You hear a lot about zero trust controls in government tech circles, especially here on Federal News Network. Could this approach to cybersecurity which requires constant verification before access to a system, be applied to protecting space assets? The U.S. Space Force certainly seems to think so. It recently granted a a $17 million contract to the company Xage Security to help the branch achieve zero-trust access control and data protection. To learn more, I spoke to Geoff Mattson, CEO of Xage Security. Interview Transcript:  Geoff Mattson You know, in the old days, people erected prot ..read more

The State Department is looking to rein in some of its record hiring efforts later this year, after Congress cut the department’s overall budget by nearly 7% in its fiscal 2024 spending deal. Amb. Marcia Bernicat, the director general of the Foreign Service and the director of the Bureau of Global Talent Management, said the new budget means the Foreign Service will have fewer resources to continue its robust hiring efforts — but plans to keep hiring above its rate of attrition. “We got into a deficit of staffing the last time we slowed hiring, so our leadership is dedicated to putting a much ..read more

With social media feeds and data brokers awash in valuable intel, leaders of the top U.S. intelligence agencies have signed onto a plan to centralize open source intelligence, or OSINT. The new OSINT strategy, signed out by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns last month, aims to make open-source an “the INT of first resort.” Those words, in the title of the strategy, are a tacit recognition that spy agencies have traditionally favored gaining intelligence from highly secretive sources — such as human intelligence, spy satellites, and electronic signals ..read more

What’s the Department of Veterans Affairs’ most important metric for measuring customer experience? Showing improvement. That’s the most basic must-do, said the department’s Chief Veterans Experience Officer John Boerstler. VA recently announced veteran trust in outpatient care increased to nearly 92% — a 6% improvement from when the department first began gathering this data in 2018. The department gathered feedback from 480,000 veterans who recently received VA health care. Those improved metrics reflect the hard work of VA employees, many of whom are veterans themselves, Boerstler said duri ..read more

Stocks and bonds. Both have gyrated badly in recent weeks. It’s not a fun time to be invested and yet you have to be. For an assessment of the recent few weeks, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked to certified financial planner Art Stein of Arthur Stein Financial. Interview Transcript:  Art Stein So the C and the S and the I funds, the first quarter of this year up through March 31, they had done great. The C fund was up 10.5%, S was up seven and the I fund 6%. So that was a really good three months. But then through last Friday, the end of last week, all of a sudden things completel ..read more

Lung tissue analysis has shown [in detail] some serious threats to the health of military service members. The U.S. Geological Survey partnered with a researcher at National Jewish Health to look into airborne threats in various locations where service members work and live. It revealed some unpleasant surprises. To find out more, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke to National Jewish Health pulmonologist, Dr. Cecile Rose on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Interview Transcript:   Dr. Cecile Rose For the study that you were interested in. We took a leave 24 the biopsies fr ..read more

A new group within DoD seeks to track how well new technology makes its way to the troops. Heidi Shyu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering said DoD will use advanced data analytics to do the job at hand. The team is called, “The Transition Tracking Action Group” or T-Tag. For details, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with DoD’s Chief Data Officer for Research and Engineering, Cyrus Jabbari. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin Well, first of all, tell us to tag. What is this all about and what problem is it trying to solve? Cyrus Jabbari The Transition Tra ..read more

The General Services Administration is shuffling its Login.gov leadership, as it prepares to roll out long-anticipated facial recognition capabilities. Hanna Kim, Login.gov’s deputy director who started in January, will serve as its director, starting next month. GSA’s Technology Transformation Services told staff Wednesday that Kim will begin her tenure as Login.gov director on May 11. She’ll take over for Dan Lopez-Braus, who will step down as director and serve as senior advisor for TTS. Hanna Kim, Login.gov’s deputy director who started in January, will serve as its director, starting next ..read more

Senate Democrats are telling the Postal Service to rethink its 10-year reform plan. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and six of her colleagues are concerned about USPS mail volume, which has plummeted to a 40-year low. The senators are also skeptical about plans to grow the package business, which is not bringing in enough money to make up the difference. They warn that higher mail prices are also driving away more USPS customers and that the agency is falling short of its break-even goal. The senators are calling on members of the USPS Board of Governors to step in and come up with other ways for ..read more

While 2023 introduced countless new cybersecurity regulations, 2024 is shaping up to be unprecedented in the compliance arena. Between the Biden Administration’s executive order on securing artificial intelligence, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s disclosure mandates, and the Office of Management and Budget’s M-24-04 memorandum, organizations are navigating how to meet stricter requirements while keeping up with the windfall of day-to-day, ongoing processes that regularly challenge already-stretched security and operations teams. Chief information security officers, in particular, face ..read more