FCW Insider: June 30, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
Federal job satisfaction continues to lag behind private sector
The annual 'Best Places to Work' report indicates that almost 60% of the federal workforce teleworked full-time during the peak lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Army tests network security, cyber tools in war games
Army officials said the Joint Warfighting Assessment exercise demonstrated that while the Army was able to create and share data across a multi-partner environment in a multi-partner network, the constructed virtual environment had its limitations.
House Dems press for 3.2% pay raise for feds
The House Appropriations Committee is going along with appears the 2.7% raise recommended by the president, but Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and other Democrats say that that isn't enough.
ICYMI: Sweeping executive order covers diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in the federal workforce
An executive order issued last Friday directs the federal government to ramp up diversity training, rethink the use salary history as a basis for pay determinations and supply gender non-conforming and non-binary and transgender feds with employee credentials that reflect their current names, pictures and pronouns.
Quick Hits
*** In a June 24 memorandum, the Department of the Navy affirmed its data strategy and declared that its Jupiter "will serve as the enterprise data and analytics platform for the DON and be the source of trusted, curated data to the Office of the Secretary of Defense." It also states that "all naval components shall provide authoritative datasets to Jupiter as required, and support the use of data for performance management activities."
*** The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a draft project description for examining the challenges of maintaining computer encryption in a future in which advances in quantum computing have rendered current encryption standards trivial.
"The advent of quantum computing technology will compromise many of the current cryptographic algorithms, especially public-key cryptography, which is widely used to protect digital information," the document states.
*** The House Appropriations Committee plans to increase funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by almost $300 million over the Biden administration's proposal. Lawmakers are seeking $2.42 billion for CISA. The agency also received a $650 million plus-up in the American Rescue Plan Act.