Podcasts about nextgov

In the midst of the terrible Trump tax bill moving through Congress, Ralph invites Sarah Anderson who directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies to discuss the massive tax loopholes huge companies like Amazon get that allow them to pay far less in taxes than ordinary working people. Then, Greg LeRoy from Good Jobs First joins us to discuss how state taxpayers are footing the bill for these massive data centers companies like Google are building all over the country. Plus, Ralph has some choice words for passive unions and responds to listener feedback about our guest last week, Nadav Wieman.Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and is a co-editor of the IPS website Inequality.org. Her research covers a wide range of international and domestic economic issues, including inequality, CEO pay, taxes, labor, and Wall Street reform.They're (Congress is) planning to give huge new tax giveaways to large corporations like Amazon and wealthy people like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. And partially paying for those tax cuts for the wealthy by slashing programs that mean so much to so many Americans like Medicaid and food assistance.”Sarah AndersonWe're not going to have a healthy, thriving society and economy as long as we have the extreme levels of inequality that we have today.Sarah AndersonDubbed “the leading national watchdog of state and local economic development subsidies,” “an encyclopedia of information regarding subsidies,” “God's witness to corporate welfare,” and “the OG of ensuring that state and local tax policy actually supports good jobs, sustainability, and equity,”* Greg founded Good Jobs First in 1998 upon winning the Public Interest Pioneer Award. He has trained and consulted for state and local governments, associations of public officials, labor-management committees, unions, community groups, tax and budget watchdogs, environmentalists, and smart growth advocates more than 30 years.Public education and public health are the two biggest losers in every state giving away money to data centers right now.Greg Le RoyWe know of no other form of state spending that is so out of control. Therefore, we recommend that states cancel their data center tax exemptions. Such subsidies are absolutely unnecessary for an extremely profitable industry dominated by some of the most valuable corporations on earth such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google.Good Jobs First report: “Cloudy With a Loss of Spending Control”They've (Congress has) known for years that the ordinary worker pays a higher tax rate than these loophole-ridden corporations.Ralph NaderIn my message to Trump, I ask him, "Why is he afraid of Netanyahu? And doesn't he want to come to the rescue of these innocent babies by saying, ‘Mr. Netanyahu, the taxpayers in this country are paying for thousands of trucks stalled at the border of Gaza full of medicine, food, water, electricity, fuel, and other critical necessities? We're going to put a little American flag on each one of these trucks, and don't you dare block them.'”…No answer.Ralph NaderNews 5/23/251. It seems as though the dam in Israeli politics against acknowledging the horrors in Gaza is beginning to break. In an interview with the BBC this week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that what Israel "is currently doing in Gaza is very close to a war crime. Thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed.” He went on to say, “the war has no objective and has no chance of achieving anything that could save the lives of the hostages.” These quotes come from the Jerusalem Post. And on May 21st, Haaretz reported that opposition party leader Yair Golan warned that Israel could become a “pariah state, like South Africa once was,” based on its actions in Gaza. Speaking a truth that American politicians appear incapable of articulating, he added, a “sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals for itself like the expulsion of a population.”2. Confirming this prognosis, the Cradle reports “The Israeli military has admitted that more than 80 percent of the people killed in the attacks on Gaza since Israel breached the ceasefire two months ago are…civilians.” This fact was confirmed by the IDF in response to a request from Hebrew magazine Hamakom, wherein “the military's spokesperson stated that 500 of the 2,780 killed in the Gaza Strip as of Tuesday are ‘terrorists.'” Leaving the remaining 2,280 people killed classified as “not suspected terrorists.” The Cradle compares this ratio, approximately 4.5 civilians killed for every combatant, to the Russia-Ukraine war – a ratio of approximate 2.8 to one. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has “claimed that the ratio is just one civilian killed for each combatant killed.” At the same time, AP reports that while Israel has allowed a minimum of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, under immense international pressure, “none of that aid actually reached Palestinians,” according to the United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. The renewed offensive coupled with the barring of humanitarian aid has raised the alarm about mass starvation in Gaza.3. Developments on the ground in Gaza have triggered a new wave of international outcry. On May 19th, leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada issued a joint statement, reading in part, “We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable… The Israeli Government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law…We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.” The Parliament of Spain meanwhile, “passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to impose an arms embargo on Israel,” per Anadolu Ajansı. This potential ban, supported by all parties except the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox, would “ban the exports of any material that could strengthen the Israeli military, including helmets, vests, and fuel with potential military use.” Left-wing parties in Spain are now pushing for an emergency session to impose a binding decree to this effect.4. The United States however seems to be moving backwards. Drop Site news reports Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff made a deal with Hamas ensuring that, “the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory…[and] make a public call for an immediate ceasefire,” in exchange for the release of Edan Alexander. Of course, once Alexander was released Trump reneged completely. Basem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told Drop Site, “He did nothing of this…They didn't violate the deal. They threw it in the trash.” Besides prolonging further the charnel house in Gaza, this duplicity undermines American credibility in the region, particularly with Iran at a time when Trump is seeking a new deal to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.5. Democrats in Congress are inching towards action as well. On May 13th, Senator Peter Welch introduced Senate Resolution 224, calling for “the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to address the needs of civilians in Gaza.” Along with Welch, 45 Democrats and Independents signed on to this resolution, that is the entire Democratic caucus except for John Fetterman. On May 14th, Rashida Tlaib introduced House Resolution 409, commemorating the Nakba and calling on Congress to “reinstate support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.” This was cosponsored by AOC and Reps. Carson, Lee, Omar, Pressley, Ramirez, Simon, and Coleman. And, on May 21st, a group of eight senators – Welch, Sanders, Kaine, Merkley, Murray, Van Hollen, Schatz, and Warnock – sent a letter urging Secretary of State Rubio to reopen the investigation into the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, per Prem Thakker. The Biden administration ruled the death “unintentional,” but a new documentary by Zeteo News reveals a “Biden cover-up.”6. More action is occurring on college campuses as well, as students go into graduation season. At NYU, a student named Logan Rozos said in his graduation speech, “As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,” per CNN. NYU announced that they are now withholding his diploma. At George Washington University, the Guardian reports student Cecilia Culver said in her graduation speech, “I am ashamed to know my tuition [fee] is being used to fund…genocide…I call upon the class of 2025 to withhold donations and continue advocating for disclosure and divestment.” GWU issued a statement declaring Culver “has been barred from all GW's campuses and sponsored events elsewhere.” The moral clarity of these students is remarkable, given the increasingly harsh measures these schools have taken to silence those who speak up.7. Moving on, several major stories about the failing DOGE initiative have surfaced in recent days. First, Social Security. Listeners may recall that a DOGE engineer said “40% of phone calls made to [the Social Security Administration] to change direct deposit information come from fraudsters.” Yet, a new report by NextGov.com found that since DOGE mandated the SSA install new anti-fraud checks on claims made over the phone, “only two claims out of over 110,000 were found to likely be fraudulent,” or 0.0018%. What the policy has done however, is slow down payments. According to this piece, retirement claim processing is down 25%. Meanwhile, at the VA, DOGE engineer Sahil Lavingia, “found…a machine that largely functions, though it doesn't make decisions as fast as a startup might.” Lavingia added “honestly, it's kind of fine—because the government works. It's not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins.” This from Fast Company. Finally, CBS reports, “leaders of the United States Institute for Peace regained control of their offices Wednesday…after they were ejected from their positions by the Trump administration and [DOGE] in March.” This piece explains that On February 19th, President Trump issued Executive Order 14217 declaring USIP "unnecessary" and terminating its leadership, most of its 300 staff members, its entire board, installing a DOGE functionary at the top and transferring ownership of the building to the federal government. This set off a court battle that ended Monday, when U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the takeover was “unlawful” and therefore “null and void.” These DOGE setbacks might help explain Elon Musk's reported retreat from the political spotlight and political spending.8. On May 21st, Congressman Gerry Connolly passed away, following his battle with esophageal cancer. Connolly's death however is just the latest in a disturbing trend – Ken Klippenstein reports, “Connolly joins five other members of Congress who also died in office over the past 13 months…Rep. Raúl Grijalva…Rep. Sylvester Turner…Rep. Bill Pascrell…Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee…[and] Rep. Donald Payne Jr.” All of these representatives were Democrats and their deaths have chipped away at the close margin between Democrats and Republicans in the House – allowing the Republicans to pass Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” by a single vote. Connolly himself prevailed over AOC in a much-publicized intra-party battle for the Ranking Member seat on the House Oversight committee. It speaks volumes that Connolly was only able to hold onto that seat for a few short months before becoming too sick to stay on. This is of course part and parcel with the recent revelations about Biden's declining mental acuity during his presidency and the efforts to oust David Hogg from the DNC for backing primaries against what he calls “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats.9. Speaking of “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats, Bloomberg Government reports Senator John Fetterman “didn't attend a single committee hearing in 2025 until…May 8, about a week after an explosive New York Magazine story raised questions about his mental health and dedication to his job.” Fetterman, who represents Pennsylvania on the Commerce, Agriculture, and Homeland Security committees skipped the confirmation hearings for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Budget Director Russ Vought, some of the most high-profile and controversial Trump appointments. Fetterman still has yet to attend a single Agriculture committee hearing in 2025.10. Finally, in more Pennsylvania news, the state held its Democratic primaries this week, yielding mixed results. In Pittsburgh, progressives suffered a setback with the ouster of Mayor Ed Gainey – the first Black mayor of the city. Gainey lost to Allegheny County Controller Corey O'Connor, the son of former Mayor Bob O'Connor, the Hill reports. In Philadelphia however, voters approved three ballot measures – including expanding affordable housing and adding more oversight to the prison system – and reelected for a third term progressive reform District Attorney Larry Krasner, per AP. Krasner has long been a target of conservatives in both parties, but has adroitly maneuvered to maintain his position – and dramatically reduced homicide rates in Philly. The Wall Street Journal reports Philadelphia homicides declined by 34% between 2023 and 2024, part of substantial decline in urban homicides nationwide. Kudos to Krasner.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

We're back with part-two of our discussion with Jill Aitoro, SVP for Content Strategy at CyberRisk Alliance where we pick the conversation up on privacy today and efforts by big tech and government to protect sensitive information. We also dive into the slippery slope of consumer apps and health information used for convenience and, for some, entertainment and the realization of how that information could be shared and used by third parties in the coming decades. (And the check boxes you might mindlessly click today could come back to haunt you.) Jill Aitoro, senior vice president of content strategy for CyberRisk Alliance She has more than 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy. Prior to joining CRA, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group. She previously worked at Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy, as well as CMP Media's VARBusiness and CRN and Penton Media's iSeries News. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e315

Jill Aitoro, SVP for Content Strategy at CyberRisk Alliance joins the podcast this week for a hot topics discussion across recent developments in the ongoing cyber war involving Ukraine, Russia and a supporting cast of many public and private entities including NATO, Microsoft, Lithuania and others. We also dive into recent exploits by China with social media microtargeting campaigns against rare earth mining companies and where their ‘playing the long game' implications could lead. Jill Aitoro, senior vice president of content strategy for CyberRisk Alliance She has more than 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy. Prior to joining CRA, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group. She previously worked at Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy, as well as CMP Media's VARBusiness and CRN and Penton Media's iSeries News. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e314

Some jobs will require college degrees for as far as the eyes can see.But in this episode, NextgovFCW's tech workforce reporter Natalie Alms describes how what government and business leaders call “skills-based hiring” is becoming more of the norm for certain tech jobs.As Natalie tells our Ross Wilkers, some agencies and contractors are de-emphasizing educational requirements for those roles and replacing them with other means.Three big government contracts are now all about skills-based hiring. “Nat,” as some of us coworkers call her, gives some signposts to watch for how much further that approach could expand across public sector and more.We recorded this episode before Nat's next big story she teased toward the end landed on Nextgov/FCW. That article is link number one in the list below.Trump's first White House debated the role of USDS. What will Trump 2.0 do?Major federal IT contracts to remove ‘unnecessary' degree requirementsHarris touts skills-based hiring for feds on the campaign trailMace sponsors bill to ban educational requirements for government contractorsGoodbye degree requirements? Biden administration pushes skills-based hiring for tech talentWhite House looks to eliminate college degree requirements for cyber jobs with federal contractorsNever mind the degrees – here's skills-based hiringOPM issues guidance on implementing Trump-era hiring policy

Just about every conversation about technology across the federal landscape seems to begin and end with generative artificial intelligence, a tool that spurs fears and hopes all at the same time.Edward Graham has a front-row seat to many of those conversations in his role at our sibling publication Nextgov/FCW, where he reports on national security technologies and policies.For this episode, Edward tells our Ross Wilkers all about the current state of play for where the Defense and Homeland Security Departments are at on their generative AI journeys.Guardrails and pilots are more than just buzzwords for generative AI. As you will hear from Edward, they are the key words to hone in on for understanding where generative AI is today and the direction it is going in.DOD's generative AI task force will help set guardrails for broader useDHS generative AI pilot embraces hiccups of emerging techAI can enhance border security but won't close workforce gap, lawmakers sayDHS hires initial cohort of 10 to join its AI CorpsVA is already using AI to identify and assist veterans in crisis, officials say

The federal government has several large technology initiatives underway such as improving customer experience and leveraging artificial intelligence. Those issues are at the heart of what Natalie Alms writes about for NextGov/FCW, one of several sibling publications for Washington Technology.She dives into those topics and more in this conversation with WT Editor Nick Wakeman. From her perch, Natalie has a unique perspective on the challenges agencies face in trying to modernize how they provide services to citizens. She explains that while AI holds great promise to improve how the government operates, there are also many hurdles to clear.Related articles:IRS touts launch of Direct File pilotWhite House stalls on digital identity mandate, despite billions in fraudExperts warn that OMB's AI guidance could slow federal adoption of the emerging techOn the heels of Biden's executive order, agencies get White House directive on implementing AIThe CX executive order turns one

Hacktivism and nation-state involvement in the cyber phases of war in the Middle East, and the use of Telegram. Russian groups squabble online. Healthcare cybersecurity and its implications for patient care. The Looting of FTX on the day of its bankruptcy. Joe Carrigan shares research from the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. Our guest is Mike Walters from Action1, marking the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday. And CISA releases two new resources against ransomware. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/12/196 Selected reading. Israeli Cyber Companies Rally as Digital, Physical Assaults Continue (Wall Street Journal) Israel Sees Cyber Incursions Across Digital Systems (Wall Street Journal)  Hackers infiltrated Israeli smart billboards to post pro-Hamas messages, reports say (Business Insider)  THE HAMAS ISRAEL : CONFLICT EXPLAINER - CYFIRMA (CYFIRMA) The First 72 Hours of the Israel-Hamas War: Hamas and PIJ Activity on Telegram (Flashpoint)  Cyber Aggression Rises Following the October 2023 Israel-Hamas Conflict (Radware)  EU opens probe into X over Israel-Hamas war misinformation (Financial Times)  EU opens formal investigation into illegal content on X (Computing)  X removes hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts since attack, CEO says (Reuters)  US cyber agencies in 'very close contact' with Israel after unprecedented Hamas attacks (Nextgov.com)  Five threats security pros everywhere need to focus on as the Middle East war escalates (SC Media)  Cyber Insecurity in Healthcare: The Cost and Impact on Patient Safety and Care 2023 (Proofpoint)  New Clues Suggest Stolen FTX Funds Went to Russia-Linked Money Launderers (WIRED)  CISA Releases New Resources Identifying Known Exploited Vulnerabilities and Misconfigurations Linked to Ransomware | CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Budworm APT's bespoke tools. Johnson Controls sustains a cyberattack. The US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board reports on Section 702. The looming government shutdown and cyber risk. Cybersecurity in the US industrial base. X cuts back content moderation capabilities. In our Industry Voices segment, Nicholas Kathmann from LogicGate describes the struggle when facing low cost attacks. Sam Crowther from Kasada shares his team's findings on Stolen Auto Accounts. And Ukrainian hacktivists target Russian airline check-in systems. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/12/186 Selected reading. Budworm: APT Group Uses Updated Custom Tool in Attacks on Government and Telecoms Org (Symantec Enterprise Blogs) Johnson Controls reports data breach after severe ransomware attack (BeyondMachines)  Report on the Surveillance Program Operated Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board)  Split privacy board urges big changes to Section 702 surveillance law (Washington Post) Democrats fear cyberattacks as government shutdown looms (Nextgov.com)  Aprio Releases U.S. National Manufacturing Survey, Highlighting the Need for Improved Operational Excellence, Digitization and Cybersecurity Practices (Aprio)  Musk's X disabled feature for reporting electoral misinformation - researcher (Reuters)  Musk's X Cuts Half of Election Integrity Team After Promising to Expand It (The Information) Aeroflot, other airlines' flights delayed over DDoS attack (Cybernews) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A pair of big-ticket programs focused on health care for veterans, soldiers and their families is the focus of this newest WT 360 Info Session series of episodes that bring together reporters from across the GovExec media team.FCW's executive editor Adam Mazmanian and NextGov reporter Edward Graham join our Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers to update the current situation regarding the ongoing electronic health record integration programs at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.On the surface, both programs appear to be going on very different tracks. But nothing in the world of government technology at this scale we're talking about is simple.Mazmanian and Graham explain where both departments are looking to go with their EHR programs, how they got there and the roles of the companies involved in each. The common thread between them is in how both adopting variants of Oracle Cerner's electronic health record.Leidos is the lead contractor for DOD's EHR program with Oracle Cerner, Accenture, Henry Schein One and 35 other supporting businesses as teammates. Oracle Cerner is the prime for the VA EHR program with Leidos and Accenture included as teammates.

Earlier this year, the White House announced a series of projects that agencies are undertaking as part of an effort to reshape how government delivers services by focusing on citizens' experiences like retirement and other life events. With the Biden management agenda's focus on customer experience, that will mean getting service to as many people as possible… in whatever ways are available.  Aaron Boyd is a Senior Editor at GovExec sibling site Nextgov. He's also the author of a post on Nextgov headlined “The Low-Tech Side of Biden's Push to Improve the ‘Life Experiences' with Government.” which is part of a series exploring the Biden administration's push to improve citizens' interactions with government. He joined the podcast to talk about his series and CX in the Biden administration. *** Follow GovExec on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/government-executive  

The US Marshals Service sustains a data breach. Blind Eagle is a phish hawk. Dish continues to work toward recovery. OneNote attachments are used to distribute Qakbot. Ben Yelin has analysis on the Supreme Court's hearing on a section 230 case. Mr Security Answer Person John Pescatore has thoughts on Chat GPT. And CISA Director Easterly urges vendors to make software secure-by-design. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/12/39 Selected reading. U.S. Marshals Service investigating ransomware attack, data theft (BleepingComputer) US Marshals says prisoners' personal information taken in data breach (TechCrunch) Blind Eagle Deploys Fake UUE Files and Fsociety to Target Colombia's Judiciary, Financial, Public, and Law Enforcement Entities (BlackBerry) Dish hit by multiday outage after reported cyberattack (TechCrunch) DISH says ‘system issue' affecting internal servers, phone systems (The Record from Recorded Future News)  Take Note: Armorblox Stops OneNote Malware Campaign (Armorblox)  Ukraine & Intelligence: One Year on – with Shane Harris (SpyCast) U.S. cyber official praises Apple security and suggests Microsoft, Twitter need to step it up (CNBC) U.S. cyber chief warns tech companies to curb unsafe practices (CBS News) Tech manufacturers are leaving the door open for Chinese hacking, Easterly warns (The Record from Recorded Future News) CISA Director Calls Out Industry Using Consumers as Cyber 'Crash Test Dummies' (Nextgov.com) The Designed-in Dangers of Technology and What We Can Do About It (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)

In the latest episode of #IMM, Christine speaks with Alexandra KelleyTech, Reporter at Nextgov.

Episode number one for 2023 means the covers are off regarding a new name for our podcast, but with the same kinds of conversations as they have always been.What is now WT 360 remains all about the business of government contracting and all about the technologies involved in it, from the perspectives of leaders across the public sector ecosystem and others who observe the happenings.This premiere episode also introduces a new regular feature called the Info Session that brings together our reporters and others across our GovExec partner publications Defense One, FCW, Government Executive and Nextgov.WT's own Nick Wakeman and Ross Wilkers, Frank Konkel of Nextgov and Carten Cordell of FCW go over the storylines they are watching in 2023 and reflect on the Defense Department (finally) awarding its big-ticket commercial cloud contract back in December.For more on the mission of WT 360, click here to read Nick's article that introduces the new name and the kinds of conversations we look to steer through our podcast.(NOTE: When we recorded this episode, no one had received enough votes to be the next Speaker of the House. Who knows when anyone will get the votes, we sure don't.)

Cryptocurrency advocates have claimed that the technology could revolutionize monetary policy in the U.S. and worldwide, but the actual application of crypto has more closely resembled an investment asset since crypto became mainstream about five years ago. Regulation of cryptocurrency has been slow compared to its adoption and recent volatility in the cryptocurrency markets have brought more scrutiny to crypto exchanges and users. Alexandra Kelley is a reporter for GovExec sibling site Nextgov. She joined the podcast to discuss cryptocurrency, regulations and the future of money.   *** Follow GovExec on Twitter! https://twitter.com/govexec  

You may not know it, but artificial intelligence applications are all around us. From search algorithms to speech recognition, we are surrounded by AI and machine learning. The federal government uses AI, of course, in its initiatives in various agencies. Dr. Lynne Parker serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor and director of the AI Tennessee Initiative at the University of Tennessee. Previously, she filled various roles in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, including as founding director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative office. As part of Defense One's and Nextgov's Genius Machines event series recently, Nextgov editor Aaron Boyd spoke to Parker about AI policy and her roles in government. In this episode, you'll hear part of their conversation about machine learning and artificial intelligence.

In the latest episode of #IMM, Christine speaks with Jessie Bur, Managing Editor at Nextgov

On this episode of the IoT: The Internet of Threats podcast, Mariam Baksh, Staff Reporter at Nextgov, joins podcast host Eric Greenwald to explore the evolution of cybersecurity regulation, from the Biden Administration's 2021 Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity to September's OMB Memorandum on software supply chain security.   Mariam and Eric discuss the cybersecurity goals of the administration, the merits of first-party versus third-party attestation, and the fine line that NIST walks between effecting change in cybersecurity versus overwhelming the resources of security practitioners and compliance personnel.     Interview with Mariam Baksh    Mariam Baksh is a staff reporter for Nextgov, a Washington, DC-based publication that reports on federal IT and tech policy through journalism, podcasts, and more. In her role at Nextgov, Mariam reports on the development of federal cybersecurity policy. Mariam has been covering technology governance since 2014 and earned her master's degree in journalism and public affairs from American University.    In this episode, Eric and Mariam discuss: Why the Biden administration issued last year's EO NIST's balancing act between improving cybersecurity and avoiding the imposition of costly requirements on companies The challenges involved in measuring cybersecurity performance The implications of a first-party vs. third-party attestation model The value of an SBOM and its growing role in cybersecurity regulation Whether the EO or the OMB memo will deliver any enforcement on the requirements they impose    Find Mariam on LinkedIn: Mariam Baksh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariam-baksh-99b1b428/   Learn more about Nextgov: https://www.linkedin.com/company/Nextgov/   Thank you for listening to this episode of the IoT: The Internet of Threats podcast, powered by Finite State — the leading supply chain cyber-security solution provider for connected devices and embedded systems.   If you enjoyed this episode, click subscribe to stay connected and leave a review to get the word out about the podcast.   To learn more about building a robust product security program, protecting your connected devices, and complying with emerging regulations and technical standards, visit https://finitestate.io/. Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

According to new research from Eagle Hill Consulting, more than a third of government employees say they haven't taken a vacation in the last 12 months. Expenses topped the reasons given for eschewing vacation time, with self-imposed pressure coming next.  Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of Govexec sibling site Nextgov. He has a story about the survey headlined “More Than 1 in 3 Government Employees Haven't Taken a Vacation in Last Year, Survey Says.” He joined the podcast to talk about government workforce issues like delaying or eschewing vacation. *** Follow GovExec on Twitter! https://twitter.com/govexec  

The United States federal courts are in the midst of more cyber-security breaches: A judicial branch computer system was compromised by intruders for three days earlier this month, an official confirmed to Nextgov on Friday. This follows a hack last year that exposed sensitive information on hundreds of thousands of U.S. judges and magistrates and led the court system to institute two-factor authentication to keep hackers out of its IT systems in the future.

We're back with part-two of our discussion with Jill Aitoro, SVP for Content Strategy at CyberRisk Alliance where we pick the conversation up on privacy today and efforts by big tech and government to protect sensitive information. We also dive into the slippery slope of consumer apps and health information used for convenience and, for some, entertainment and the realization of how that information could be shared and used by third parties in the coming decades. (And the check boxes you might mindlessly click today could come back to haunt you.) Jill Aitoro, senior vice president of content strategy for CyberRisk Alliance She has more than 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy. Prior to joining CRA, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group. She previously worked at Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy, as well as CMP Media's VARBusiness and CRN and Penton Media's iSeries News. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e190

Jill Aitoro, SVP for Content Strategy at CyberRisk Alliance joins the podcast this week for a hot topics discussion across recent developments in the ongoing cyber war involving Ukraine, Russia and a supporting cast of many public and private entities including NATO, Microsoft, Lithuania and others. We also dive into recent exploits by China with social media microtargeting campaigns against rare earth mining companies and where their ‘playing the long game' implications could lead. Jill Aitoro, senior vice president of content strategy for CyberRisk Alliance She has more than 20 years of experience editing and reporting on technology, business and policy. Prior to joining CRA, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group. She previously worked at Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy, as well as CMP Media's VARBusiness and CRN and Penton Media's iSeries News. For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e189

  Three weeks after it began, the Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board to counter misinformation is in trouble after its top official announced that she is resigning. The board has been paused pending a review and assessment through the bipartisan Homeland Security Advisory Council.   Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of GovExec sibling site Nextgov. He joined the podcast to discuss the board and its future. *** Join GovExec Daily on Clubhouse! https://www.clubhouse.com/club/govexec-daily-group

Nextgov looks at the use of cooperative research and development agreements by some major industry players to highlight how the meaning of the phrase, and implementation of its associated authorities, has shifted over the years.

Every American has to deal with the IRS in some way. From COVID-19 stimulus payments to tax credits to the annual filing date, Americans deal with the agency on a regular basis. As the Biden administration emphasizes customer service, the tax agency has to balance these responsibilities constantly. But, in the middle of record staffing shortages and a lack of funding, the agency has been operating in survival mode. As part of Government Executive, Route Fifty and Nextgov's Customer Experience summit event recently, GovExec reporter and frequent GovExec Daily guest Courtney Bublé spoke to former IRS chief John Koskinen and National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins. In this episode for our #moneymonday series, they discuss how the IRS is serving citizens during an exceptionally difficult tax season. *** Join GovExec Daily on Clubhouse! https://www.clubhouse.com/club/govexec-daily-group?utm_medium=ch_club&utm_campaign=vlrzJwsaX-VcmRCrWGPctA-103059

Customer service is a topic that has become more important in recent years and especially in recent months with executive action, and legislative priorities. The IRS, in particular, often finds itself in the center of these conversations, especially now, during tax season. As part of Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, Nextgov Executive Editor Frank Konkkel spoke to Annette Jones, assistant to the chief taxpayer Experience Officer at the Internal Revenue Service. In this episode, Jones discusses the ways that the IRS customer experience is evolving.   *** Join GovExec Daily on Clubhouse! https://www.clubhouse.com/club/govexec-daily-group?utm_medium=ch_club&utm_campaign=vlrzJwsaX-VcmRCrWGPctA-103059

The two years of the pandemic's shift to telework have changed the way public servants do their jobs. As agencies transition more to a hybrid environment, feds and managers will have to learn to adjust to a new work environment and new ways to communicate with one another. As part of Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, GovExec Executive Editor Tanya Ballard Brown spoke to Rob Shriver, who is Associate Director for Employee Services at the Office of Personnel Management. In this episode, Tanya interviews Shriver about the ways that agencies are moving hybrid work environments at agencies.

In this episode of The Gate 15 Interview, Andy Jabbour speaks with Joseph Marks, Washington Post reporter for The Cybersecurity 202. From his Washington Post bio, “Joe Marks writes The Cybersecurity 202 newsletter focused on the policy and politics of cybersecurity. Before joining The Washington Post, Marks covered cybersecurity for Politico and Nextgov, a news site focused on government technology and security. He also covered patent and copyright trends for Bloomberg BNA and federal litigation for Law360. Marks began his career at Midwestern newspapers covering city and county governments, crime, fires and features. He spent two years at the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota and is originally from Iowa City. Joe on Twitter, @Joseph_Marks_. Joe on LinkedIn. Subscribe to The Cybersecurity 202. In the discussion we address: Joe's background and the work he's doing today at the Washington Post Joe's perspective on “insider the beltway” cybersecurity The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity and geopolitical threats Joe plays three questions and more! A few references mentioned in or relevant to our discussion include: Subscribe to The Cybersecurity 202 https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-cybersecurity-202/ The Cybersecurity 202: The cyber fight in Ukraine is getting more serious, 16 Feb https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/16/cyber-fight-ukraine-is-getting-more-serious/ The Cybersecurity 202: Cyber's role in the Ukraine-Russia crisis remains unclear, 15 Feb https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/15/cybers-role-ukraine-russia-crisis-remains-unclear/ Jen Easterly's Keynote at the Munich Cybersecurity Conference - Just one word: Culture! On YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgr4h8ufxVU Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks at Annual Munich Cyber Security Conference https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-lisa-o-monaco-delivers-remarks-annual-munich-cyber-security An interesting thread on Twitter from Doug Madory (@DougMadory), Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik (@kentikinc), on the assertion that Russia had cut a subsea cable when it annexed Crimea, mentioned without detail in the podcast. https://twitter.com/dougmadory/status/1488608548099612674?s=21 Our recent Gate 15 Risk Roundtable where Dave, Jen and I talk Ukraine and Jen shares some thoughts on preparedness: The Risk Roundtable EP 26: Making the Quantum Leap! CISA: Shields Up https://www.cisa.gov/shields-up CISA: Russian State-Sponsored Actors Target Cleared Defense Contractor Networks, 16 Feb https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/current-activity/2022/02/16/russian-state-sponsored-actors-target-cleared-defense-contractor CISA: Alert (AA22-047A) - Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Target Cleared Defense Contractor Networks to Obtain Sensitive U.S. Defense Information and Technology, 16 Feb https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/aa22-047a CISA: Russia Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/russia

Nextgov digs into the Veterans Affairs Department's strategic efforts to deploy future-facing technologies to modernize the care it provides. Department officials are experimenting with augmented and virtual reality—and also figuring out how tiny devices like sensors could improve the canes used by the visually impaired or help prevent falls in facilities.

We previewed cyber security policy under President Biden at the beginning of 2021. But a lot of big things have happened in cybersecurity since then, making now seem a pretty good time to check in on where things stand. So we brought in an expert to help: NextGov's Mariam Baksh. Mariam tells us about the latest developments from the White House relating to cyber policy, including what may really make a difference versus what actions could just be for show. She also discusses why the NIST framework is getting a revisit, the involvement of private industry in the latest policy directions, and more. Read more from Mariam: https://www.nextgov.com/voices/mariam-baksh/15380/. And find her on the Critical Update podcast: https://www.nextgov.com/podcasts/. In headlines, we follow up with more from the T-Mobile data breach, talk about Apple and its privacy compromise, and discuss another ransomware cell calling it quits.  Here are the stories: Updating the T-Mobile Data Breach Storyhttps://www.zdnet.com/article/t-mobile-ceo-apologizes-for-massive-hack-announces-cybersecurity-deal-with-mandiant/Apple Just Traded Your Privacy for $15 Billionhttps://www.inc.com/jason-aten/apple-just-traded-your-privacy-for-15-billion.htmlDiabolical Ransomware Gang Calls It Quitshttps://www.thedailybeast.com/ragnarok-diabolical-ransomware-gang-calls-it-quitsGet info on all things network security through our blog, https://firewalls.com/blog.And please do reach out, as we want to hear from you. Suggest an episode topic, ask a question, or just say hi in a review, or by emailing podcast@firewalls.com. New episodes are normally released every other Wednesday, so subscribe/follow to ensure you get the latest first - and again, please rate and review.Thanks for listening!

In recent years, the Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of videos depicting military pilots seeing unidentified flying objects. In fact, last year, the Office of Naval Intelligence ​​launched the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to standardize data collection on the issue. But the Pentagon's role in this is not that new. In 2007, the unclassified but largely unknown Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was appropriated for five years, largely because of the efforts of former Senator Harry Reid. As part of Nextgov's Emerging Tech summit event recently, Nextgov reporter and frequent GovExec Daily guest Brandi Vincent spoke to Reid. In this episode, they discuss how the government and technology come together to monitor unidentified aerial phenomena in the pursuit of security.

  The novel coronavirus pandemic has moved most public employees to remote work situations. But the pandemic has not stopped the need for workforce development and government has had to adjust to a new world of online training and learning. Agencies have had to pivot to virtual workforce development over the past two years.   As part of Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, GovExec reporter and frequent GovExec Daily guest Eric Katz spoke to Clo Taylor, Chief Learning and Engagement Officer, Department of Homeland Security. In this episode, Taylor discusses the role of training and learning in a hybrid federal environment.

President Joe Biden has made diversity, equity and inclusion cornerstones of his administration. Identifying the ways headway can be made into DEI issues will be paramount to these efforts, including using the best available information.  As part of Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, GovExec reporter and frequent GovExec Daily guest Courtney Bublé spoke to diversity officers from four different agencies. In this episode, officials from the FBI, the State Department, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence discuss the future of diversity, inclusion and equity in the federal workforce and the ways agencies are working towards a more inclusive federal government. 

Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance for agencies to begin to implement their reentry and post-reentry places for feds. Remote work and hybrid work will be a part of the post-reentry future for agencies, but one agency has been a telework model since before the pandemic. The Patent and Trademark Office embraced telework long before the pandemic, starting in 1997 with 18 attorneys working remotely. In 2019 before the pandemic, the agency had 11,000 employees regularly working remotely at least one day a week. As such, the agency had the experience to move seamlessly to maximum telework in March 2020. As part of a panel during Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, I spoke to Danette Campbell, Director of the Telework Program Office at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Campbell discussed managing a hybrid workforce, the pandemic's effect on telework and how her agency manages the complications of remote work.

The pandemic has reoriented the way most of us work and the federal civil service is no different. Since maximum telework was instituted in the spring of 2020, the federal government has had to make a series of adjustments to its operations, including remote work and hiring practices. It remains to be seen if the pandemic changes will all stick, but administration personnel officials have signaled that the post-pandemic world will be different than the pre-pandemic world. As part of Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, GovExec Deputy Editor and frequent govexec daily guest Katherine McIntire Peters interviewed Rob Shriver, who is Associate Director for Employee Services at the Office of Personnel Management. Shriver discussed the future of telework, hiring and government work itself in this stage of the pandemic and beyond.

Part 2 of our two-part series with Mariam Baksh, Cybersecurity Policy Reporter at NextGov. As a reporter on the front lines of security policy as it happens Mariam shares perspective on how cyber picked her, rhetorical catchphrases shaping global perception and cyber responses, gaining clarity on if or where cyber policy and partisan lines are drawn, drawing the line on sanctions, hybrid attacks, Cyber Diplomacy Act, the roles of standards bodies, auditing and incident response teams, and potential impact of a low price technically acceptable approach. You won’t want to miss this insightful two-part discussion! For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e132

This week we kick off a two-part series with Mariam Baksh, Cybersecurity Policy Reporter at NextGov. As a reporter on the front lines of security policy as it happens Mariam shares perspective on how cyber picked her, rhetorical catchphrases shaping global perception and cyber responses, gaining clarity on if or where cyber policy and partisan lines are drawn, drawing the line on sanctions, hybrid attacks, Cyber Diplomacy Act, the roles of standards bodies, auditing and incident response teams, and potential impact of a low price technically acceptable approach. You won’t want to miss this insightful two-part discussion! For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e131

DevSecOps is enabling incredible accomplishments at the Defense Department—like updating code on a U-2 jet during a live flight. With software factories popping up across the department, Nextgov sought out the story of one program in particular to understand how DevSecOps works at DOD. That program is called Platform One, and though it's been around for less than two years, it already supports major programs across the military services and DOD components. 

In the latest episode of #IMM, Christine speaks with Heather Kuldell, Managing Editor of Nextgov, an all-day information resource for federal technology decision makers.

People see things in the night sky all the time that cannot be identified and most of us write those sightings off as nonsense. But, the Pentagon – and the broader federal government – doesn’t have the luxury to ignore anything that could be a threat to national security, including undefined flying objects.  Brandi Vincent is a reporter covering emerging technology for GovExec sibling site Nextgov and her recent podcast episode explores the Defense Department programs that are investigating UFO phenomena. She joined the show to talk about the episode and what she learned.   Critical Update: https://www.nextgov.com/podcasts/2021/03/critical-update-lets-talk-about-ufos/172536/

Christina received the US Treasury Secretarial Meritorious Service Award in recognition of her superior achievement in leading the government-wide implementation of the DATA Act in 2017.  She also received multiple awards from industry for her innovative work and leadership in technology, open data, and GRC (governance, risk and compliance). She is a frequent blogger and public speaker and has been featured in publications including AICPA Issue Brief, IBM Center for the Business of Government Magazine, AGA Journal, Nextgov, NACUBO Business Officer Magazine, Federal News Radio, and Government Matters TV. Key Takeaways:0:00 Intro2:21 Christina shares her background and story on what led her to the topic of saying no today5:06 Christina explains why it is so hard for people to hear the word no, and what to do to get used to it more often 8:57 Christina talks about why people should view no as a necessary step to the yes and to the success and as an important perspective and mindset that helps us think about no differently13:32 Christina talks about saying no and shares her thoughts, experience and advice around being able to say no strategically16:40 Christina advice people to have an accountability partner to help us as we continue to grow and practice, either being able to say no or yes, depending on the situation18:12 Christina talks about how she personally is not afraid of getting a no answer now as compared to the past and how she has developed that ability 21:26 Christina talks about practical steps to help people who are practicing to say no and overcoming fear of not being perceived as a team player when you say no24:15 Christina also talks about how as a leader you can help others to really embrace the power of the no25:28 Christina also shares some tips on what makes her feel strong and grounded to do what she does Shows Mentioned: Kids Baking Championship: Under Duff Goldman and Valerie Bertinelli's guidance, young bakers under the age of 12 compete against each other in a series of challenges to win the grand prize.Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network. Deloitte is one of the Big Four accounting organizations and the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of professionals, with headquarters in London, England.Elder Research: They hand-craft innovative data analytics solutions that inform decisions, deliver value, and transform businesses.Quotes Mentioned:“A lot of time we self eliminate ourselves before other people do because we are so afraid of that rejection”“We should be able to say yes to ourselves.”“No is a necessary step to yes.”“Hurry up and get to the failure so you could pivot and then get to the success ultimately.”“If you take the no as a starting point where you can pivot and understand the no, and then that will get you to the ultimate yes.”“If we let that initial no to stop us or even try, we would not even get to the yes at all.”“It's better to get to that no and then you can move on to get one step closer to the yes.”“Practice makes perfect.”“Auditors always have to go to places where people are not welcoming.”“The key no and yes is do you have a vision for yourself to be the best you can be and reach your fullest potential.”“Start with something small that you don't have as much at stake.”“It always takes someone who knows you to see your potential.”Guests Social Media Links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-ho-859b751/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/policy_insights Website: http://www.policyinsights.us/ Website: https://www.elderresearch.com/people/christina-ho/ 

Top security stories of 2020 Aaron Boyd, Senior Editor at NextGov, and Jason Miller, Executive Editor for Federal News Network, discuss major news from the year, including the SolarWinds hack and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification

Last week, officials revealed that hackers gained access to a third-party vendor widely used by the government, affecting agencies including Commerce, Treasury and Energy. As more news has come in about the intrusion, House committees have announced investigations, but the full extent of the incident are not yet known. Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of GovExec sibling site Nextgov. He joined the show to discuss the latest on the hack and the implications for government cybersecurity.

A new incoming presidential administration can mean different priorities upon taking power and the Biden White House could reorient American tech policy in many ways. With cybersecurity, online disinformation and other tech issues looking as increasingly important, the incoming administration can reshape information technology and internet policy when it takes office. Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of Nextgov. He wrote about a recent report on the Biden administration’s tech priorities and joined the podcast to discuss what a Biden White House might plan for tech policy.

Few publications have stood the test of time. SC Media is one that, over the decades, has continued to improve, expand and align with industry needs. And its new editor-in-chief, Jill Aitoro, has plans to keep it moving forward.In addition to her role at SC Media, Jill is also the editorial director at CyberRisk Alliance, where she supports content development for the Cybersecurity Collaborative network of chief information security officers. Jill is an experienced journalist and editor who has held leadership positions at numerous business, government and technology brands, leading several through digital transformations. Prior to joining the CyberRisk Alliance, she worked at Sightline Media as editor of Defense News and executive editor of the Business-to-Government Group, guiding and developing the editorial strategy for federal outlets and the cyber brand Fifth Domain. She previously worked for Washington Business Journal and Nextgov, covering federal technology, contracting and policy. She recently joined Look Left’s Davida Dinerman on the Look Left @ Marketing Podcast to talk about a wide range of cybersecurity topics.01:44 - Careers Jill might have pursued if she hadn’t chosen publishing02:50 - Why SC Media and CyberRisk Alliance felt like the right move for Jill05:29 - Cybersecurity is the underlying factor to innovation 06:57 - Companies are beginning to view cybersecurity as a business driver08:46 - Cybersecurity lessons the public and private sectors can learn from one another 10:45 - The changes affecting cybersecurity professionals. 13:23 - What Jill’s most pleased with, in terms of SC’s coverage16:45 - A preview on SC’s annual Women in Security feature20:33 - Factors contributing to the cybersecurity skills gap22:50 - The evolving nature of cybersecurity and trends 22:48 - TikTok and the difficult balance of access to data and cybersecurity27:31- Cybersecurity predictions for the coming year29:21 - Advice for PR pros working with the SC and CyberRisk Alliance

Living in space presents many problems. NASA and other national space agencies have spent billions of dollars on creating a livable environment on the International Space Station, which includes the very normal need to use the bathroom.  NASA  is sending a resupply mission this week to the International Space Station that includes a new, updated space toilet for the astronauts living on the ISS. Nextgov's Brandi Vincent is covering the story and she joined the program to talk about the new toilet. 

There are many jobs in the public sector that mirror those in the private sector and vice versa, but even when controlling for the similarities, the employees have a different experience with job satisfaction. In fact, according to a new study by Forrester Research, public sector employees’ satisfaction level with their jobs is affecting the way public servants are engaging with their work. Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of Nextgov. He wrote about the report and he joined the program to discuss how the federal government can make work more engaging for employees.

NASA’s iconic Apollo program was about landing humans safely on the moon and returning them back to Earth. The agency’s contemporary missions—like Artemis, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon—are focused on one thing: going beyond. The final episode of Nextgov’s Critical Update, Season 6 explores what those forthcoming missions will entail, the evolution of commercial companies’ roles in NASA’s missions, what water ice on the moon could mean for the future of our journeys deeper into the solar system—and more.

Legacy IT has been an issue for federal agencies for a while now. But with the coronavirus crisis forcing agencies to remote work and more government servicing moving online, the import of upgrading these old systems has come to the fore. New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan wrote to agencies asking about their plans to upgrade.  Nextgov’s Mila Jasper and Heather Kuldell. joined the podcast to discuss the responses – and non-responses – to Hassan’s letter and the fate of legacy IT in government.

Can federal agencies and hackers work together to improve security? Vulnerability disclosure programs—a path for security researchers, a.k.a hackers, to report bugs and issues—are old hat to the tech industry but would be new ground for most of the U.S. federal government. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been working on a directive for such a program, though public comments show an uneasiness from some federal officials. Nextgov spoke to some seasoned vulnerability disclosure coordinators, and Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., to get a deeper understanding of what’s behind the pending policy and give implementers a glimpse of what lies in store.

Cybersecurity is paramount for the U.S. government, as breaches are almost constant on U.S. systems. The need for more cybersecurity infrastructure and software has never been greater. The Pentagon is trying to do something about it, by working within a DevSecOps initiative that utilizes continuous engineering. Nextgov's Mariam Baksh covers cybersecurity and she has a story on this program on Nextgov now. She’s joined the show to talk about what the Defense Department is doing in the DevSecOps lane. 

In March, thousands of government employees and contractors were told to stop coming to their workplaces and start working from their homes. The telework edict from OMB changed a lot about the way government services are done, including the all-important customer service. Frank Konkel is the Executive Editor of GovExec sibling site Nextgov. He’s got a story on their site now about how the government contact center world is changing during the pandemic and he joined the GovExec Daily to talk about these massive changes.

General Services Administration cancels Alliant 2 small business contract Emily Murphy, Administrator of the General Services Administration, provides updates from the General Services Administration about the Alliant 2 small business contract, leadership changes, and reopening strategy The future of governmentwide acquisition contracts Jason Miller, Executive Editor of Federal News Network, and Aaron Boyd, Senior Editor at Nextgov, react to the cancelation of the Alliant 2 small business contract and discuss what they expect to see happen in the future

As governments of all sizes respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic, scientists and researchers at U.S. national laboratories are harnessing advanced technologies—and creating new networks of collaboration—in the global fight against COVID-19. In addition to their own work with gene-editing and advanced modeling, the labs are opening up their cutting-edge systems and supercomputers to other scientists through the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. Nextgov’s Brandi Vincent talks with the Energy Department’s Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar, Director of IBM Research Dario Gil, Argonne National Laboratory’s Rick Stevens, and Sandia National Laboratories’ Joe Schoeniger and Oscar Negrete. 

Before the end of the year, the Defense Department intends to finalize a rule change that will require any contractor it engages with to have obtained a certification of its cybersecurity practices from an approved external auditor. The program—known as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification—looks to eventually cover 300,000 contractors and subcontractors, many of which are anxiously waiting for the costs and details. Nextgov’s Mariam Baksh dives into the issue with DOD’s Katie Arrington, CEO of the Professional Services Council David Berteau, senior vice president of policy for the Information Technology Industry Council Gordon Bitko and principal director of strategic programs at the National Defense Industrial Association Corbin Evans.

Camille Tuutti is a journalist and editorial consultant working with Fortune 500 technology companies to elevate their content and thought leadership to better reach and resonate with a government audience. She has spent the latter part of the decade leading some of Washington, D.C.'s top federal IT publications. Camille most recently served as editor-in-chief of GovernmentCIO Media, a publication for the tech-minded executive. She was hand-picked to relaunch and reinvigorate the brand and lead its thought leadership and coverage on the transformation of government IT. Before joining the publication in June 2017, she was executive editor at Nextgov, a division of Atlantic Media, where she was charged with the editorial vision and strategy. She came to Nextgov from Fedscoop, where she served as editorial director. Prior to that, Camille was a reporter at FCW for nearly three years, covering topics such as workforce, government oversight and government technology. Camille began her D.C. journalism career covering government contracting as well as federal policy and cybersecurity. She came to D.C. after living in New York City, London and Stockholm, where she was born and raised. Although D.C. is her home base, Camille travels globally to consult with international clients. #TalkingTalent #LifeIS Connect with Camille: www.tuuttifrutti.com Twitter: @camilletuutti LinkedIn: /camilletuutti --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Friday, May 1, 20204:20 pm: Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter for the Washington Examiner joins the show to discuss how other countries, particularly Sweden, have handled the coronavirus4:35 pm: Julie Kelly, Senior Contributor at American Greatness joins the show for a conversation about her piece on former national security advisor Mike Flynn and how he has been betrayed by the U.S. government6:05 pm: Dr. Kevin Pham, a former fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a contributor to the Daily Signal, joins Rod to discuss the concept of herd immunity and how it might eventually help stem the tide of the coronavirus6:20 pm:Emily Kleber, a Hazards Geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, joins Rod to discuss the results of a new study that puts the Wasatch Fault into much sharper focus allowing scientists to better understand how a large magnitude earthquake could affect the valley6:35 pm: We’ll listen back to Rod’s conversations this week with Jim Geraghty, Senior Political Correspondent with National Review, on how Americans may soon be leaving big cities to live a more rural existence, and (at 6:50 pm) with Frank Konkel, Executive Editor of Nextgov, on how a new survey shows U.S. workers are feeling burned out

Rod Arquette Show Daily Rundown - Monday, April 27, 20204:20 pm: Dr. Scott Atlas, a Senior Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, joins Rod to discuss why he says it’s time to stop panicking and end the isolation that’s come with the coronavirus4:35 pm: Former Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes is now the only candidate for Governor in Utah to earn his way onto the ballot without gathering signatures and he joins Rod to discuss why he says he calls his campaign a “Cinderella story”6:05 pm: David Woolstenhulme, interim Utah Commissioner of Higher Education, joins the show to discuss the steps that will need to be taken for universities in the state to reopen in the fall6:20 pm:Frank Konkel, Executive Editor of Nextgov, joins Rod for a conversation about his recent piece on why American workers are feeling burned out6:35 pm: Jim Geraghty, Senior Political Correspondent for National Review joins the show for a conversation about what he calls “the de-urbanization of America” where people leave big cities for a more rural living situation

Suzette Kent, U.S. Chief Information Officer, discusses what her colleagues across government have learned from the pandemic, challenges they have been faced with, and successes they have had Justin Doubleday, Managing Editor at Inside the Pentagon, and Frank Konkel, Executive Editor of Nextgov, provide insight into the JEDI contract award and the controversy surrounding it

With the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation—and the world—federal employees and contractors are dealing with unprecedented times while trying to work from home. To kick off Critical Update Season 5, Nextgov reporters came together for a roundtable discussion of our latest reporting on how the federal IT workforce is dealing with COVID-19 and leading the charge in response to a global crisis. GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz also breaks down how the stimulus bill affects the federal workforce. Sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton

The latest on the JEDI contract recompete Frank Konkel, Executive Editor at Nextgov, discusses the recompete of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract and the Pentagon’s decision to reevaluate the contract Improving the health intelligence infrastructure Ron Marks, President at ZPN National Security and Cyber Strategies, identifies weaknesses in health intelligence and explains how to build up the infrastructure in response to the coronavirus How contractors can prepare for the coronavirus David Berteau, President and CEO of the Professional Services Council, gives key takeaways for contractors from the coronavirus pandemic and details how contractors should approach the situation

Frank Konkel, executive editor of Nextgov, Adam Mazmanian, executive editor of FCW and Leo Shane III, deputy editor of Military Times, detail what top stories they’re looking to cover next year. Jessie Bur, associate editor of Federal Times, Nicole Ogrysko, workforce & personnel reporter at Federal News Network, and Emily Wilkins, congressional reporter at Bloomberg Government, discuss what they’re looking at when it comes to the federal workforce in the new year. Lauren Williams, staff writer at FCW, Valerie Insinna, air warfare reporter at Defense News and Sara Sirota, associate editor of Inside the Air Force, discuss what they’re tracking in defense as we enter a new year.

Jason Miller from Federal News Network and Frank Konkel from Nextgov discuss the background of the JEDI decision, and what they’ll be following as the contract goes into effect. Former DISA CTO Dave Mihelcic discusses the impacts that enterprise cloud will have on IT at the Pentagon, and what it will provide for warfighters. Lauren Brier, associate attorney for Government Contracting & Litigation at PilieroMazza, Stan Soloway, president & CEO of Celero Strategies, and Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement discuss what happens post-award for JEDI, and the precedent set by the enormous contract.

If 4G networks connected everyone, 5G promises to connect everything—self-driving cars, service robots, wearable devices and sensors. But with more connectivity comes greater cyber risk and serious national security questions about network infrastructure, including how Chinese telecoms fit in. Nextgov talks to former Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler, current FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and former National Security Council Senior Director for Strategic Planning Robert Spalding about risks, benefits and whether America can keep the edge it established during the 4G boom.   Sponsored by Raytheon

Andy and Dave discuss the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office under the U.S. Department of Energy. DARPA announces Context Reasoning for Autonomous Teaming (CREATE), a new program to investigate team between groups of systems that have limited centralized coordination. Defense One and Nextgov sponsored a one-day “Genius Machines” conference in Hawaii, where it was revealed that AI is being developed to predict Chinese and Russian movement in the Pacific. MIT Lincoln Lab releases a large data set for public safety, which includes images of flooding and other disasters. And a video appears to show a Tesla driver asleep in a moving car. Finally, Russia expert Sam Bendett joins Andy and Dave to discuss his latest article in Defense One, on the draft of the Russian AI strategy. Click here to visit our website and explore the links mentioned in the episode. 

Salary caps, lengthy onboarding and rigid career ladders have historically made it hard for federal agencies to recruit top cyber talent, and as threats increase, the competition is only going to get stiffer. Nextgov talks to Homeland Security Department’s Chief Human Capital Officer Angela Bailey and former undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate Suzanne Spaulding about the challenges the agency faces when recruiting cybersecurity pros and how officials have tried to overcome them.    Sponsored by Raytheon

How the Army is addressing the housing crisis Jordan Gillis, principal deputy assistant secretary for Installations, Energy & Environment at the U.S. Army, discusses the Army’s efforts to fix housing for servicemembers and their families. The Pentagon Beat – August 14, 2019 Billy Mitchell, editor in chief at FedScoop and Frank Konkel, executive editor of Nextgov, discuss the multiple JEDI contract reviews happening at the Pentagon, and how it could impact the acquisition. Researcher develops program to prevent hearing loss in the Navy Sammies 2019 finalist Kurt Yankaskas, Noise Induced Hearing Loss Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research, discusses his work developing better hearing protection for sailors, and how new technology can play a role.

Michael Rigas, deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, discusses why OPM is pushing for better employee standards, and how agencies can better reward high-performing workers. Stephanie Shutt, director of the Multiple Award Schedule Program at GSA, details how the initiative is progressing, and what it means for future procurements. Frank Konkel, executive editor of NextGov, and Lauren Williams, staff writer at FCW, discuss the Department of Defense’s new plan for digital modernization, and what it means for the Pentagon CIO office.

“If you care about people, they’ll care about their work,” Labor Department Director of Employee Engagement Kristin McNally told Nextgov. Figuring out clever ways to engage employees can pay off big for agencies. Engaged employees perform better, but in the long run, the agency wins by being able to retain great workers.

In the latest episode of Critical Update, USDA’s Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, Bill Northey, joins Nextgov’s Brandi Vincent to highlight how the agency is leveraging new technologies to enhance its service to farmers and producers across America. For Northey, such an endeavor—continuing to operate while simultaneously making improvements and introducing new tech—is “like driving a car down the road 70 miles an hour and changing your tire at the same time.” You can read more about USDA’s modernization efforts and its centerpiece—Farmers.gov—on Nextgov.

The Pentagon’s research wing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was created when Russia launched Sputnik and the U.S. had no response. And within DARPA, the Defense Sciences Office tackles big, forward-looking technology issues so the country is never caught off guard by another “technology surprise.” Nextgov’s Jack Corrigan chats with DSO Director Valerie Browning to discuss the implications of machines that can think for themselves, when we should expect our first personal quantum computer and why more money doesn’t always mean more results when it comes to government research.

On this episode of Blunt Force Truth, Chuck and Mark arejoined by Megan Cloherty and Jack Moore, the hosts of the new podcast called 22 Hours: An American Nightmare. Their podcast is now available on PodcastOne. Chuck and Mark find out what drove Megan and Jack to create a series around this specific incident and what to expect from the podcast. Megan and Jack explain the mysteries that surround the D.C. mansion murders. Also, Megan and Jack give some hints into what listeners can expect. They share some of the aspects of the murders that they will cover in detail and even tease a few of the big reveals on their podcast. More about Megan Cloherty and Jack Moore: Megan Cloherty is a multimedia reporter, turning daily audio and video stories for WTOP. Since 2011, Cloherty has been covering breaking news, specializing in crimes and courts for WTOP. Before transitioning to multimedia journalism, Cloherty spent eight years as a TV reporter, most recently at CNN Newsource in Washington, D.C., and for WDAF Fox 4 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her first market was Medford, Oregon, where she took the opportunity to explore the west coast, learning about wineries and the agriculture of the region. Cloherty collects the majority of her stories on her iPhone and edits them remotely on mobile for WTOP and CBS News. A native of Bethesda, Maryland, Cloherty graduated from Walter Johnson High School and the University of Missouri where she studied Broadcast Journalism. She earned her master’s in Interactive Journalism atAmerican University in 2012. Jack Moore joined WTOP.com as a digital writer/editor in July 2016. Previous to his current role, he covered federal government management and technology as the news editor at Nextgov.com, part of Government Executive Media Group. A graduate of Ohio State University, he also worked as a digital reporter and editor for WTOP.com’s sisterstation, FederalNewsRadio.com. Connect with Megan Cloherty and Jack Moore: Website: https://www.podcastone.com/22-hours-an-american-nightmare& https://wtop.com/22-hours-an-american-nightmare-podcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/22HoursPod & https://twitter.com/wtop Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wtopnews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wtopnews/ Don’t forget to leave us a voicemail for the chance to have it played on a future episode. You can do so by clicking the link. https://bluntforcetruth.com/voicemail/ Also, check out the store on our website to get your own Blunt Force Truth gear. https://store.bluntforcetruth.com/

Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal discusses his office’s latest report to Congress, and the recommendations they make regarding leadership and governance at the agency. A panel of industry experts share their views on the OMB data strategy action items, and what it means for chief data officers, contractors, and overall data use in government. Aaron Boyd, Senior Editor of NextGov and Jason Miller, executive editor at Federal News Network, discuss the growing retirement backlog, the draft federal data strategy and Technology Modernization Fund appropriations.

The Defense Digital Service has a simple motto: Get shit done. But within the government's largest agency, that’s easier said than done. Nextgov’s Aaron Boyd talks to then-Director Chris Lynch (who announced he would leave government shortly after our interview) and former Chief of Staff and current Hack the Pentagon program manager Reina Staley about the projects and challenges the team has been working on since its inception in 2015.

The U.S. Digital Service doesn’t work on just one project: Its teams tackle governmentwide projects and drop in to help with specific agency tasks. Nextgov’s Aaron Boyd talked to Director of Engineering David Holmes, software engineer Alberto Colon Viera, and digital service experts Misu Tasnim and Scott Haselton to learn how they push the government’s old systems to modern technology and how they build partnerships with federal employees.

Read the complete transcript on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. JAMES' FINAL TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "Know your industry and market, get to know the people, the companies, the buyers and sellers. It's as easy as spending 30 minutes a day reading the trade magazines, combing through LinkedIn or Twitter, or listening to a podcast to get the latest news trends and information." James Hanson is the VP and Publisher of Nextgov, the federal technology media division of Government Executive Media Group. Formerly, he was at Connelly Works and at Defense News. Find James on LinkedIn!  

Facebook’s mantra may be “move fast and break stuff” but the federal government doesn’t work like that. Change can be an uphill battle with regulations, compliance checklists and oversight often slowing things down even more. So what does innovation in government look like? Nextgov asked Alla Seiffert, director of cloud policy and counsel at the Internet Association, and Molly Cain, founder of GovCity, both former federal officials who had innovation in their titles.

Brian Harrell, assistant director for infrastructure security at CISA, outlines their efforts to increase security at schools and other “soft targets” Brent Calhoon, partner at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, discusses risk management in defense contracting, and the importance of cooperation between contracting officers and contractors. Brandi Vincent, staff correspondent at Nextgov, and Lauren Williams, staff writer for FCW, discuss one former federal CIO’s AI recommendations, and what the Air Force’s cognitive engine means for software tools at the branch.

What is a green car?  It might surprise you. So be sure to listen in today. Today I will unpack the problems with our new junior Senator Maggie Hassan. Yea, she hired someone who stole gigabytes of high-value data. What do you think of Facial recognition?  Well, I will discuss some of the problems with the FBI facial recognition program. WiFi? Is it bad for your health? I will talk about what a new study out of the Czech Republic found.   If you think that by going to the cloud, your business is going to be safe, you have another thing coming to you. I will explain why in today's show. Amazon? Wow, I can't believe they're doing this with books. If you have not heard about this, listen in. There are a number of mental health apps available for your tablets and smartphones. Do you know what data they share?  It may surprise you. For all this and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Transcript: Below is a rush transcript of this segment; it might contain errors. Airing date: 04/27/2019 Driving A Tesla Increases CO2 Emissions - Sen Hassan Aid Stole Gigabytes Of Data Craig Peterson 0:03  Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here. We're about to get started with another one of our Saturday shows heard every Saturday morning here on these iHeart Radio broadcast channels. Yes, terrestrial radio. And I also have it out online. You can find it all at http://Craig Peterson.com. Well, today we are going to be covering a couple of articles that I think might be a bit of a surprise to you. One of them has to do with green cars. Now, if you've known me for a long time, you know that green cars aren't green. But but there's a study out we're going to talk about that yet another study, remember the one that said that the Hummer H2 was actually, no it was the H1 was actually greener than the Toyota Prius, while the new study up right here in New Hampshire, that's where I'm located Senator Hassan, her aid, stole gigabytes of high-value data. So we'll talk about that. And what happens when a business or in this case a government agency, has one of their employees go rogue? The FBI facial recognition program is under fire. WiFi? Is it bad for your health? A new study out and a very interesting article from the Czech Republic on that. If you think that by going to the cloud, your business is going to be safe. You have another thing coming to you. New research out on that. Amazon? Wow, I can't believe they're doing this with books. You might have heard about this with 1984 that George Orwell book a little while ago. Well, there's a whole lot here we're going to talk about. And mental health apps, and what data are they actually sharing. So here we go with all of our news that's fit for today. Craig 2:02 So first up today, let's talk about driving your Tesla. Now they are cool. And I had a really interesting discussion with one of my daughters. She lives in Norway right now. She's running a huge project, autonomous ships for Kongsberg, which is just a huge shipping company. They well they make the controls and stuff for shipping. They just bought Rolls Royce marine here a few months back. And I was talking to her about Teslas because electric cars get a special subsidy in Norway. Now, here in the US, Tesla has already reached the 200,000 car mark. And the idea behind this was that they would provide, the federal government would provide extra money to help subsidize the purchase of electric cars, not just Teslas. But once they hit the 200,000 car mark, that subsidy would go away. And some of the Democrats in Congress are pretty busy right now trying to figure out how can they re-establish that deal, get that deal going again. And they may end up doing that. Well in Norway, they have similar things where the government is subsidizing electric vehicles, and to a very large point, because in Norway, right away, you don't have to pay the sales tax, which is 25% sales tax. Imagine that. And then it's a VAT, too. So it's not just the sales tax when you buy it, but there's sales tax every time a product changes hands, from manufacturing parts through distribution through the final retailer, and then you. So things are just crazy expensive there. And they have a great free market economy. Don't get me wrong, they are not a socialist country. None of the Scandinavian countries are socialist, but they are very heavily taxed and they do have a lot of government programs. So they were talking about getting rid of this subsidy, effectively a subsidy for electric cars, Tesla stock went down. And there's a lot of reasons it goes up and down, right? Well, here in the US what's the reason everybody seems to be giving for an electric car. Why do they want these electric vehicles? What's the big deal? Why does it matter? Well, here in the US, they're telling us this story that while it's more green, there's less carbon that goes into the atmosphere. And it's just it's a wonderful thing. And every Friday night, we get together all of us electric car owners, and we lock arms and we sing Kumbaya, right? And it's all because it's green. They're just wonderful vehicles. And you know that there's obviously some miss truths to that, let me put it that way. And in fact, there are there, it's just not true. And that's what the studies showing. In Norway, they're much more saying about this. And Norway, they're saying, hey, yeah, that these electric cars are not more green. But what we're trying to do is prevent the pollution in our environment, in our environment here in Norway. So we don't want these cars to, to be emitting all of this nastiness and trucks and things. We just want electric vehicles, we don't care that they're made in China and Japan, and that shipped all over, we don't care about the pollution they're causing worldwide and the fact that the recycling this stuff. It's just it's hazardous, right. But what we care about is we have clean air. Now, that to me, is a legitimate argument. I think there are legitimate arguments might be its cool technology. And the other argument might well be that you know, the air here tends to be a little bit cleaner. Now, of course, they're dumping all of the crap that there, their byproducts making these batteries in these cars. They're dumping them in the ocean in China and into the air and eventually gets here, all of this plastic in the ocean that's coming from these third world countries and communist countries that just don't care about it. Right. So this article is absolutely fascinating. And it's saying that driving a Tesla results in more CO2 than our Mercedes diesel does. So think about that for a minute. Diesel's have gotten a really bad name lately, because of some cheating that was done on an emissions test. Now, I put that cheating in air quotes, you saw that, right? If you're watching this http://CraigPeterson.com/YouTube. You saw me do that? Well, the reason I do that is the diesel's are it's a different type of emission. And when the engine is cold, they run different currently, then when the engine is warm, or when it's hot. And some of these tests that were being done by our EPA and the European Union, don't really give the diesel vehicles credit. And you know, Europe, if you've been there, if you've rented a car, even if you were driven around, you notice most of the cars were diesel, because, in fact, a lot of the gases that are emitted by the vehicles, it's better if it's diesel, it washes down more quickly out of the atmosphere. But they're worried about the nitrous oxide and some other things that can cause problems for some people. So you know, hey, I get that. So hydrogen methane technology that is being used right now in the new diesel's has made a huge, huge difference. So if you look at this a little bit closer here, I'm going to pull this article right up on the desk area go see now you can see it on YouTube on http://CraigPeterson.com/YouTube. Craig 8:02 It's touted as a zero-emission vehicle. Now we're talking about the Tesla Model 3, but in actuality, it creates more carbon dioxide dumped more into the air than a comparable diesel-powered car. And it's I love this article, when the CO2 emissions from the battery productions included, electric cars like Teslas are, in the best case slightly higher. We're talking about CO2 emissions here, in the best case, Teslas have slightly higher emissions of CO2 then a diesel engine, and our otherwise much higher and this is from a German Think Tank. And it's just absolutely fascinating here Daily Caller article that we're quoting from, and I love this picture they have of the Model 3 in the car show here in Toronto. So they looked electric car production in Germany, it's heavily reliant on coal power, we're in the US, of course, we burn coal, we burn wood, we have things that the left really hates, like, heaven forbid, we have nuclear power, which is course, frankly, the cleanest of all. And if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, we get off of their hands, and use some of this new nuclear technology that was invented here, 30 years ago, we would be in incredible shape, there'd be almost no nuclear waste at all, because we can re-burn it and certain types of reactors and things but people just got completely scared about it. California is requiring automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions in cars, producing lower emission vehicles buying credits, which is making people like Al Gore very rich right? At the federal level, the US government's giving you a $7500 per electric vehicle tax break. It's it just goes on and on. A study here from the University of Cologne, talking about what they found in responsible energy, which forgets it, right, and who wants responsible energy policies, it's just not out there right now. But a study released to 2018 also found that driving electric cars might come with higher emissions of diesel vehicles, largely because of the lithium-ion production. For those that are unaware. This lithium most of its harvested in Quebec, NASA uses the area for miles, hundreds of square miles around the lithium battery mine, if you will. NASA uses it for testing lunar landings because there is no life at all. And then that is shipped off over to China for pre-processing and shipped to Japan, to turn it into a type of foam, is shipped back to China to finalize the battery components, shipped back to the US to be installed in the Tesla. Think about all of the carbon dioxides from that. A Manhattan Institute study from Tony teen found that putting more electric cars on the road would likely increase emissions compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. Now, you know that I have a libertarian band. So part of my dislike of this whole thing is that you know, come on people bottom line. Why should the government be the one that's deciding that's what the next best technology is going to be? Does that make any sense to you really doesn't make any sense that the government should be deciding, hey, listen, we're going to bet your tax money on electric vehicles rather than hydrogen fuel cells or some of these other technologies that might win. Again, let the private sector decide. And this is yet another area that our government has become socialist with a government trying to control the means production, the types of production, trying to incentivize it, etc, etc, right? Stuff that I obviously just don't agree with. But I guess you guys already know that. Right? Okay. Craig 12:12 So next up, let's see if I can make this work here for YouTube. That's http://CraigPeterson.com/YouTube, I think it was this key combination. That didn't work. Yeah, I'm doing something wrong. So what I'm going to do is this, because I'm pretty sure that will work. Yes, there you go. Okay, so now you can see the article. This is from the Daily Caller, this is former senator has a son from New Hampshire, you know who she is what her one of her former aides now is in very, very much trouble. Now we know the Democrats have been, I'm going to say it, I'm going to say it out. Because this is true. They have been stupid when it comes to their IT people, they have not hired, in most cases, the people they should have hired, and we got a listener out there. So hat tip to Guy if you're listening, who have decided that because I keep talking about these problems with security, that he's going to take up a career in security. So he signed up for this six-month course, kind of getting started in cybersecurity. Once he's done with that, it'll take a year or so of him having real-life experience in it, and then he'll be really quite good. But man alive here, they missed all kinds of red flags about what this guy was doing. But here's the bottom line. This is a plea agreement that he did sign apparently extraordinary, extensive data theft scheme is what it was called. He installed keylogging devices that picked up every keystroke on these machines. So a keylogger, in case you're not aware, if you're using a keyboard, with a USB cable, and then that USB cable plugs into the back of your computer, as someone can insert on the back of that computer, one of these keyloggers and the way this keylogger ends up working is that you're typing your keys, and they're all being intercepted by this little USB device. So you might want to right away, especially if you are democrat senator, apparently, you might want to right away go and check the back of your computer and see if there if your keyboard is plugged in directly. Now, you know, if you watch for a while I use Macs, right? So here's an example of the mouse I use. And on the Mac, it's Bluetooth wireless, but it also has available here, a USB port, right? It's actually one of Apple's proprietary port. And I have the also the keyboard here. This is what I'm using on my iMac, in fact, to control the video that we're creating for YouTube on that iMac. So that's what that's all about right there. Okay, and that was really nice. It's really handy. But what Apple does is everything is super-encrypted. In fact, in order for me to configure this trackpad to my Mac, I have to plug it in via cable. It does some handshaking it automatically configured the iMac for this trackpad or this keyboard. Same things true for laptops of using external devices. So Apple has gone the extra extra mile. Craig 15:39 If you're using a regular Bluetooth keyboard like here's my other computer here. This is a standard older Mac, keyboard, and mouse I have it in the mount. So it's all together. But this uses regular Bluetooth and regular Bluetooth has encryption as well. So typically, generally speaking, your Bluetooth is going to be safer than using a wired keyboard or wired mouse because you can install these keyloggers right so that's kind of what I was getting at here. Craig 16:16  So back to our friend here at senator Hassan's office. What she did is or he did I should say is he installed these keyloggers so they usually have to come back to get back keylogger in order to read it. But remember, if you're typing on your computer, what are you typing? Oh, a username and a password. And usually, those are pretty well identifiable pretty easily identifiable. So apparently, Jackson Cosko worked with an unnamed accomplice and other Hassan employee who reportedly lent him a key that he used to enter the office at night and who allegedly tried to destroy evidence for him after the fact. So Cosko accepted responsibility for the events revealed by federal prosecutors in court last Friday. Apparently was doing it from July and October. But he really did a lot more than that. It kind of goes on here in this article from the Daily Caller, he sneaked into her office, reportedly multiple times at night gathered dozens of gigabytes of data, including usernames and passwords belonging to Senate employees, okay, like really come on guys. Tens of thousands of emails, internal documents, credit card information blog, the Senate employee social security numbers, blah, blah, blah. So be careful out there. These IT people are not what they appear to be in many cases. And of course, the huge thing with the Democrats. And I couldn't believe how they responded when it was disclosed that Wasserman Schultz's IT people had had just committed me incredible crimes all the way across the board. And she was throwing the tantrum or when they tried to investigate. In fact, I don't think the FBI ever got to fully investigate this thing. Craig 18:10  So anyhow, keep an eye on your IT people. Make sure you know who they are. Make sure they're of good character. It's easy enough to do basic background check nowadays, you can get them done for 20, 30 bucks online, just check in public record and make sure they look okay. Okay. And it's difficult. I get it. It's difficult to hire the right person. because, frankly, how do you know who the right person is? What do you know about IT? What do you know about security, it's difficult, you got to find somebody that's been in a long time. Craig 18:43  Alright, so next up, let's talk about this FBI problem here. This is from NextGov.com. I'll put it up on my screen here http://CraigPeterson.com/YouTube. Of course, you guys the audio guys listen to the podcast. And here on iHeart Radio as well. You guys are my primary audience. Okay. But if you want to see some of these articles, I put them up here on the screen. But this is huge. The FBI reportedly has ignored, for the most part, the GAO, the Government Accountability Offices concerned over its use of facial recognition technology, in criminal investigations, its new technology, its kinda neat. They can scan all kinds of public cameras and photos as well as records, the FBI has to try and find suspects and close cases. That part's fine. But apparently, what they've been doing is they're pulling from a database of more than 30 million mug shots and other photos. And while they're doing this, they're looking for matches, right? Doesn't that make sense? And they're trying to find the matches, they're trying to get the right people, but they get bad matches, they get mismatches with people who were nowhere in the area. Okay, I get that. You figure it out, right, and you take care of it. But apparently what they've been doing is they have been going after them and prosecuting and trying to get convictions. The auditors and the GAO recommended that the FBI tests the accuracy of these things at least once a year, make improvements, etc, that are very interesting. So if you're charged nowadays by the FBI or local prosecutor, what's the right thing to do? Because you weren't in the area. You didn't do it. Are they going to convict you on bad evidence now because they trust the computer so much? I don't know. Craig 20:49   Okay, so next up from the TechRepublic, we got an article about WiFi, how many people complain about WiFi saying it's bad for our health? Well, another study out and I've been saying this for a long time. And man that I feel bad one time I was keynoting at an annual event for it was for a bank. And I was their keynote speaker for their annual shareholder's meeting and talked about the future of technology. Where it's going? What's happening? And a lady came up to me and said, so what do you think about radiation from phones, from cell phones? And I said, well, you know, I've been an advanced class amateur radio operator for many, many decades. I have had a lot of radiation from these radios exposed to me, I've never had anything happen. And most of the studies that have been done about ham radio operators have said, hey, there's nothing definitive about a problem. So bottom line, you know, doesn't really matter. It's not a big deal, that you have this happening. And then she said, you know, you can see the tears welling up in her eyes. And she says, Well, I think it was her husband had been diagnosed with cancer. And they said that it was because he had the phone up to his head all the time using it at work. And that work should be paying for all this medical treatment and, and pain and suffering and stuff. And man made me feel really bad. But the truth is, there are no strong ties between these various types of radiation. And the biggest problem I think people have is a misunderstanding. We call it radiation. But this isn't x rays. This isn't, you know, the radiation you get from outer space, it is non-ionizing radiation. And radiation from a scientific definition is just energy moving through space, it's not a big deal. So these new WiFi devices that are going to be rolled out all over the country for 5G, they're going to be everywhere. And that's one of the reasons you can get such high data rates. They are everywhere. And so you're going to be close to them. Even mount them on our houses, on telephone poles are going to be just everywhere. But the RF signals, these radio frequency signals that are generated by WiFi, by Bluetooth, by your phones, in any device that's sold legally in the US is tested. And you know, I'm not one for trusting government testing necessarily, right. But in reality, the safety limits are just incredible. You know, you're talking about 500 milliwatts, and I have routinely been transmitting at 50 watts, which is a lot more power, and I haven't experienced any problems and, and 100 watts on some of the HF bands and even higher. So studies just, there was one of University of Barcelona, looking at RF exposure of children, ages 8 to 18 in Europe over three day period, WiFi represented 4% of total RF exposure. 62% of the RF exposure came from cellular base stations. 23% from broadcast TV and radio. And 10% from a nearby cell phone. So the exposure is approximate point .001% of that of the safety limits imposed by the European Commission, which is even tighter than here in the US. So back to this article, again, TechRepublican on http://CraigPeterson.com. You'll see it. WiFi is just not bad for your health. Craig 24:45 So we're going to whip through a couple more here pretty quickly because we only have a couple of minutes left. If you think that switching over to cloud services is going to make you safe. I'm afraid there's another thing coming for you. Because right now cloud services are the Wild West. And various cloud services have various amounts of safety with them, if you will, they have really kind of an abysmal record. You think about all of these huge data breaches that have happened on the cloud recently. And it's incredible, like 2 billion records found on the cloud from one of these cloud services providers just in the last couple of months. So just because you're using Office 365, or you're using some other type of cloud services, Salesforce.com, etc, does not mean it's safe. Now, I'm not saying that they aren't relatively safe, but there's a new study out. And this is from the global phish report from Avanan. And they looked at 55 million emails sent to Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite account. Those are the big guys. If you have an email for your business, you're probably either with Office 365, or Google G Suite. And they found roughly 1% of all messages or phishing threats that use malicious attachments or links. And of those, 25% that were marked safe by the Exchange Online protection built into Office 365. And delivered to us. So just a little word of warning there. Just because you're using the cloud service does not mean that your emails are safe. Craig 26:31 I've got to bring this one up too. Amazon, they are burning books. And I don't know what to do about this. You know, remember Jeff Bezos said that he was going to be you know, open, they sell any books, he wanted the exchange of ideas, which is, of course, a very libertarian classic liberal way of doing things. But now apparently he is removing books from the store. We know already that he has removed books from people's iPads etc. So in February this year, they banned a number of books from white identitarian Jared Taylor, a book called The White Nationalist Manifesto by Greg Johnson. You may completely disagree with these guys. Right. But again, they need to have their voices out there as part of the public debate. They also banned, had bans on Holocaust revisionists books in 2017, a purge of all books by the controversial pickup blogger and author Daryush Valizadeh, I guess it is. Many others, many others. Amazon's refused, by the way, to take down a book defending pedophilia on first amendment grounds. They have not removed certain books that are up there that are anti-christian, even though there have been complaints about them. So they got to get their act together. Craig 27:57 And if you're using a mental health app, you can see it on my screen here http://CraigPeterson.com/YouTube, be careful out there because of the data they're sharing. Alright, have a great week. I am out of time. We will chat next week and of course during the week as well on my podcasts. http://CraigPeterson.com/iTunes. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. ---  Related articles: Driving A Tesla Results In More CO2 Than A Mercedes Diesel Car, Study Finds Former NH Sen. Hassan Aide Stole Gigabytes Of ‘High Value’ Data Wi-Fi Is Not Actually Bad For Your Health, Scientists Say FBI’s Facial Recognition Programs Under Fire Over Privacy, Accuracy Concerns Using Cloud Email? Office 365? You’re Not Safe From Phishing Attacks Amazon Has Been On A Digital Book Burning Spree For Months That Mental Health App Might Share Your Data Without Telling You --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Robert Dacey, chief accountant at the Government Accountability Office, outlines a new report on the government’s finances, and why they’re “unsustainable.” Deborah Lee James, former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, discusses the branch’s request for funding to fix bases, and the news that Space Force won’t absorb non-Air Force space infrastructure. Aaron Boyd, senior editor of NextGov, details what’s new with the FBI’s Information Technology Enterprise Contract Support contract, and the growing use of general GSA schedules at agencies.

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy administrator for resilience at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, discusses lessons learned in disaster response, and how FEMA’s strategic plan is informing their development. Adam Mazmanian, executive editor of FCW, and Aaron Boyd, senior editor at NextGov, discuss developments with the Technology Modernization Fund, and what the future holds for the project. Lt. Gen. Robert Shea (USMC, Ret.), president & CEO at AFCEA International, and Vice Adm. Peter Daly (USN, Ret.), CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute, discuss trends from this year’s WEST 2019 conference, and the evolving relationship between industry and the U.S. Navy.

Upgrading from legacy systems to modern, nimble tech cost big bucks. And when it comes to federal government projects, that can mean billions of dollars on the line, plenty of pitfalls to avoid, and high stakes (like our nation's cybersecurity). Here are three Nextgov is watching closely. Defense Department’s JEDI Veterans Affairs Department’s electronic health records Homeland Security’s Continuous Monitoring and DIagnostics program

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The coming year will have a focus on procurement speed, Deltek Director of Federal Market Analysis Deniece Peterson and Senior Manager of Research Ashley Sanderson tell Nextgov’s Frank Konkel. Plus: the longer-term effects of the partial shutdown. Some helpful reading: The Devil’s in the Details as GSA Seeks to Consolidate the Multiple Award Schedules Agencies Spent $10.4B in 10 Years Using Other Transactions. Here's Where It Went. JEDI: One Year in the Pentagon’s Push for a Revolutionary Cloud

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) details why the role of the federal CIO needs to expand, and why he believes the United States needs a national artificial intelligence strategy. Antonio Doss, district director of the Small Business Administration Washington Metropolitan Area District Office, and Ann Sullivan, chief advocate at Women Impacting Public Policy, discuss the ChallengeHER initiative, and why it’s important to encourage women-led businesses to work with the federal government. Federal News Radio Reporter Nicole Ogrysko, FCW Cyber & Defense Reporter Lauren Williams, and Aaron Boyd, senior editor of NextGov, discuss this week’s top federal stories. Topics on this edition include the first Marine use of Other Transaction Authority, the Defense Department’s back-office cloud contract and the potential for a government shutdown.

Larry Snow with the Secure Transportation and Executive Protection News for Thursday, June 7th, 2018.   In Business of Executive Protection News From VentureBeat.Com LinkedIn now shows your commute times for prospective jobs Today, LinkedIn is rolling out a new feature that tells prospective candidates what their commute time would be for a specific role before they even apply. Read More     ======================= In Cyber Security News From BBC News Ransomware hits Atlanta police dashcam footage Years of video evidence gathered by police has been lost thanks to a ransomware attack on Atlanta in the US. Most of the lost evidence involves dashcam recordings, said Atlanta police chief Erika Shields in a local newspaper interview. The footage was "lost and cannot be recovered", said Ms Shields.   The hackers behind the infection, known as SamSam, encrypted key data and demanded $51,000 of bitcoins to unlock it. Atlanta said it had not paid the ransom. Read More  ====== And from NextGov.Com Mozilla Introduces DNS Privacy to Firefox From NextGov.Com Mozilla announced in a blog post on Friday that it would be introducing a new feature that could help preserve user privacy no matter where they browse.   Read More ==================== In Terrorism news Prince George gets more security after ISIS threat Two weeks ago a supporter of the Islamic state group, ISIS, went on trial in London. Husnain Rashid, a former mosque teacher in northwest England, was accused of encouraging attacks on Prince George. The threat on the boy’s life has resulted in more security for him at school and elsewhere. Last week, the ISIS supporter admitted his charges. Read More    =========  From Gizmodo.Com Homeland Security Wants New Powers to Surveil and Destroy Drones in U.S. Airspace The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is asking Congress to pass new legislation that would expand the agency’s power to surveil, research, and attack drones in U.S. airspace. Hayley Chang, DHS deputy general counsel, testified yesterday that there are a number of things that DHS “can’t do currently” because of outdated laws that have the potential to jeopardize America’s national security. Drone attacks haven’t yet posed a terrorist threat to the United States, but Republican Committee Chairman Ron Johnson noted during yesterday’s hearing that “suspicious” drone flights have increased in recent years. There were reportedly just eight incidents drone flights considered “suspicious” or in sensitive areas during 2013. That number skyrocketed to roughly 1,752 incidents in 2016. Read More   ======================== This flash briefing is brought to you by the International Security Driver Association. Whether you are exploring a career in executive protection, new to the profession, honing your expertise, or an established security executive, ISDA offers its Members benchmark educational, networking, and marketing programs. For more information about the ISDA membership, articles related to secure transportation, security, and executive protection, go to isdacenter.org. Thanks for listening to the Security Driver and Executive Protection News flash briefing.

  Bio Dr. Nii-Quartelai Quartey (@drniiquartelai) is a trusted strategic partner and community advocate. He’s currently Senior Advisor and National LGBT Liaison at AARP, where he serves as a strategic advisor to the Senior Vice President of Multicultural Leadership. He also serves AARP in an enterprise-wide role charged with building national awareness and deepening intersectional community engagement to advance AARP's social impact agenda. Dr. Quartey is dedicated to advancing the affirming influence of corporate and non-profit executives on LGBTQ civil rights. Previously, he was the National Strategic Partnership Manager at American Heart. Dr. Quartey earned his B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in Critical Approaches to Leadership from the University of Southern California, and his Masters in Social Entrepreneurship & Change from Pepperdine University, where he also earned his Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership. Resources AARP’s LGBT Pride Portal Maintaining Dignity: A Survey of LGBT Adults Age 45 and Older   Uber stops requiring arbitration from sexual assault victims, employees and drivers just days before the Supreme Court ruled that such agreements are enforceable The Supreme Court ruled on Monday of this week, in a 5-4 decision, that employers can force employees to sign arbitration agreements to prevent them from joining class-action lawsuits. Uber announced that it will stop implementing its long-time policy of forcing passengers who allege sexual assault at the hands of drivers into arbitration. All Uber passengers, drivers and employees will now be able to choose the venue in which they wish to bring their claims. CNN reported two weeks ago that passengers have accused 103 Uber drivers of sexual assault over the past 4 years. Sara Ashley O’brien reports in CNN. House takes up Net Neutrality CRA The House is now reviewing the Senate’s Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the Trump administration FCC’s repeal of the net neutrality rules the FCC adopted back in 2015. The House needs to vote on the resolution by June 12th. Representative Mike Doyle—a Democrat from Pennsylvania—introduced a companion resolution, but that can’t come to a floor vote until the House votes on the Senate’s resolution, which needs 218 votes to pass a House in which Republicans hold a 52-member majority. John Eggerton reports in Broadcasting and Cable. House Committee rejects Trump’s efforts to water down ZTE sanctions The House Appropriations Committee agreed by voice vote last week to disabuse the Trump administration of any notion that it would be watering down sanctions against Chinese phone manufacturer ZTE. The Trump administration has been at odds with law enforcement over sanctions the administration announced it would be taking against China-based phone manufacturer ZTE, but then backtracked on. A couple of weeks ago, U.S.  Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross imposed a seven-year ban on the sale and purchase of ZTE products. China then requested that the U.S. ease up on the sanctions because they’d likely devastate the company. President Trump and Ross had begun reconsidering the sanctions and the president says they’re working more closely with Chinese President Xi a “way to get back into business, fast”.   But law enforcement officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he was “deeply concerned” about the threat ZTE poses to the U.S. telecommunications network. And Republicans and Democrats alike have for years warned about ZTE’s spying capability. Eli Okun reports for Politico. FCC puts Sinclair-Tribune merger back on the table The FCC has opened a new comment cycle for the Sinclair-Tribune merger. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is still reviewing how many TV stations Sinclair should own. Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel says the FCC should wait to reopen the Sinclair docket until after the court makes decision. Reply comments in the new proceeding are due on July 11th. Amazon will adopt board diversity rule Amazon announced, after first resisting a shareholder proposal for Amazon to implement best practices to improve diversity, that it will now support it. The company announced on Monday of last week that it would now adopt a policy to include women and people of color in the applicant pool of candidates for its board seats. The company’s initial resistance sparked outrage from its employees. Justice Department and F.B.I. Investigate Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm that filed for bankruptcy last week after a whistleblower revealed the company misused millions of Facebook users’ data to impact the 2016 presidential election, is now under criminal investigation in the U.S. The Justice Department and F.B.I. are apparently in the early stages of the investigation as they have questioned several witnesses. Cambridge Analytica is principally owned by Robert Mercer—a wealthy political donor. Nicholas Confessore and Matthew Rosenberg report in the New York Times. Trump issues Executive Order on CIO Authority President Trump issued an Executive Order last week that strengthens federal agency Chief Information Officers’ ability to set hiring, budget and agenda goals for their departments’ IT enterprises.  Aaron Boyd reports in NextGov.

Before we talk about the future of government technology, let’s find out where we are. Nextgov’s Senior Editor Aaron Boyd chats with Dave Powner, the head of IT management issues for the Government Accountability Office, about the present state of agency tech, why it’s so hard for government to integrate new ideas, plus how to take advantage of emerging tech. Here are some of the things they mentioned: The GAO High Risk List, which are projects flagged for possible mismanagement or waste. And waste happens: The Coast Guard leadership recently had to defend a failed five-year health record project. GAO updates Congress on how agencies comply with data centers, software licensing and other IT metrics mandated by FITARA. Here are the latest FITARA grades. GAO also keeps tabs on federal workforce issues, such as the Department of Homeland Security cyber skills and diversity in agencies’ tech staff. This episode is underwritten by Leidos. 

Heather Kuldell, managing editor at Nextgov, joins host Derrick Dortch on this week’s Fed Access to talk about the U.S. Cyber Command, and what a change in leadership this year will mean for the organization.

The second podcast on the topic of cloud native is here! Today we discuss the ever changing role of the CIO and how they can move towards a business leadership role. We’ll also have news from CIO.com and NextGov around the CIO, and the exciting news that our very own report has been published in Forbes (all links below). Finally we have our usual interview spot, this time very capably filled by Paul Miller, senior Analyst at Forrester, we’ll hear his thoughts on the CIO and the hurdles and challenges they have to work with. Check out our previous podcasts, the full reports and more on our website www.capgemini.com/cloudnative Links: Forbes: Capgemini: The Cloud Native age is now - https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2017/05/31/capgemini-the-cloud-native-age-is-now/#4dca90d67f02 Next Gov: FCC CIO TO LEAVE FOR FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND ROLE IN GOVERNMENT - http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2017/06/fcc-cio-leave-first-its-kind-role-government/138387/ CIO.com: How cloud computing can be a change agent in your enterprise - http://www.cio.com/article/3198428/cio-role/how-cloud-computing-can-be-a-change-agent-in-your-enterprise.html Lisa’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/lisahirsch4?lang=en-gb Dan’s Twitter - twitter.com/danoriordan?lang=en-gb Paul Miller info - https://www.forrester.com/Paul-Miller

The man who viciously attacked long-time New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald back in December has finally been arrested, according to Cecilia Kang at The New York Times. The FBI picked up twenty-nine year old John Rivello of Salisbury, Md. on Friday for sending Eichenwald, who suffers from seizures, an electronic file containing strobe lights and bearing the words "you deserve a seizure for your posts". Eichenwald did in fact suffer a seizure. Rivello now faces a possible 10 year sentence if he is convicted of criminal cyberstalking with the intent to kill or cause bodily harm. -- President Trump is sticking to his guns, but no one in Congress has been able to find any evidence that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. The Republican Senator Richard Burr who Chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and Democratic Vice Chair Mark Warner issued the following statement last week: “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016."  House Intelligence Chair David Nunes issued a similar statement, saying that President Trump's tweet shouldn't be taken literally.On Monday, FBI Director James Comey testified before a House panel that the FBI has found no evidence that former President Obama wiretapped Trump tower. -- A county judge in Minnesota has issued a warrant requiring Google to reveal who searched the name of a victim of financial fraud. The victim's image was used to obtain a fake passport to trick a credit union to transfer $28,500 out of an account. Minneapolis police say the victim's image was clicked on in the search. David Kravets has the story in Ars. -- Greg Besinger at the Wall Street Journal reports that Uber is trying to prevent their drivers from unionizing in Seattle. The effort to unionize is supported by the Teamsters and the Seattle City Council. Uber has allegedly been trying to get drivers not to unionize via company podcasts, text messages and phone surveys. It's a complex case that the Communications Workers of America is also involved in. Uber has threatened to leave Seattle if the unionization effort succeeds. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is also trying to prevent the drivers from organizing, and the chamber has sued the Seattle City Council for an ordinance it passed in 2015 that gave drivers the right to vote on whether to form a union. -- FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is urging Congress and the White House to include broadband buildout within the infrastructure bill. He says infrastructure spending should prioritize rural areas and be paid for via the Universal Service Fund. Maggie Reardon has the story in CNET. -- The City of New York is suing Verizon because it says the company failed to deliver on a 2008 agreement to provide broadband to every single home in the city. But the company, though its GC Craig Silliman, said the company has already spent $3.7 billion to place fiber throughout the city and that the fiber passes every home in the city. Patrick McGeehan has the story int he New York Times. -- CA Technologies, the technology firm and government contractor, will pay a $45 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by a former whistleblower employee alleging that the company failed to inform the the General Services Administration that certain discounts were available. The former employee, who filed the lawsuit under the False Claims Act, will receive $10.92 million of the settlement. Evan Fallor has the story in FedScoop. -- Ride-hailing company Lyft, Inc.  is now on the hook to pay $27 million to drivers who filed a class-action lawsuit on federal court to change their classification from independent contractors to employees. The settlement will be paid to the  drivers, however they will remain classified as independent contractors. -- The European Commission--which is the executive arm of the European Union--has given the greenlight to the $85 billion AT&T/Time Warner merger. The merger is still working its way through the regulatory approval process in the U.S. -- Finally, President Trump has released  draft budget which includes $61 million to fight cybercrime and encryption plus $1.5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. Joseph Marks has the story in Nextgov. Stay with us.

Journalist Camille Tuutti describes advances in artificial intelligence, and how they will forge ahead at high speed because although it might not be sexy, it is absolutely necessary.

Bill Press is out so Igor Volsky (Center for American Progress Action Fund) is filling in. He welcomes Joe Marks, Adam Smith, & Matt Fuller to discuss Paul Ryan's awkward Obamacare moment at last night's CNN town hall, the state of America's cybersecurity in light of the Russia hacks, Jason Chaffetz's newest target, & the Republicans' lack of a health care replacement plan - all the big highlights from this Friday edition of the Bill Press Show!

This week Dave and Gunnar talk about partnerships: D&G + Nextgov, Red Hat + Microsoft, Marriott + Starwood, New Haven police + your stuff. Lauren strikes again: Young computer scientist shares her open source story Todoist now has the “repeat after completed” feature Gunnar Gets Keybase.io Invites, now what BadBIOS meets ad experience optimization: Beware of ads that use inaudible sound to link your phone, TV, tablet, and PC Nextgov’s article about our podcast episode about their article The cat sharing economy is for real: Clear Your Calendars—#UberKITTENS Are Back As heard in D&G 28: Old Chippewa Lake amusement park up for sale Yahoo! does password free signin New: How to Enable Amazon’s Two-Step Authentication Good news / bad news: Windows 10 has a Start menu.  Windows 10 Start menu displays ads. US proposal aims to regulate car privacy, make hacks illegal Erich’s TCO for OpenStack presentation from the Tokyo summit is now live New Haven PD very well-intentioned. (h/t uzoma) Marriott Buys Starwood (h/t uzoma) Shred your boarding pass: What’s in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot See also (or not): ClearImage Free Online Barcode Reader / Decoder Shred your frequent flier card? American Airlines Jumps On Industry Bandwagon, Will Now Award Frequent Flier Miles Based On Ticket Price Product Releases! RHEL 7.2, including RHEL for Real Time, RHEL Server for ARM (Development Preview), and RHEL Atomic Host OpenShift 3.1 and Red Hat Atomic Enterprise Platform 3.1 Public Preview Red Hat Container Development Kit 2 Beta Red Hat Software Collections 2.1 and Developer Toolset 4 RHEV 3.6 Beta Microsoft ♥ Red Hat ♥ Microsoft .NET running on OpenShift 3! Red Hat CVE Database Revamp ISIS used PlayStation 4s to plan Paris. Or did they? Hack your meetings by taking all the action items Cutting Room Floor You Can Now Download The Soothing Sounds Of K-Mart The American Government’s Sears-for-Spying Payment Plan On what street did you lose your childlike sense of wonder? Nihilistic Password Security Questions Statue of Lenin Replaced with Darth Vader (with WiFi hotspot in head) Ladybird Books for Grownups Yamaha Designs a Robot That Can Ride Motorcycles China Unable To Recruit Hackers Fast Enough To Keep Up With Vulnerabilities In U.S. Security Systems Meanwhile in Scott McCarty’s kitchen… Please engage with our brand. BSODOTD Turn an ASCII diagram into something handwritten. War stories from the future Machine Gun + Elephant = War Machine We Give Thanks Our Inception friends at Nextgov The D&G Show Slack Clubhouse for the discussion topics!

This week Dave and Gunnar talk with Mohana Ravindranath about CIA, 18F, and other TLAs.   Welcome Mohana Ravindranath! CIA Social Media Team: We Use Twitter to ‘Explain Our Mission’ The Informers 18F Takes on ‘Micropurchasing’ Experiment Dave and Gunnar encourage everyone to check out Nextgov! We Give Thanks Mohana Ravindranath for being our special guest star! Camille Tuutti for introducing us to Mohana!   Special Guest: Mohana Ravindranath.