The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, in a new update to its digital identity guidelines, is clarifying a key discrepancy in federal policy that may have been preventing some agencies from adopting stronger forms of multifactor authentication.

In a supplement to the guidelines released Monday, NIST offers new guidance on incorporating “syncable authenticators” into both enterprise and public-facing use cases.

It’s the first supplement NIST has issued for the 2017 digital identity guidelines. The agency is already in the process of updating those guidelines. Comments on the latest draft were due in March, and NIST could release the final revision as soon as later this year.

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Stocks and bonds. Both have gyrated badly in recent weeks. It's not a fun time to be invested and yet you have to be. For an assessment of the recent few weeks, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked to certified financial planner Art Stein of Arthur Stein Financial.

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Lung tissue analysis has shown [in detail] some serious threats to the health of military service members. The U.S. Geological Survey partnered with a researcher at National Jewish Health to look into airborne threats in various locations where service members work and live. It revealed some unpleasant surprises. To find out more, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to National Jewish Health pulmonologist, Dr. Cecile Rose.

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A new group within DoD seeks to track how well new technology makes its way to the troops. Heidi Shyu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering said DoD will use advanced data analytics to do the job at hand. The team is called, "The Transition Tracking Action Group" or T-Tag. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with DoD's Chief Data Officer for Research and Engineering, Cyrus Jabbari.

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On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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The IRS is telling lawmakers that billions of dollars in multi-year modernization funds are helping the agency provide a level of customer service that taxpayers expect — and is asking for more funding to keep up with that demand.

The agency handled a million more calls this filing season, compared to the 7.7 million it answered last year — and three million more calls than in 2022.

The IRS exceeded its customer service goals for the second year in a row, providing an 88% level of phone service during this year’s filing season. That’s compared to only 15% of callers getting through to the agency in 2022.

On average, callers on its main phone lines got their questions answered in about three minutes.

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The Air Force is requesting $140 million for privatized family housing projects at two bases in 2025. Lawmakers, however, are expressing concerns about funding additional privatization efforts.

“We do not own the units. These are units that the private companies assumed responsibility for years ago.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said during the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

“I’m going to continue to ask why it should be the government’s and not the private companies’ responsibility to cover these additional costs for sustainment and reinvestment. And importantly, how will this funding help service members and their families and not just help bailing out the private companies?”

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The General Services Administration is putting the final touches on its solicitation for the Alliant 3 IT services contract.

But one of the sections that GSA is already finished with is a new approach to attracting small businesses with new or emerging technology capabilities.

Large businesses can get started today on meeting the requirements of GSA’s small business emerging technology solutions engagement requirements under Alliant 3 contract.

Paul Bowen, the director of the center for GWAC programs at GSA, said this evaluation factor is among the first of its kind.

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As they do every four years at this time, political appointees begin to depart. In their absence, contractors should prepare for a slowdown in new and innovative project starts. At least, that is the view of long time federal marketing and sales consultant Larry Allen, who talked with Federal Drive Host Tom Temin.

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Federal investigators have their hands full trying to spot all of the fraud schemes that cost the government billions of dollars every year. AI-powered fraud, utilizing images, has all kinds of potential for mischief. For more on that and how to stop it, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the vice president and head of public sector strategy at Socure, Jordan Burris.

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