People

Former Army soldier sentenced to nearly 6 years for telecom hacking, extortion

Cameron Wagenius stole sensitive phone records while on active duty and sought to sell information to a foreign intelligence service, prosecutors said.

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.

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.

More ‘Big Balls’-type young feds are what the OPM chief wants

In an interview on Monday, Scott Kupor also discussed implementing skills-based hiring, which had been a priority of the Biden administration as well.

NGA official assumes top AI role at Cyber Command

Ronzelle Green steps into the chief artificial intelligence officer role previously held by Reid Novotny, who worked to expand the combatant command’s embrace of new AI capabilities regardless of their origins.

Agriculture CIO transitions to role modernizing farmers’ records

USDA CIO Sam Berry will help implement the agency’s One Farmer, One File effort to create streamlined internal records for farmers.

Trump is staffing up agencies with political appointees. They’re not sticking around, new analysis finds

The Partnership for Public Service previously reported on high turnover among Senate-confirmed political appointees during the president’s second term. In a new report, researchers from the nonprofit find a similar trend with non-Senate-confirmed ones.

CISA has roughly 250 prospective hires awaiting clearance, agency chief says

Acting Director Nick Andersen says the agency is prioritizing operational teams and regional staff as it works to rebuild its workforce after reductions last year.

Musk should testify about overstated savings from DHS contract cancellations, Democrats argue

The Government Accountability Office reported that contract terminations pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency yielded a net of $92 million — much less than the Homeland Security Department’s public report of as much as $10.5 billion in potential savings.

Former CISA employee pleads guilty to defrauding government with secret contractor jobs

Prosecutors say Richeline Fung secretly held contractor jobs tied to six agencies and claimed up to 33-hour workdays while working full time for the federal cyber agency.

Updated

Intelligence agency employee pleads guilty to trying to share classified info with foreign government

Nathan Vilas Laatsch was allegedly disgruntled by the Trump administration and willing to share sensitive data with the foreign country. The FBI set up a dead drop operation to intercept the classified materials.

GSA to reinstate FedRAMP director, taps Treasury CIO for 3 roles

The General Services Administration is seeing a string of personnel changes leading up to the federal chief information officer’s departure from government at the end of the month.

Exclusive

House Democrats ask GAO to review CISA workforce cuts

Lawmakers want Congress’ watchdog to assess what capabilities were lost after the cyber agency shed roughly one-third of its staff.

National crisis and support hotline operations remained consistent despite staffing cuts, watchdog found

Some staff operating mental health support hotlines at the departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs were subject to reductions in force last year and have not yet been replaced.

L3Harris promotes Mehta to CEO in abrupt leadership change

Chris Kubasik, L3Harris’ CEO since June 2021, has left the company following a code of conduct investigation.

Senate confirms Adam Cassady to run State Department cyberspace bureau

The confirmation comes as the tech diplomacy shop he would traditionally lead in his new role has seen significant reorganizations in the last year.