FCW Insider: Feb. 24

Kiran Ahuja tapped to lead OPM

The former Office of Personnel Management chief of staff is President Joe Biden's pick to lead the federal government's human resources agency.

Supply chain hack took a thousand engineers to pull off, tech exec tells Congress

The scope and scale of the attack as described by Microsoft President Brad Smith is in keeping with the attribution being made by public sector and private sector officials that the hack was perpetrated by Russian-sponsored actor

Microsoft calls for acquisition reform amid JEDI battles

Defense industry experts call on lawmakers to push for procurement protest reforms to enhance national security.

Quick Hits

*** President Joe Biden isn't giving up on the imperiled nomination of Neera Tanden to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Key swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) announced last week that he would vote against Tanden's nomination if it reached the Senate floor. Tanden will need at least one Republican vote to win confirmation, assuming she holds on to the remaining 49 Democrats.

"We're going to push. We still think there's a shot, a good shot," Biden said Tuesday in response to a shouted question from a reporter.

*** Venkatapathi "PV" Puvvada, who was president of Unisys Federal when it merged with SAIC, has joined NetImpact Strategies Inc. as CEO. Company founder Kavita Kalatur will remain with the company as chairman. Puvvada is a four-time Federal 100 award winner and has been active as a leader in industry groups including the Professional Services Council and ACT-IAC. Puvvada spoke to Washington Technology about his new role.

*** The General Services Administration announced that it awarded spots on its $5.5 billion tech-focused blanket purchase agreement 2GIT – short for Second Generation IT. This is GSA's latest try at 2GIT awards. The contract, which was designed as a replacement for the Air Force's NetCents vehicle, was awarded in November 2019, but those awards were pulled back and new bids were allowed after a spate of protests. The 2GIT BPA is supposed to be mandatory for USAF tech buys, but federal agencies and state, local and tribal governments are able to buy through the vehicle.

*** The Federal Thrift Investment Board posted infosec improvements, according to the results of a FISMA audit for Fiscal Year 2020 at a Feb. 23 board meeting. All of the eight audited domains, which include categories like data protection and privacy and risk management, saw improvements since last year. Seven of them were rated at a maturity level of four out of a possible five, signaling that they are "managed and measurable."

"This is a great accomplishment," said Edwen Delcid, a senior manager at Williams Adley, the consulting firm that did the audit. He stressed, however, that the agency would need to continue to evaluate as "the risks to the agency and the agency itself evolve over time."