Technical snafu involving security contractor exposes thousand of former servicemembers’ personal info

In today's Federal Newscast, the security contractor TigerSwan says a former recruiting vendor accidentally made thousands of its resume files publicly availabl...

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  •  A technical snafu for a security contractor has exposed the personal information of thousands of former military members. In a statement,  The private security firm TigerSwan said some of its resume files were made publicly available on a site hosted by Amazon Web Services and controlled by a former recruiting vendor. SC Magazine reported more than 9,000 former servicemembers, many with top secret security clearances, were exposed. (SC Magazine)
  • The Defense Department said it will try to convince Congress of the need to close excess bases as a readiness issue. Lucian Niemeyer, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, said another round of base realignment and closure will provide troops with better facilities and station troops where they are most needed. (Federal News Radio)
  • A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit has reported a bottleneck at the very beginning of the Department of Veterans Affairs  (VA) process for enrolling new patients into its health care system. The GAO found VA is routinely failing to get veterans enrolled into the Veterans Health Administration within five days of receiving their applications. The five-day deadline doesn’t require VA to schedule medical appointments – just to verify basic facts, like applicants’ prior military service and income levels. GAO found more than half of the applications waited more than five days; many of the applications had been pending for more than three months. (Government Accountability Office)
  • Major General Joseph Harrington, Commander of the U.S. Army Africa’s Southern European Task Force has been suspended. USA Today said the Army has launching an investigation into reports that Harrington was sending suggestive Facebook messages to another soldier’s wife. The investigation will be conducted by the branch’s inspector general. (USA Today)
  • Inconsistencies have been discovered within the Internal Revenue Service’s Computer Security Incident Response Center. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration said the center generally followed its objectives, but found it did not always follow reporting requirements and some CSIRC employees and contractors did not comply with FISMA training requirements. (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration)
  • More personnel changes have been made at the Agriculture Department. In the aftermath of the reassignments at the Agriculture Department, Secretary Sonny Perdue started to fill some of the jobs that were left open. In a Sept. 1 email to staff, obtained by Federal News Radio, Perdue named Gary Washington, the current chief information officer of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, to be the acting headquarters CIO. Washington replaces Jonathan Alboum, who was reassigned in August to be the deputy senior procurement executive. Washington has been with APHIS since February 2013 and with the agency since 2010. (Federal News Radio)
  • Agencies will be getting new credit cards over the next year. The General Services Administration awarded the $700 billion SmartPay 3 program to Citibank and U.S. Bank. The current contract for credit card services willexpire in November 2018. Agencies spent $28.5 billion in 2016 on purchases, travel and fleet through SmartPay. (General Services Administration)
  • Thrift Savings Plan returns last month were less than impressive. The F-fund saw the highest fund growth capping at only about 1 percent. On the other hand, The I and S-funds dippedg into the red zone. The retirement board also announced a temporary relaxation of withdrawal rules in response to Hurricane Harvey. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a big move against opioids. CDC has more than doubled the funding to states and the District of Columbia that it released in July. It has awarded 44 states and D.C. nearly $29 million in new money. The dollars are intended for three programs operated at the state level, preventing prescription overdoses, gathering better data, and overdose surveillance and toxicology testing by medical examiners and coroners. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

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