Obama Asks NSA to End Bulk Data Collection – Plus the 7 Gov Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• Just like Ben and Jerry’s 170 different flavors of ice cream, political appointees also come in a variety. You have your political types, your regulators, your implementers and your collaborators. So how can the Office of Personnel match the right political appointee to the right job? Insights in part two of our interview with author Paul Lawrence.

You can find all of our programs online: DorobekINSIDER.com and GovLoop Insights at http://insights.govloop.com.

But up front: New cyber-security rules coming to acquisition

I mentioned last week that I was moderating a panel at ACT-IAC’s Acquisition Excellence 2014 conference. We will have highlights in the days ahead, but…

Here is FierceGovernmentIT’s take:

New cybersecurity requirements in federal acquisition system will take years to implement, says GSA official

The federal government plans to start in about a year the long process of directly modifying acquisition regulations in order to implement recommendations from a joint Defense Department and General Services Administration cybersecurity task force, a federal official said.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. NYT: Obama to Call for End to N.S.A.’s Bulk Data Collection – “Under the proposal, they said, the N.S.A. would end its systematic collection of data about Americans’ calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.”

2. Politico: Navy Shooting: Sailor, Civilian Suspect Killed at Naval Station Norfolk – “A sailor was fatally shot at the world’s largest naval base late Monday and security forces killed a male civilian suspect, a spokeswoman for Naval Station Norfolk said. The shooting happened around 11:20 p.m. aboard the USS Mahan, a guided-missile destroyer, base spokeswoman Terri Davis said early Tuesday.”

3. Secrecy News: 5.1 million Americans have security clearances. That’s more than the entire population of Norway: The number of Americans who have been investigated and deemed eligible for access to classified information rose last year to a total of 5,150,379 as of October 2013. It was the fourth consecutive year of growth in the security-cleared population.

4. Federal News Radio: Under Sequestration, IRS Workforce Declined by 6K – “Among the largest staffing declines are those in taxpayer assistance positions, which had about 3,300 fewer positions at the end of fiscal 2013 than the year before.”

5. FAS: Security-Cleared Population Rises to 5.1 Million – “The number of Americans who have been investigated and deemed eligible for access to classified information rose last year to a total of 5,150,379 as of October 2013. It was the fourth consecutive year of growth in the security-cleared population.”

6. Military Times: White House Growth and Security Bill Includes $8.7B for New Weapons – “The bill, which is separate from the US Defense Department’s $496 billion 2015 base budget request, includes $26 billion for Pentagon projects. More than one-third, $8.7 billion, is eyed for procurement of new cargo aircraft, fighter jets, spy planes, helicopters and missiles.”

7. NextGov: Microsoft Offers Agencies Incentives to Drop Windows XP – “About 10 percent of the government’s several million computers will still be on the XP operating system when Microsoft stops supplying counter-hack updates on April 8, according to officials. Some are in the midst of replacing the OS, while others are taking the risk of sticking with it. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is incentivizing customers to uninstall XP and buy new Windows products.”

DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too…

• The Failure Fetish in Silicon Valley [New York Magazine’s Intelligencer]: The tech industry used to bury its dead quietly. For years, cash-starved companies sold themselves for peanuts in order to save face; friends bailed each other out with 11th-hour “acqui-hires,” and founders came up with euphemisms like “pivot” to soften the sting of defeat. But these days, start-up flameouts are increasingly serving as badges of honor, and stories like Abrams’s are being told at higher and higher volume. In an industry known for sunny optimism, Silicon Valley has managed to turn failure into a bragging right.
• A Conversation With Danah Boyd, Author of ‘It’s Complicated,’ About Teenagers Online | Despite a misconception, teens care deeply about privacy in that they want to have control over the social situations in which they are embedded, according to Ms. Boyd. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/a-conversation-with-danah-boyd-author-of-its-complicated-about-teens-online/