Predictions

3 Predictions for Government Tech in 2018

May I be the first to wish you a Happy New Year? For me anyway, 2017 seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. I almost can’t believe it’s late December and we are about to put this one into the books. The pending start of a new year means that it’s prediction season once again, where pundits and columnists make their calls about what they expect to see in the coming year. And unlike most others, I actually go back over my work and fact check everything at the end of each year, so I need to be careful with my predictions. Thankfully, I got more right than wrong in 2017, although the ratio was closer than I would have liked.

Past performance aside, I’m feeling pretty good about my 2018 predictions for technology and government.

Prediction 1: Blockchain Beefs Up Government Cybersecurity

Originally created in 2009 to secure the emerging Bitcoin cryptocurrency, blockchain has lately been examined as a possible way to secure transactions, documents and messaging for a variety of applications in many sectors. Now the government is doing its own experiments in this area. Part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, signed earlier this month by President Donald Trump, directs the Defense Department to conduct a comprehensive study of blockchain technology to find out where it can be successfully deployed in government...