Cybersecurity
ShinyHunters claims FBI data theft, demands bureau retract cyber warning
The hacking group says it obtained sensitive employee and applicant records. The full scope of the claimed breach remains unclear.
Artificial Intelligence
VA selects Abridge ambient scribe under new enterprise contract
The department plans to expand the technology to select outpatient care providers.
Modernization
Do data centers need a ‘national strategy that puts communities first’?
The House passed a bill to mandate that state regulators have a strategy to have large consumers pay for their own power. But plenty of work lies ahead.
Artificial Intelligence
Trump floats creating an ‘AI Force’
President Donald Trump said the AI Force would be analogous with the Space Force, a military service branch created during his first term to protect U.S. space interests.
Acquisition
DOJ signals interest in piloting AI legal assistant
The pilot would assess whether AI can execute multi-step legal tasks without step-by-step attorney prompting.
Artificial Intelligence
DC-area airports first to deploy AI tool for airspace management
The SMART tool uses AI to crunch 200 different streams of flight data “to predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Acquisition
FAR Overhaul targets commercial buying and negotiations in newest rewrite
Parts 12 and 15 have revisions ready for industry to read, while two other parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulation are deleted entirely in a push to increase competition.
Artificial Intelligence
Tech bills of the week: Monitoring AI’s use under Section 702; Preventing abuse of Flock plate readers; and more
Lawmakers introduced several measures this week looking to rein in some of the potential abuses and dangers of using AI, as well as a proposal that looks to leverage AI for pediatric cancer research and treatment.
People
NASA employees: EEOC committed ‘flagrant distortions’ to decertify class complaint
EEOC officials touted a long-running discrimination case against NASA as an example why federal sector cases were in need of reform. The employees who brought the case said commissioners railroaded them.
Ideas
FAFSA's turnaround wasn't a miracle. That's the point.
COMMENTARY | Paying for their education should not depend on whether a system failed badly enough to get fixed in the first place.
Defense
Space Force braces for stalled progress amid lack of full funding
Fiscal 2027 program starts are already on hold until December.
Ideas
Cyber recovery deters what no kill switch can stop
COMMENTARY | A kill switch is a last resort, not a control system or option to use daily.
Digital Government
Inside Commerce efforts to break data siloes and improve integrity
An agency official also encouraged public comment on a proposed overhaul of the census that would eliminate race questions and change who is counted as living in the U.S.
Acquisition
DHS sets fast-track schedule for network, cloud and cyber consolidation vehicle
The Homeland Security Department is working against a compressed timeline to make awards for this contract to centralize IT operations at headquarters and across components.
Emerging Tech
Energy launches quantum computer development competition
The initiative will offer up to $215 million in total planned funding to domestic firms that are able to reach certain milestones in the development of the world’s first fault-tolerant, scientifically relevant quantum computer.
Acquisition
Anthropic extends $1 per user OneGov deal by a month
The OneGov extension means discounted access to Google Gemini is the only deal under the program currently set to expire at the end of this month.
People
GSA’s web design system head replaced with Treasury AI engineer
The U.S. Web Design System is intended to help the federal government build accessible and mobile-friendly websites.
Artificial Intelligence
AI ‘is changing the game’ in fraud threats and prevention efforts, SSA OIG official says
Chief Strategy Officer for the SSA Office of the Inspector General Chad Bungard said “the government is looking towards AI to fight fraud, and the criminals are looking towards AI to commit fraud.”
Acquisition
Salesforce expands Missionforce with new AI capabilities, OpenAI partnership
The company recently announced it will also bring NVIDIA Nemotron-based models and accelerated computing into Missionforce, an agentic platform for agencies.
Cybersecurity