Lost & Found: Air Force watchdog briefly loses, recovers 12 years worth of records

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

• The Air Force recovered more than 100,000 Air Force Inspector General records feared to have been lost earlier this month. After aggressively leveraging all industry and department capabilities, the Air Force said it fully recovered the 12 years worth of data. The information was lost after a system crash, which corrupted the files. The Air Force says the brief data loss caused some delays in processing Inspector General inquires, but the recovery allows the service to move forward with minimal impact. (U.S. Air Force)

• The Common Access Card has driven the Defense Department’s cybersecurity posture for much of the past 15 years, but the end of the CAC card may be near. DoD Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen said he plans to phase out the secure identity card over the next two years. Halvorsen said he’d like to move to a behavior-based approach for network authentication that also includes biometrics and personal information. DoD first introduced the Common Access Card in 2001. (Federal News Radio)

• Two senators are hoping a new caucus will help members of Congress better understand the importance of cybersecurity. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) announced the creation of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus. The purpose of the group will be to look at how cyber issues impact national and digital security, as well as the economy. The senators said their hope is to “jumpstart” discussions on cyber challenges. (Sen. Mark Warner)

• The National Park Service needs “progressive discipline” to handle mismanagement and employee misconduct. The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General said a pattern of sexual harassment and lack of accountability at the management level has cast a shadow over the park service. Director Jonathan Jarvis told Congress his office is launching a study on the matter. (Federal News Radio)

• The Government Accountability Office said the Coast Guard isn’t always making the best decisions about where and when to deploy its resources. The Coast Guard is in the middle of its recapitalization plan to update and rebuild its aging fleet. Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Michel said the service will submit an updated mixed fleet analysis next month. (Federal News Radio)

• The Veterans Affairs Department has 75,000 disability claims in its backlog, down from the 611,000 it had in March 2013. VA acting Undersecretary for Benefits Danny Pummil said it’s because the disability claims process is now entirely paperless. The average processing time for a claim is about 124 days. VA said the claim quality level is up too from 83 percent to 90 percent. (Veterans Affairs)

• Despite a veto threat from the White House, the Senate overwhelmingly passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act. It allows $602 billion in military spending, but denies the administration’s desire to close Guantanamo Bay and the Pentagon’s bid for a new round of military base closings. It also requires women to register for the draft. (Federal News Radio)

• The Labor Department published a new rule for employment practices of federal contractors. The rule, which is final, revises anti sex-discrimination guidelines in place for 40 years. Now they cover not only gender but also pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity and transgender status. Labor said the new version takes into account case law established since executive order 11246 came out in 1970. The new rule applies to contractors doing more than $10,000 in federal business. (Federal Register)

• The Social Security Administration is taking a page from Silicon Valley to bring on software developers. SSA wants to hire and train hundreds of new software developers through a 90-day boot camp approach. SSA Chief Information Officer Rob Klopp said this approach is working for firms in Silicon Valley. He said in many cases the students are more prepared to work on software programs than those who have gone through a four-year college. Klopp said the first boot camp is happening this year, but he would like to greatly expand it in 2017. Klopp said the need to hire and train new IT workers is more important than ever because 37 percent of SSA’s IT staff will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

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