A special treat on the In Depth program today. Karen Evans, the national director of the U.S. Cyber Challenge and former E-gov administrator at the Office of Management and Budget, joined Francis Rose as a special co-host and guest throughout the show.

Karen and Francis took some time to discuss how the federal government can build a more robust cyber workforce, the Mandiant report on cyber hacking, risk assessment and attribution, and progress on some of Karen’s signature initiatives including HSPD-12 and the Trusted Internet Connection.

As budgets get tighter, the pressure you feel to run your programs on time and under budget goes up a lot. Francis talks about success stories and techniques with Chase Garwood, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Small Business Administration.

Keeping money that agencies shouldn’t pay has been the gold standard in the fight against improper payments. The Department of Agriculture is cutting off more than 1,000 businesses from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for exploitation and fraud. USDA Undersecretary Kevin Concannon spoke to Francis about the steps being taken to reduce improper payments.

No good news for employees with a security clearance. For the first time ever, both average salary and total compensation for clearance professionals fell in the same year, according to a survey from ClearanceJobs.com. Evan Lesser, founder and managing director of ClearanceJobs.com, spoke with Francis about the results of the survey.

Data sharing gets tricky when private information is thrown in the mix. But your agency may have some security tricks up its sleeve that can help state and local agencies do it right, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. Francis spoke with Kay Brown, director of education, workforce, and income security issues at GAO, about the results of the agency’s report.

Vendors that work with the government are getting anxious about strategic sourcing, but it may be a little early for that. Larry Allen is president of Allen Federal Business Partners. He tells Francis Rose, companies shouldn’t freak out for no reason at all.