Friday federal headlines – April 1, 2016

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

• You now have permission to hack the Pentagon. A spokesman said DoD’s accepting registrants for its new bug bounty program, which pays white hat hackers who discover and report vulnerabilities in DoD systems. It’s a first for the federal government. Hack the Pentagon starts April 18 and ends May 12. DoD is partnering with HackerOne of San Francisco to run it. (DoD)

• The IRS is reporting success with an app that lets taxpayers trace progress of their refunds. A record 230 million people used Where’s My Refund last year. That’s one fact in the latest version of the IRS Data Book. Also from the book: The IRS processed 192 million returns last year. It issued $403 billion in refunds. Examiners audited fewer than 1 percent of returns. (IRS)

• One agency is at risk of a security breach unintentionally however. The General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General issued two reports finding GSA managed buildings could be in trouble because of its lack of control over access badges and Personal Identification Verification cards issued to contractors. The IG said GSA’s widespread use of building badges and weak internal controls could lead to unauthorized access to facilities in manages. (GSA)

• The General Services Administration is putting up cash for apps to make the government more sustainable. GSA, NIST, the White House and four other agencies are hosting an Earth Day Hackathon on April 22. GSA said about 200 coders, developers, designers, engineers, data scientists, and other subject matter experts are invited to create digital interactive tools utilizing federal data. GSA said the tool should be forward-thinking, enhance transparency and drive smarter decisions by agencies. The tool must be open and based on existing federal data sets. (GPO)

• It took the Food and Drug Administration two decades to approve genetically modified salmon farmed for human consumption. It took 20 weeks for environmental groups to file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision. Reuters reports, the salmon producer cited how fast the fish grow to market size, saving resources. The lawsuit said the FDA missed some of the dangers and overstepped its authority. (Reuters)

• Leidos CEO Roger Krone has revealed how the company is planning to double its size. In an interview with Forbes magazine, Krone said the company will use its merger with Lockheed Martin’s information systems and global solutions business to diversify itself to handle more civilian and commercial customers in the services industry. It now focuses on defense and intelligence. The merger is expected to close later this year. (Forbes)

• Consolidation of the Pentagon’s many IT systems is at hand. The director of the Joint Service Provider predicts his office will be ready for full operating capability six months. JSP said it already saved five times its 2015 goal in by consolidating just some of the Pentagon’s systems. This year the office said it’s already made twice its goal. (Federal News Radio)

• Autism treatment benefits must now be covered by all carriers under the Federal Employee Health Benefit starting in 2017. The Office of Personnel Management also adds 19 performance standards to measure how well FEHB carriers are doing with clinical care and customer service. It’s encouraging carriers to review their costs and find ways to keep them down. (Federal News Radio)

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