Follow up to previous posting – Unreleased CIA assessment concludes Russia aided Trump – see this follow on – Open Letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper via Christine Pelosi (CA) “We are Electors who were selected by the voters of our states to represent them in the Electoral College on December 19, 2016.… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Records
FOIA Lawsuits Mirror News Headlines And Increase 35 Percent
The FOIA Project at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “Very detailed court records of the near record 512 suits brought under the Freedom of Information Act in FY 2016 provide a detailed roadmap of how businesses, political groups, reporters and many others used the powerful law to achieve their widely varied goals. Court records obtained,… Continue Reading
Testimony of Scott Amey about Burdens of Overclassification and Government Secrecy
Testimony of Scott Amey, General Counsel Project On Government Oversight (POGO) before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “Examining the Costs of Overclassification on Transparency and Security” December 7, 2016. “…Thank you for inviting me to testify today about the state of the federal government’s classification system. I am Scott Amey, General Counsel… Continue Reading
Enterprise Risk Management: Selected Agencies’ Experiences Illustrate Good Practices in Managing Risk
Enterprise Risk Management: Selected Agencies’ Experiences Illustrate Good Practices in Managing Risk, GAO-17-63: Published: Dec 1, 2016. Publicly Released: Dec 1, 2016. “Federal managers often handle complex and risky missions, such as preparing for and responding to natural disasters, and building and managing safe transportation systems. While it is not possible to eliminate all uncertainties… Continue Reading
IRS IG – Improvements Are Needed to Ensure the Protection of Data the IRS Transfers to External Partners
“When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has shared data, including Personally Identifiable Information, taxpayer information, and other sensitive data, with external entities, it has not always adequately protected the data through secure file transfer technology, according to an audit report that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released today. The IRS shares data… Continue Reading
DHS Releases Revised FOIA Regulations, Agrees and Disagrees with EPIC’s Suggestions
Via EPIC: “The Department of Homeland Security has released revised Freedom of Information Act regulations. EPIC submitted extensive comments on the proposed changes to the agency’s open government practices. The DHS agreed to make some changes, recommended by EPIC, that should improve the processing of FOIA requests. The agency maintained a broad definition of “educational… Continue Reading
CRS – Can a New Administration Undo a Previous Administration’s Regulations?
With the Stroke of a Pen: What Executive Branch Actions Can President-elect Trump “Undo” on Day One?, CRS Legal Sidebar, November 22, 2016. Can a New Administration Undo a Previous Administration’s Regulations? November 21, 2016 (IN10), Maeve P. Carey “Following the election of Donald J. Trump on November 8, 2016, questions have been raised as… Continue Reading
Audit of OPM Security Systems Shows Continued Material Weakness
OPM IG Federal Information Security Modernization Act Audit – FY 2016: “This audit report again communicates a material weakness related to OPM’s Security Assessment and Authorization (Authorization) program. In April 2015, the then Chief Information Officer issued a memorandum that granted an extension of the previous Authorizations for all systems whose Authorization had already expired,… Continue Reading
MIT Libraries launch “Public Access QuickSubmit”
“The Libraries has launched a “quicksubmit” web form to help MIT authors comply with research funder public access requirements for articles. We built the form in response to the Department of Energy’s public access plan, released in 2014, which requires researchers to submit accepted manuscripts reporting on DOE-funded work to an open access repository like… Continue Reading
Federal Procurement: Smarter Buying Initiatives Can Achieve Additional Savings
Federal Procurement: Smarter Buying Initiatives Can Achieve Additional Savings, but Improved Oversight and Accountability Needed, GAO-17-164: Published: Oct 26, 2016. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2016. “The federal government saved nearly $500 million over the past 5 years through “smarter buying”—such as leveraging the government’s collective buying power for things like office supplies. But that’s small… Continue Reading
IRS IG – Review of the Enterprise E-Mail System Acquisition
Review of the Enterprise E-Mail System Acquisition, September 30, 2016. Reference Number: 2016-20-080. “The IRS purchased subscriptions for an enterprise e-mail system [Microsoft] that, as it turned out, it could not use. The purchase was made without first determining project infrastructure needs, integration requirements, business requirements, security and portal bandwidth, and whether the subscriptions were… Continue Reading
Former NSA contractor removed 50 terabytes of classified data
ZDNet: “An NSA contractor siphoned off dozens of hard drives’ worth of data from government computers over two decades, prosecutors will allege on Friday. The contractor, Harold T. Martin III, is also accused of stealing thousands of highly classified documents, computers, and other storage devices during his tenure at the agency. It’s not known exactly… Continue Reading
