FCW Insider: Feb. 21

The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union came out early in the 2016 election cycle to back Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. In 2020, public sector unions are taking a wait-and-see approach. Lia Russell has the story.

In the wake of the Department of Veterans Affairs' delay of the initial go-live date of its $16 billion electronic health record modernization system, a Senate committee has passed a bill that requires the agency to be more transparent about the status of big-ticket IT projects. Adam Mazmanian has more.

Some commentators on the new Trusted Internet Connection policy set to be rolled out to cover federal networks are pointing out that there isn't as much room for "zero trust" cybersecurity strategies as they would like. Mark Rockwell takes a look.

Quick Hits

*** Hackers penetrated networks at the Defense Information Systems Agency last year and stole Social Security numbers and other personal info on about 200,000 individuals. News of the breach was first reported by Reuters, and spread as individual who received notification letters from DISA began sharing them via social media. The Feb. 11 letter notifying affected individuals indicated the breach took place sometime between May and July 2019. DISA pledged to supply free credit monitoring to those affected.

*** The National Treasury Employees Union announced it would challenge a decision by the Federal Labor Relations Authority to permit unionized feds to opt out of having dues deducted from their paychecks at any time, rather than the once-per-year election under current practice. NTEU will make its case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

*** Democratic candidates for president are doing a good job on cybersecurity, according to a recent report from SecurityScorecard.