- The Postal Service wins a two-million-dollar settlement following a contract fraud investigation. Its inspector general’s office said a vendor withheld rebates owed to USPS as part of a fuel purchase agreement. That cost the agency up to about 13 million dollars each year since 2006 or 2007. The Justice Department pursued civil and criminal cases against the company and several of its executives.
- Federal employees have an opportunity to support their colleagues who were impacted by Hurricane Debby earlier this month. The Office of Personnel Management has created a new “emergency leave transfer program” for feds who had to take extra time off due to the natural disaster. Under the OPM program, employees are able to “donate” their unused paid leave. Feds who were hit by the hurricane can then use hours from that leave bank to avoid dipping too much into their own time off. OPM has initiated the program for several natural disasters so far this year.
- The Space Force’s first-of-its-kind Generative AI hackathon will challenge Guardians to address the service’s mission challenges using GenAI. The service will also offer training opportunities for Guardians in human-centered design and AI fundamentals. Guardians will get the chance to develop their solutions in a guided program. The best ideas will be pitched to senior leaders at the end of the program. The event will launch on Sept. 12 in Los Angeles, Colorado Springs and Washington D.C. The National Security Innovation Network and the Defense Innovation Unit are helping the Space Force organize the event.
- The CIA has already deployed a large language model to help with open-source intelligence analysis. And the agency is also working to bring gen AI to classified networks as well.
“We are working to, and have in some respects, already brought on generative AI into the high side, into the classified world. And I will just say, just the I think this is an area where we have a tremendous opportunity,” CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said Aug. 28 during the Intelligence and National Security Summit. Cohen said the CIA has 75 years worth of training data that gives the agency an advantage over foreign intelligence services. - The platform will allow the service to improve visibility and understanding of artificial intelligence initiatives across the service. Dubbed CLARA, the new tool will centralize information sharing, track progress and provide space for collaboration among all stakeholders on AI-related projects. Air Force CIO Venice Goodwine said the tool will be used to avoid initiatives duplicates and track spending on AI. CLARA can be accessed through the Air Force’s AI Exchange app store.
- A new pilot to make cloud security authorization packages easier to manage and create is open for cloud service providers, cybersecurity tool vendors and agencies to join. The FedRAMP program management office said the Digital Authorization Package pilot will test the use of the Open Security Controls Assessment Language or OSCAL [AH-scale] to create machine-readable, digital authorization packages. The end goal of the digital authorization pilot is to develop guidance and create automated validations that provide faster, more consistent and less laborious reviews of FedRAMP packages. The PMO said the pilot will be run as an open source project on GitHub.
- CBP isn’t waiting for the Chinese or any other nation state to use post-quantum technology to steal data or make their applications unusable. Sonny Bhagowalia, the CBP CIO, said the adversaries are moving faster than expected and agencies need to be ready for that day.
“We re doing a use case where we have a done a way to check out whether how we can look at a couple of the algorithms now because that window is now four years out and it used to be eight years.” Bhagowalia said agencies and industry need to take on the post-quantum challenge today. - Are critical national industries — like energy and water — ready to adopt post-quantum encryption? The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee agreed to study that very issue during its quarterly meeting this week. The study will also explore what federal agencies should do to prepare the country for quantum-resistant cybersecurity. Earlier this month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized its first three approved post-quantum encryption standards.
- VA’s Veteran Readiness and Employment program offers services to veterans with a disability that was caused, or made worse, by their active-duty service, and limits their ability to work. The VA has about 160,000 veterans enrolled in VR&E program. Nick Pamperin is the executive director of readiness and employment at the Veterans Benefits Administration. He said that’s a record growth of about 38 percent compared to enrollment about two years ago. Pamperin: “As part of outreach, as part of the PACT Act, part of all of the efforts that we’ve made, we’ve seen tremendous growth.”
- 20% of Forest Service employees are seasonal, meaning they only work part of the year. On top of that, the frontline workforce is able to retire early — at age 57. That means there might be more workforce churn, but it also means employees can take on different roles. “That workforce is changing within that year all the time, so there’s this constant movement around,” said Kristen Allison, an acting deputy program manager at the Forest Service. “It’s actually understanding where those things are happening so that we can account for them, and so when we’re hiring, we’re hiring the right amount of people in the right place.”
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