Thursday federal headlines – March 31, 2016

Agencies reported 321 incidents of networks or systems being attacked with ransomware to the Homeland Security Department since June 2015.

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive.

  • Agencies reported 321 incidents of networks or systems being attacked with ransomware to the Homeland Security Department since June 2015. In a letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), DHS said not all attacks ended with infected systems or computers. Some of the attacks were phishing attempts that included ransomware in attachments. DHS said it is not aware of any instances in which agencies paid a malicious actor to remove ransomware from a computer. DHS said in those cases where ransomware infections did occur, agencies cleaned the computer and there was no impact on the user or department. (Sen. Tom Carper)
  • A new Core Federal Services Council will take a new approach to improving customer service. The Office of Management and Budget wants the council to focus on high-volume, high-impact federal programs that provide transactions directly to the public. The Council will look to public and private sector management best practices, such as conducting self-assessments and journey mapping or collecting transactional feedback data. It’ll be sharing the data with frontline and other staff.  The Council will include representatives from the top 28 federal programs that provide transactional services directly to the public. (White House)
  • President Barack Obama has signed a law creating an executive commission to study how the government stores data for research purposes. The Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking will look for the best ways to store administrative data on federal programs and tax expenditures for evaluations. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) sponsored the legislation. (Library of Congress)
  • Look over your cubicles. One in five may harbor a bad egg. The question is, which ones? A survey done for security firm Sailpoint found that 20 percent of employees worldwide would sell their password to their employer’s network. The U.S. has the highest levels of would-be sellers, at 27 percent.  The irony: 84 percent of respondents worry a lot about the security of their own information. (Sailpoint)
  • The Veterans Affairs Department wants to do a better job showing how cloud technology can help employees and veterans. Paul Tibbits, VA’s Deputy CIO for Architecture, Strategy and Design, said the biggest hurdle is explaining why the technology is useful, rather than what it is or how it works. Tibbits said the department also needs to reverse its bottom-up approach to information sharing.
  • Two federal employees are in hot water after running for political office. One’s a Postal Service employee in Tennessee. The other is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee in Seattle. Both received complaints from the Office of Special Counsel. OSC said the Postal Service employee won election for county commissioner and currently holds the office. The NOAA employee twice ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Federal employees are prohibited from seeking office in partisan elections.
  • The Defense Department Inspector General found a top personnel official misused employees and went to a baseball game on government time. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Reserve Affairs, Manpower and Personnel Jason Forrester made his employees escort his personal guests around the Pentagon and give him a ride to the airport for personal travel. Forrester said he was able to divide his workday to see the baseball game. He said complaints about escorts came from one or two disgruntled staff members. (Federal News Radio)
  • Agencies should see more reports from the Government Accountability Office and more score cards from Congress measuring their progress in implementing the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act. GAO said agencies that have made the most progress in closing data centers and finding savings should get higher scores. GAO’s technology issues Director Dave Powner said four agencies alone are responsible for realizing 86 percent of the $2.8  billion government saved on IT so far. (Federal News Radio)

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