18F shares its best practices; questions are asked about government agency readiness for the era of the Internet of Things; NATO takes to the cloud to prepare for modern international security; and the IRS reminds us that cyber criminals don’t just live in Russia.

These are the stories we’re keeping an eye on this week at Federal Technology Insider.

GSA’s 18F Launches Best Practice Guides for Building Agile Government

Now that the GSA’s digital services initiative, 18F, is well established and its teams are creating innovative solutions for agile government, it’s time to capture best practices to share the knowledge and lower the barriers of entry in to the world of agile government. The guides are not only available to new hires within 18F, but to other agencies, and the public to build collaboration across the ecosystem.

Are Agencies Ready for the Internet of Things? 

With the Internet of Things (IoT) progressing rapidly from consumer concept to business reality, are government agencies ready not only to handle the millions of data points that will generated from interconnected systems, but able to leverage the data effectively? Come to think of it will they be able to store the data securely?

NATO Launches IT Modernization Effort

The top brass at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are getting ready to roll out a major IT modernization initiative to protect the 28 nation-state bloc from terrestrial threats and those from cyberspace.  General Denis Mercier, who will assume the role of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation has his eye firmly on the future.  In a recent interview he said “[t]the future combat system is not an aircraft…it’s a cloud-based information system.”

IRS Tax Return Hack: Evidence of Global Cyber Crime, Not Just Russia

This week officials from the IRS took great pains to point out that the theft of tax returns emanated not just from Russia, but from many global locations.  Illustrating the difficulties of tracking, busting, and prosecuting cyber crime, J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration “told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on the data breach. “The domain names originated in other nations, too. This is coming from several different countries that are syndicated around the world.”