North America tech news
Technology news from North America: official announcements from its governments, companies and institutions.
NASA opens 2027 Human Lander Challenge for lunar comms ideas
NASA is asking U.S. college teams for systems-level lunar communications concepts that could be implemented within three to five years, with finalists sharing cash awards.
NASA
Executive Order Creates America.gov as Single Federal Service Portal
The order directs GSA to run America.gov as a conversational, Login.gov-authenticated entry point for federal services used by more than 100,000 people a year.
The White House
Google makes Spanner Omni generally available for on-prem use
Google Cloud says its deploy-anywhere version of Spanner is now generally available for production workloads in private data centers and on other clouds.
Google Cloud
BreakingCisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager flaw CVE-2026-76504 is being actively exploited, CISA warns
CISA added the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on September 30, 2026, with a federal remediation deadline of October 3, 2026.
CISA
Google says CVE disclosures doubled in 2026 as AI finds bigger bugs
Google Threat Intelligence Group reports monthly vulnerability disclosures doubled and in-the-wild exploitation nearly doubled in 2026, with AI-found flaws skewing toward remote code execution.
Google Cloud
Rubio says US first-time passport applications move online
The State Department says first-time applicants will be able to complete the entire passport process online, with a redesigned 2028 passport to follow.
US State Department
GAO: Only 7 of 22 US Agencies Meet IoT Inventory Rules
The watchdog says most civilian CFO Act agencies still lack complete inventories of networked IoT and operational technology devices, and that OMB has not issued guidance for fiscal 2026.
GAO
NASA Sets Crew-13 Launch for Oct. 1 With Fastest ISS Trip
NASA says the SpaceX Crew-13 mission will reach the International Space Station in 7 hours, 50 minutes, the fastest by a U.S. spacecraft in station history.
NASA
NASA Awards Omitron $23.5 Million Orbital Safety Contract
The five-year contract covers conjunction assessment screening for NASA's uncrewed spacecraft and support for human spaceflight and the Office of Space Commerce.
NASA
Vulnerability Watch, September 30, 2026: 12 critical CVEs and 55 new vendor and CERT advisories
Every critical-severity CVE NIST published in the past day, plus the latest advisories from national CERTs and vendors.
NIST