Your essential catch-up of the week's news

The big news this week was the end of the government shutdown and the furloughs that came with it. As federal employees returned to work, some wondered how many of them will be looking for a route to a private sector job after several years of pay freezes, furloughs and being a scapegoat for politicians.

Twitter might have seen an uptick in tweets as federal tweeters returned to their keyboards -- including one from an alien planet (sort of).

A feature package not related to the shutdown examined the problem feds face in recruiting talented IT and cybersecurity employees.

HealthCare.gov continued to endure criticism, and some IT leaders from another nation offered some analysis of the problems.

Don't miss this year's Rising Stars. As of Oct. 18, FCW had published profiles on six of the 15 winners, with the rest to come. Here is the complete list.

Elsewhere: The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is entertaining but has little to say about the issues of free speech and secrecy that WikiLeaks brought to the fore, writes reviewer Nathan Mattise at Ars Technica.