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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: October 20, 2023
What are federal agencies doing to fill out the cyber workforce?
(Government Executive) For every 100 cybersecurity jobs nationwide, there are only 72 workers able to fill them. Approximately 315,000 more workers would be needed to close current supply gaps, despite the fact that the cybersecurity workforce is 1.1 million people strong nationwide already. That’s according to new data released Monday on Cyberseek, a data hub managed by the National Institute for Cybersecurity Education, or NICE — housed in the National Institute of Standards and Technology — alongside trade association CompTIA and labor market analytics company Lightcast. Read More
The end of the beginning phase for GSA’s OASIS+ is near
(Federal News Network) Friday is the end of the beginning for the General Services Administration’s years’ long effort to develop the OASIS+ professional services contract. After two years of planning, meetings, feedback and answering almost 900 questions about the final solicitations, vendors’ bids are due tomorrow. Tiffany Hixson, GSA’s assistant commissioner for the Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories in the Federal Acquisition Service, said she is cautiously optimistic about moving forward into source selection for OASIS+. Read More
‘Ridiculous’: Navy comptroller on contractors stiff arming his auditors
(Breaking Defense) he US Navy’s comptroller says it’s “ridiculous” certain industry contractors believe they can stiff arm the service from auditing its own property, and vowed that the Navy will explore ways to compel vendors to comply — or pay up. “When my audit team shows up and goes, ‘Hey, where are these solid rocket motors that you own?’ The prime contractor says, ‘Oh, that’s not in our contract. We don’t have to tell you that,” Russell Rumbaugh, the assistant Navy secretary for financial management and comptroller, said during an event at the Stimson Center on Monday. Read More
Login.gov to add facial recognition tech
(Government Executive) The General Services Administration will add facial recognition technology to Login.gov, a single sign-on service for Americans to get government benefits and services online, the agency announced Wednesday. The agency said in its Wednesday announcement it will be rolling out the technology next year. GSA says it will also add another new digital identity verification option for those who don’t want to use facial recognition technology. This method is still to be determined but it could involve real-time identity verification via live video chat or other platform. Read More
Here’s something else the State Department has to do expeditiously
(Federal News Network) An urgent report from the Government Accountability Office is aimed at the State Department. GAO called for State to, in its words, “expeditiously get on with a cybersecurity risk management program.” State has a plan, now it has to carry it out. For more on this, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Jennifer Franks, GAO’s Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity. Read More
AI-powered lasers could zap space debris away from collision courses
(Space.com) Low-Earth orbit is teeming with space junk. This increasingly cluttered area of space could benefit from a network of lasers that nudge objects at risk of colliding with satellites or spacecraft into safer orbits, according to new research. While space debris has been a concern for decades, efforts to address this junk have only recently started receiving serious investment. The latest early-stage idea is to mount artificial intelligence-powered lasers on satellites or other dedicated platforms and have them monitor space debris objects. Read More
Could Neptune’s largest moon swing a spacecraft into the planet’s orbit?
(Space.com) The only spacecraft to visit Neptune was the Voyager 2 probe, which spent just a few precious minutes in the vicinity of this mysterious world during its historic flyby tour of the outer solar system in the 1980s. It’s been over 40 years since that mission launched. And while space agencies around the world have developed dozens of probes, landers and rovers in the decades since, none have visited the solar system’s outermost planet, let alone orbit it. Planetary scientists have long been interested in a return visit to Neptune, but the planet is so distant that an orbiter or lander mission is next to impossible. Read More
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