatment in the metaverse.  

The future of medical extended reality (medical XR) must be built upon the successes and the failures of the past to move forward realistically. Read More
Homeland Security: PERSPECTIVE: Confronting the Crisis of School Shootings from an Infrastructure Security Lens
Homeland Security Today
In the U.S., public schools are the largest sector of our infrastructure, except for roads and highways. The U.S. has over 100,000 public schools, which serve more than 50 million students and educators.[i] The projected student enrollment is 56.8 million by 2026, displaying that the need for this infrastructure sector is only increasing, and greater protection of students and education even more imperative.

Under the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the public school system falls under the Government Facilities Sector. A subsector of this sector, Education Facilities, is where public schools reside and includes education ranging from pre-kindergarten, or preschool, to senior year of high school.

Education was recognized as a vital component in the very early days of the nation’s birth. The first established high school, the Boston Latin School, was built in 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts, and is still in operation today. The public school system was viewed as a safe space for the nation’s youth to grow, learn, socially interact, and be exposed to various teachings that will benefit them in their future and provide them with multiple avenues of potential career paths. Fast forward to 2023, the two biggest threats facing schools are external threats and the schools themselves, as their infrastructure is declining across the U.S. and becoming more vulnerable. Read More
Transportation: Electric truck market considers infrastructure reality
Transport Topics
Electric truck market growth is poised to accelerate even as infrastructure constraints hinder that trajectory, according to experts. “We’ll continue to see a growing demand,” Jared Ruiz, vice president of the west region at Volvo Trucks North America, said. “Obviously, if you look at the total heavy-duty truck market in North America, it’s still a very small percentage today. But it’s definitely growing. I think it’ll continue to escalate upward.”

ACT Research and Rhein Associates said in a joint preliminary report March 8 that battery-electric truck production is expected to triple year-over-year in 2023. MarketsandMarkets said in a report March 23 that the global electric truck market is estimated to grow from 101,499 units in 2022 to 1,067,985 units by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 34.2%. Read More
Human Resources: Study: Report: Companies may need to focus on contract worker retention, especially for IT
HR Dive
As contract work becomes more prevalent in 2023, particularly for IT positions, employers and HR leaders may need to focus on contract worker retention, according to a March 22 report from Motion Recruitment.

“With 76% of technology employers struggling to fill roles and layoffs creating questions around what stability really is, the market is leaning into an expanding contingent workforce,” Matt Milano, president of Motion Recruitment, said in a statement.

Overall, recent trends around contingent work will continue to grow, the report found. The percentage of IT contract roles has tripled during the past two years — making up 1 out of every 5 tech jobs. In fact, nearly 90% of enterprise employers said they would maintain or increase their budgets this year, shifting funds from a focus on employees to contractors. Read More
Business & Technology: How Generative AI Will Change Sales
Harvard Business Review
Sales teams have typically not been early adopters of technology, but generative AI may be an exception to that. Sales work typically requires administrative work, routine interactions with clients, and management attention to tasks such as forecasting. AI can help do these tasks more quickly, which is why Microsoft and Salesforce have already rolled out sales-focused versions of this powerful tool. Read More