Health insurance exchanges are open now as called for in the Affordable Care Act. Some websites ran into some technical problems. Those are fixed now, but the real danger for some IT professionals is how the system can handle a potential cyber attack. Maria Horton is founder and Chief Executive Officer of EmeSec and Francis Rose’s guest on Industry Chatter today.

You can learn more about Horton’s perspective on cybersecurity trends on Oct. 17, when she will be participating in the Women in Technology panel “Promoting Security in the New Health Exchanges.” Register here.

The debate over the future of the Air Force includes a debate over whether the United States even needs an Air Force. But the Defense Department isn’t looking at it that way. Retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy is chairman of the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force.

Months of planning went down the drain this week for a half dozen conferences and events. The government shutdown caused the postponement of events large and small. And this is just the beginning if the shutdown lasts deep into October. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller is here with details on what some are calling the trickledown effect of the government shutdown.

More than 93 percent of employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are on furlough during the government shutdown. The agency’s skeleton crew is keeping the EPA on life support. But that’s about all they can do. Dina Kruger is president of Kruger Environmental Strategies and former climate change director at the EPA.

The shutdown will take a toll on your agency’s work force, a toll you may not see for a while. But the effect you think the shutdown will have may not be the actual result you’ll see later. Jeff Neal is senior vice president at ICF International and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security.

Three years after the passage of the Government Performance and Management Reform Improvement Act, federal agencies have begun to make major strides toward using data to improve their performance. That’s according to a new survey from the Partnership for Public Service and Grant Thornton.

Almost everyone agrees the government shutdown is bad. But Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says he’s surprised by how it’s turning out. Mike is also mourning the loss of a very close friend – attorney Bill Bransford.