Cummings: OPM discovered last year’s massive data breach, not contractor

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive.

• The massive cyber breach impacting more than 22 million current and former federal employees was discovered by the Office of Personnel Management, and not by a contractor. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wrote a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee detailing his committee’s findings. He said the committee reviewed thousands of pages of documents, interviewed several federal and private sector executives and concluded OPM discovered the breach four or five days before CyTech demonstrated its product on OPM’s network and found the malware. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)
• In a unanimous vote, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has advanced a bill reducing employee rights to webmail and other websites. The Federal Information Systems Safeguard Act would let agency heads skip the need for negotiating with unions before blocking access to sites deemed to be security risks. But they’ve got to check with unions afterwards.
• A proposed rule from the Veterans Affairs Department would grant certain nurses new authorities once reserved for doctors only. The rule grants Advance Practice Registered Nurses the ability to assess, diagnose, prescribe, and interpret test results. VA officials said this will help with staffing shortages in the future. While the American Nurses Association strongly supports the idea, the American Society of Anesthesiologists want an exception for the surgical/anesthesia setting. (Veterans Affairs)
• Some high level posts in the Defense Department have gotten filled. President Barack Obama nominated former Raytheon homeland security programs director Thomas Atkin to become the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense. He also wants to promote Daniel Feehan to be the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness. (White House)
• Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has dished out punishments to Secret Service workers for their roles in exposing Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R-Utah) denied job application to the agency. Forty-one members face punishments, including five-year probationary periods, 45 day suspensions without pay, and a letter of reprimand for one individual. The original person who leaked the info to the Washington Post has resigned. (Homeland Security Department)

• Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has released his much-anticipated amendment to increase defense spending for 2017. If passed, the amendment will be tacked on to the 2017 defense authorization bill. The amendment calls for suspending troop drawdowns of the Army and a higher pay raise for active duty military. McCain also wants more money for shipbuilding and for tank modernization. Some of the funds would go to Israel for their missile defense programs. (Federal News Radio)
• Two congressmen ask the head of the FDIC to get involved in their investigation of recent cybersecurity incidents at the agency. Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), members of a House technology committee, want the input of FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg on how the agency handles cybersecurity incidents and reports them. (FDIC)
• Congress wants to know why the Social Security Administration failed to tell its inspector general about a penetration exercise the Homeland Security Department performed on SSA IT systems. The SSA IG said she knew the test happened last August, but didn’t know that DHS made nine recommendations. SSA CIO Robert Klopp said though DHS was able to gain access to personally identifiable information, the systems are stable. (Federal News Radio)

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