OPM | The Contracting Education Academy

June 20, 2019 By AMK

Government innovation? Weirdness comes in threes

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Unrelated, they nevertheless connect thematically by showing an instinct towards government innovation, that is, a government willing to try something different.

First was the appointment of Jose Arrietta as the chief information officer of the Department of Health and Human Services. I’ve interviewed Arrietta a couple of times. He’s a smart cookie. He’s possesses good technology chops, having been one of the people trying to prove how blockchain can work in federal settings. In his relatively short time at HHS, Arrietta saw to it that the first blockchain application received authority to operate. That in itself is radical.

But as Jason Miller reported, Arrietta is an unconventional choice to lead an IT complex as vast and diverse as that of HHS. It’s government innovation in personnel. He’s mainly an acquisition guy, and acquisition is an important part of technology and information management. The blockchain application is in fact acquisition. Now Arrietta will have to show he can widen his viewpoint and make things happen in all areas overseen by a CIO.

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2019/05/government-innovation-weirdness-comes-in-threes/

May 28, 2019 By AMK

Another initiative to enhance cyber workforce launched

A White House order on strengthening cybersecurity nationwide in general includes a provision to create a rotational program to boost those skills in the federal workforce, the latest of many such initiatives.

The order instructs OPM and OMB to establish within three months a “rotational assignment program, which will serve as a mechanism for knowledge transfer and a development program for cybersecurity practitioners,” with provisions for training and mentoring.

Also, within six months OPM and other agencies are to “identify a list of cybersecurity aptitude assessments for agencies to use in identifying current employees with the potential to acquire cybersecurity skills for placement in reskilling programs to perform cybersecurity work.” Agencies are to incorporate those assessments into their personnel development programs.

The Senate recently passed a bill to create a similar rotational program and efforts have been under way for years to better define which federal positions involve cybersecurity skills and where there are shortages. The government meanwhile has increased its use of shortcut hiring procedures and incentive pay and has started a program of retraining employees to take on such roles.

Keep reading article at: https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/another-initiative-to-enhance-cyber-workforce-launched/

May 7, 2019 By AMK

USDS applying its own lessons learned to fix federal hiring, acquisition

The Department of Health and Human Services is testing out an effort to improve the federal hiring process, kicking the effort off with a job notice on USAJobs.gov on April 5. The notice said HHS and USDS would accept the first 100 applicants over a two-day period to hire four people with skillsets around: IT specialist, IT customer support, IT data management and IT policy and planning.

The idea and plan has been in the works for the better part of the last six months.

“We are trying to take some of what we’ve learned about attracting some 300-to-400 really highly talented people to come work for the government, using impactful mission, the way we vet people in the interview process, code reviews, design portfolio reviews and that kind of thing,” said Eddie Hartwig, the deputy administrator of the USDS, in an interview on Ask the CIO. “The idea would be to work around an 80-90 day hiring pipeline so that lets us run a hiring project and learn from it to test out some of these theories.”

Hartwig said USDS is working closely with OPM on how they can improve the federal hiring process. He said USDS would like to conduct two or three pilots over the course of 2019.

“The goal is to get the career hiring up and running. We are on the tour of duty hiring model, but that is not sustainable for the lifetime of the government. We need great career people taking those jobs,” he said. “But we are open to working with partners in other specialty fields. The idea would be subject matter experts involved in the hiring process and vetting process so that we can deliver better results when we get to the point of hiring so you don’t get 2,000 people who are qualified for the job, but a nicely vetted list of people who are qualified and then with the preferences allowed in government are applied.”

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/ask-the-cio/2019/04/usds-applying-its-own-lessons-learned-to-fix-federal-hiring-acquisition/

March 13, 2019 By AMK

Security clearance process about to get its biggest overhaul in 50 years

The federal intelligence and human resources communities are preparing a coming out party for the first major update to the security clearance process in some 50 years.

For the last year, the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council has been working on the Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework, the start of a wide-ranging effort to overhaul how background investigations are conducted. Representatives from the intelligence community, Defense Department, Office of Personnel Management, and Office of Management and Budget are leading PAC’s efforts.

Over the next two weeks, the team plans to debut the finalized framework to the White House and Congress and offered a group of reporters a first look at what’s to come.

This is the first time ever that the legislative and executive branches are on the same page with regard to clearance reform, according to Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, who is leading the framework effort along with OPM Deputy Director Michael Rigas.

The two agencies, along with members of the Defense Department, have been working to reduce the crushing backlog of security investigations, which topped 725,000 in early 2018. That backlog has since been reduced to 551,000 as of Monday. But that number is 100 percent above what security professionals consider to be the baseline “steady state” of 220,000 to 250,000 investigations in process at any given time.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/02/security-clearance-process-about-get-its-biggest-overhaul-50-years/155229/

January 23, 2019 By AMK

Researchers: Flaws in vendor security software could leave some federal buildings vulnerable

Researchers at cybersecurity firm Tenable have discovered a number of previously unknown vulnerabilities in the access control systems of an ID card manufacturer and service provider used by federal agencies, including the Executive Office of the President.

Tenable researchers announced Monday they had found several weaknesses in the control system used by IDenticard, called PremiSys, which if exploited could allow an unauthorized person to gain access to secure buildings and disable locks, as well as exfiltrate user data or otherwise modify accounts using administrator privileges.

According to a blog posted Monday, the PremiSys system uses hardcoded usernames and passwords for administrator credentials that cannot be changed by the customers. The system also uses default usernames and passwords for database access, which the users can only change by sending preferred passwords to IDenticard, an additional step that some might not take, opting instead to leave the default credentials in place.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/01/researchers-flaws-vendor-security-software-could-leave-some-federal-buildings-vulnerable/154231/

How often have you heard that the government is stodgy and resistant to change? Large bureaucracies, both in business and government, do trend that way. But three curious initiatives from federal agencies occurred in the days leading to the long Memorial Day weekend.

A White House order on strengthening cybersecurity nationwide in general includes a provision to create a rotational program to boost those skills in the federal workforce, the latest of many such initiatives.

The federal intelligence and human resources communities are preparing a coming out party for the first major update to the security clearance process in some 50 years.

Researchers at cybersecurity firm Tenable have discovered a number of previously unknown vulnerabilities in the access control systems of an ID card manufacturer and service provider used by federal agencies, including the Executive Office of the President.

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