Workplace Archives

Foreigners who aspire to work for federal contractors can now use a Spanish-language website to make sure their correct immigration status is on file with the government before their employers are required to do so -- avoiding potential unemployment.

All personnel doing business with the government must pass muster with e-Verify, an online system that U.S. businesses use to check the employment eligibility of new hires. In March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an arm of the Homeland Security Department, began offering an English-version of the system - e-Verify Self Check -- in a few states for foreign jobseekers to check that their personal information is accurate.

On Tuesday, USCIS announced a Spanish version is now available and the service has been expanded to 16 additional states. Nationwide rollout is expected by the spring.

Federal vendors often complain e-Verify contains errors such as missing Social Security numbers that generate messages showing a hire has no legal documentation. If that happens, the employee only has eight days to start working with the Social Security Administration to resolve the mistake. Otherwise, the staffer could lose his or her job.

You can try e-Verify Self Check if you live in California, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department are aiding Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. on an investigation into a cyber attack that reportedly infiltrated the firm's security networks, federal officials said Saturday night.

"DoD is aware of a cyber incident impacting Lockheed Martin and, together with the Department of Homeland Security, is working with the company in determining the extent of the incident," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. "Impact to DoD is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect."

In the past, the Defense' Cyber Crime Center has been responsible for heading probes into intrusions on .mil networks and systems in the defense industrial base, which includes Lockheed. Homeland Security has focused on helping civilian agencies and commercial companies assess cyber events, such as the recent Sony PlayStation network breach.

But, increasingly, the Pentagon and Homeland Security have been sharing cyber experts, tools and privacy officers, to respond to cyberattacks against government contractors, including one disclosed in March that hit security firm RSA. In that incident, perpetrators compromised a system containing information on RSA-manufactured "SecurID" digital credentials used by many federal employees and contractors.

According to Reuters, which first reported the Lockheed incident on Friday, unidentified hackers "breached [Lockheed] security systems designed to keep out intruders by creating duplicates to SecurID electronic keys," according to one person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. The offenders learned how to copy the security keys with data stolen during the RSA attack, the Reuters story said.

At the time, RSA Executive Chairman Art Coviello announced through a message on the company's website that the data stolen could potentially be used to weaken the security of SecurID devices "as part of a broader attack."

As a matter of policy, Homeland Security and military officials declined to comment on the operations underway to stem damage at Lockheed.

DHS and Defense officials have "been in contact with the company to offer assistance in determining the extent of the incident, performing analysis of available data in order to provide recommendations to mitigate further risk," Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

Lockheed officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner, who has probed contractor waste at the department since its inception, announced on Thursday that he will step down March 1.

Prior to his July 2005 Senate confirmation as IG, Skinner -- a four-decade veteran of the federal government -- had held the position of deputy IG at DHS since its March 2003 creation.

"After serving more than 42 years in the federal government, under nine presidents, I believe the time has come for me to give my full time attention to my family and personal endeavors," Skinner wrote to President Obama in a Jan. 13 letter of resignation. "Because of [the IG office staff's] commitment, professionalism and hard work, the OIG has been extremely successful in working with the department to promote the efficacy of its programs and operations, and to combat fraud, waste, and abuse within its ranks. Looking back over the past 9 years since the tragic events on September 11, 2001, we, as a nation, are now beginning to witness the positive effects of the creation of the department of Homeland Security."

It's not surprising that a department quickly cobbled together from 22 existing agencies would endure a fair degree of mismanagement. Most recently, in a report released Jan. 3, Skinner found that DHS had not tried to recover about $643 million in overpayments to 160,000 people who claimed they were victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Last summer, he revealed that department officials funding a new financial management system worth potentially $1 billion did not have suitable plans, cost estimates or staffing projection for the undertaking.

Skinner started his career at the Agriculture Department in 1969, and later moved on to managerial positions in the investigative arms of the departments of Justice, Commerce and State, as well as the Arms Controls and Disarmament Agency. He was honored with the President's Meritorious Executive Rank Award for serving FEMA, where he worked as acting IG, deputy IG and assistant IG for audits.

Hewlett Packard has nabbed a 10-year NASA megadeal potentially worth $2.5 billion to manage employees' personal computers and peripheral technology, space agency officials announced on Monday.

The job entails providing, securing and servicing most staff computers, agency software, mobile technology services, printers and other supporting infrastructure. Herndon, Va.-based HP Enterprise Services, formerly EDS, will be responsible for outsourcing some of the tasks to other commercial vendors under the contract known as "ACES," for Agency Consolidated End-user Services.

The fixed-price pact covers four base years of work, with two three-year option periods. Program managers will be based at NASA's shared services center in Mississippi.

ACES is part of a larger NASA effort, the IT Infrastructure Integration Program, intended to save money by consolidating procurements and centralizing information technology services. The new HP deal will replace an older long-term contract currently held by Lockheed Martin Corp. called the Outsourced Desktop Initiative (ODIN).

In February, Lockheed, one of the most established NASA business partners, announced the space agency had awarded the company a $230 contract extension for ODIN that ends in Oct. 2011.

The Mississippi facility where ACES will be managed -- operated by NASA, Computer Sciences Corp. and the states of Mississippi and Louisiana -- supports operations at all 10 NASA space centers.

The Library of Congress, which recently shutoff access to WikiLeaks on its computers, may be unintentionally undermining the research its analysts perform for lawmakers, classification expert Steven Aftergood, who regularly publishes a government secrecy newsletter, blogged on Monday.

The Congressional Research Service, a branch of the library that scours bills, news and other primary sources to inform lawmakers of pressing issues, "will be unable to access or to cite the leaked materials in their research reports to Congress," wrote Aftergood, who runs the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, a nonpartisan think tank.

Several current and former library employees told him that restricting access to WikiLeaks could degrade CRS analysts' research and may not have a legal basis, he added.

• "It's a difficult situation," said one CRS analyst. "The information was released illegally, and it's not right for government agencies to be aiding and abetting this illegal dissemination. But the information is out there. Presumably, any Library of Congress researcher who wants to access the information that WikiLeaks illegally released will simply use their home computers or cell phones to do so. Will they be able to refer directly to the information in their writings for the library? Apparently not, unless a secondary source, like a newspaper, happens to have already cited it."


• "I don't know that you can make a credible argument that CRS reports are the gold standard of analytical reporting, as is often claimed, when its analysts are denied access to information that historians and public policy types call a treasure trove of data," a former CRS employee said.
• In a press release, LOC explained its actions by citing an Office of Management and Budget memo regarding the obligation that federal agencies and federal employees have to protect classified information. "But LOC is statutorily chartered as the library of the House and the Senate. It is a legislative branch agency. I don't recall either chamber directing the blocking of access to WikiLeaks for/or by its committees, offices, agencies, or members," a different former analyst said.

Aftergood's summation: "If CRS is 'Congress' brain,' then the new access restrictions could mean a partial lobotomy."

The General Services Administration, which among other jobs manages federal buildings, is trying to eliminate the government's environmental footprint by doing things like facilitating green building projects and promoting telepresence.

But they want to do even more. Speaking Tuesday at the GOVgreen conference and expo in Washington, GSA's Commissioner of Public Buildings, Robert Peck, said the agency is still experimenting, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

"We've had some issues," he said, such as when GSA would see a return on its investment in green technology. He said the agency would like to see a return in 10-15 years, unlike private companies, which typically want ROI within five to six years.

But cultural issues are even bigger hurdles, Peck said. The agency's overseers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media are constantly launching efforts "aimed at making sure we don't make mistakes." The fact that what agency officials do could land them in front of a congressional hearing sometimes causes them to hold back.

What's the solution? To "get America to embrace that we can make mistakes," Peck said.

An employee at the General Services Administration accidentally sent the names and Social Security numbers of the agency's staff to a private e-mail address, The New York Times reported on Saturday. GSA, which employs more than 12,000 people, is going to pay for one-year of credit monitoring and up to $25,000 in identify threat insurance coverage, according to the news report.

The breach occurred when a worker apparently accidentally transmitted the file containing the personal data while seeking "work-related assistance." The computer that received the data was scrubbed clean by GSA technicians.

The Times reports there is a discrepancy between when employees were notified and the breach. Although the breach occurred in late September, GSA employees told the Times they did not learn of the breach until early November, putting them "at greater risk."

The inspector general is investigating he incident.

The General Services Administration has contracted with AT&T to develop and manage telepresence centers at 11 federal buildings across the country, enabling agencies to hold virtual meetings.

The centers, scheduled to be operational early next year, are designed to help agencies cut down on travel costs by facilitating face to face meetings online. They will be built at each of GSA's 11 regional headquarters offices, which are located in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Four other Washington-area buildings also will get centers.

AT&T will develop and oversee the network of centers via an $18 million task order under GSA's Networx contract.

Here's the full announcement from GSA:

Oct. 25, 2010

GSA Moves to Establish Telepresence Centers for Government Use

Virtual meetings help federal agencies meet sustainability and cost-cutting goals.

WASHINGTON - In a significant step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving federal travel dollars, the U.S. General Services Administration announced today it will establish virtual meeting centers at federal buildings across the United States. When operational in early 2011, the centers will be available for use by all federal agencies at a fixed hourly rate, making it easy for federal employees to conduct important face-to-face meetings without the need to travel. The centers will also be made available to stateside military families so that they can meet virtually with service members overseas.

"As the federal government's workplace solutions expert, GSA is exploring new ways to create a more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable government for the American people," said GSA Administrator Martha N. Johnson. "This includes incorporating innovative and collaborative technologies like virtual meeting centers to create seamless connections around the world. Availability of virtual meeting technology will help launch our government to the next level of productivity."

The centers will be built at each of GSA's 11 regional headquarters offices in federal buildings in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., as well as four headquarters locations in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. The centers will be specially constructed and equipped to provide live, face-to-face, immersive meeting experiences to all participants across the network. Each room will contain high-definition video and advanced audio equipment, as well as state of the art collaboration tools to enhance the immersive experience and facilitate participant productivity. The network will allow any subscribing agency to meet with counterparts in any of these cities as well as with counterparts in other telepresence-type networks nationally and internationally.

AT&T will develop and manage the virtual network through an estimated $18 million task order under GSA's Networx Enterprise contract. The contractor's infrastructure costs will be rolled into a set hourly rate that is then purchased by GSA and customer agencies in a "pay as you go" model, avoiding the need for individual agency start up costs. Once the network is operational, agencies will be able to order and schedule virtual meeting sessions through a secure web-based portal as well as through a valet that will be available around the clock.

A suburban Philadelphia school district has settled a lawsuit that accused the district of spying on students by secretly activating their webcams.

The Lower Merion School District will pay $185,000 to two students (all but $10,000 of it going to one of the students) and $425,000 in legal fees to their attorney, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The district launched a plan in 2008 to give laptops to nearly 2,300 high school students to use in class and at home. But the students were not told that computers reported as missing could be remotely tracked using software that lets technicians turn on webcams, the newspaper reported.

The suit claimed that the district secretly snapped hundreds of images via Blake Robbins' laptop, including one when he was sleeping. The student had never reported his computer missing and was surprised when an assistant principal presented him with webcam photos of himself.

The settlement, which was approved unanimously by school board members Tuesday, must be approved by a U.S. District judge.

In a recent article on how chief information officers can become part of an organization's senior leadership team (rather than an order taker who makes sure the e-mail or data center doesn't go down), CIO.com quotes Tom Davenport, professor of management and information technology at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.:

I hardly get anybody ever who wants to be a CIO, which is probably indicative of something. And if they do want to be a CIO, it's like: "Fine, it'd be useful to rotate through this for a while on my path toward CEO." I think people respect technology, but there aren't that many people anymore who want to be career CIOs.

Of the CIOs in the federal government, how many set out to become a CIO, or did you just fall into it? And for those who were appointed by President Obama, how many really wanted to that CIO post, and if so, when did it occur to you that you did?

I think Davenport has something here. The CIO isn't something an executive, or business student, dreams of being. It's not the traditional path to a high level leadership position, unlike, say, the chief financial officer job. And it still is weighed down by the characterization of the propeller head.