"I pinch myself going to work every day," one 51-year-old says of his new supervisor role overseeing 200 workers at a data center site.

 

• Federal agencies are trying to eliminate underutilized space in their buildings. But a watchdog report found the Postal Service generally isn’t asking those same questions. The USPS inspector general’s office found the agency hasn’t collected space utilization data for more than 60% of its properties. USPS operates more than 34,000 properties across the country. The IG’s office said that by not collecting this data, the agency missed out on an opportunity to save nearly $15 million.
  (Excess and underutilized space - US Postal Service)
• The Trump administration is trying to ease concerns from federal managers who are worried about pushback against new employee performance standards. The Office of Personnel Management said there is an “extremely limited scope” for which managers would be personally liable when disciplining poor-performing employees. Most of the time, agencies themselves are held accountable for any performance-based actions. OPM’s clarification comes as the administration seeks to limit how many feds can be rated top performers and quickly discipline those deemed poor performers.
  (Personal liability for managers and supervisors conducting personnel management functions - Office of Personnel Management)
• As digital surveillance of federal employees becomes more widespread, the Government Accountability Office is alerting agencies to both positive and negative impacts. GAO said, for example, that monitoring employees remotely may help improve agency operations. But at the same time, there are potential consequences of watching employees’ work that closely. Increasing digital surveillance can negatively impact employees’ mental health, as well as lead to inaccurate assessments of employee performance.
  (Digital surveillance: Potential effects on workers and roles of federal agencies - Government Accountability Office)
• A federal court has indefinitely blocked the Trump executive order eliminating four small agencies. A federal judge in Rhode Island issued a permanent injunction barring the administration from taking any further action to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business and Development Agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Interagency Council on Homelessness. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March, eliminating these agencies “to the maximum extent” possible. The judge found the decision to conduct widespread layoffs and cuts at these agencies “undermined their ability” to perform functions required by law.
  (Federal court blocks Trump administration’s plan to scrap 4 small agencies - Federal News Network)
• In fiscal 2025, 317,000 employees left federal services. At the same time, agencies hired about 68,000 new employees. The Office of Personnel Management said the government exceeded the White House's goal of four reductions for every one new hire. There are now about 2.1 million federal employees. For 2026, agencies will submit annual headcount plans to OPM and OMB in the coming weeks. OPM said these plans should focus on the agency's critical mission objectives only and should be built from the bottom up to determine how many people are needed to meet their priorities.
  (317,000 feds have left the government this year, surpassing OPM's goal - Federal News Network)
• The Senate breathed some life into the Technology Modernization Fund for 2026. After receiving no new funding for the last two years, the TMF could be getting a small influx of new money. The Senate is allocating $5 million for the governmentwide IT modernization account in its version of the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill. The House version of the FSGG bill didn't include any new money for the TMF, meaning the final version would have to find a compromise between the two chambers of Congress. So far in 2025, the TMF Board has made only one new award for an agency modernization project.
  (Senate to give TMF $5M for 2026 - Senate Appropriations Committee)
• More than two weeks after the record-long government shutdown ended, some Defense Department civilian employees say they have yet to receive the back pay they are owed. At Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, more than 150 people in a unit of more than 400 civilians are still waiting for as much as four weeks of back pay. The Defense Department said all civilians whose updated time and attendance records have been received have been paid, and that anyone still experiencing issues should contact their Agency Customer Service Representative or supervisor. But several civilian workers told Federal News Network that going to a supervisor has not worked.
  (Some DoD civilians are still waiting for back pay weeks after shutdown’s end - Federal News Network)
• As the Defense Department moves to implement Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sweeping acquisition reforms, Space Force leaders warn that the depth of workforce cuts is threatening to cripple the service’s ability to execute them. Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting assistant secretary for space acquisition at the Air Force, said that the service is “in a situation where it barely has enough acquirers to do all of the work that they have now.” The Trump administration push to reduce the size of the federal workforce has had an “outsized impact” on the Space Force. The service has lost nearly 14% of its civilian workforce, much of it coming from Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s acquisition hub.
  (Deep personnel cuts jeopardize Space Force’s ability to implement Hegseth’s acquisition reforms - Federal News Network)

The post IG reports that USPS is slow to identify underutilized spaces first appeared on Federal News Network.

© AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Welcome back, dear digital investigators! 

Today, we’re exploring mobile forensics, a field that matters deeply in modern crime investigations. Think about how much our phones know about us. They carry our contacts, messages, locations, and app history in many ways. They are a living log of our daily lives. Because they travel with us everywhere, they can be a goldmine of evidence when something serious happens, like a crime. In a murder investigation, for instance, a suspect’s or a victim’s phone can help us answer critical questions: Who were they in touch with right before the crime? Where did they go? What were they doing? What kind of money dealings were they involved in? All of this makes mobile forensics powerful for investigators. As digital forensic specialists, we use that data to reconstruct timelines, detect motives, and understand relationships. Because of this, even a seemingly small app on a phone might have huge significance. For example, financial trading apps may reveal risky behavior or debt. Chat apps might contain confessions or threats. Location logs might show the victim visiting unusual places.

The Difference Between Android and iOS Forensics

When we do mobile forensics, we usually see Android and iOS devices. These two operating systems are quite different under the hood, and that affects how we work with them. On Android, there’s generally more openness. The file system for many devices is more accessible, letting us examine data stored in app directories, caches, logs, and more. Because Android is so widespread and also fragmented with many manufacturers and versions, the data we can access depends a lot on the model and version. 

On iOS, things are tighter. Apple uses its own file system (APFS), and there’s strong encryption, often backed by secure hardware. That means extracting data can be more challenging. Because of this, forensic tools must be very sophisticated to handle iOS devices.

When it comes to which has more usable data, Android often gives us more raw artifacts because of its flexibility. But iOS can also be very rich, especially when data is backed up to iCloud or when we can legally access the device in powerful ways.

The Tools For the Job

One of the most powerful tools is Cellebrite, which is used by law enforcement and digital forensic labs. Cellebrite’s tools are capable of extracting data from both Android and iOS devices, sometimes even from locked devices. But the ability to extract depends a lot on the device model, its security patch level, and how encrypted it is.

There’s an interesting twist when it comes to GrapheneOS, which is a very security-focused version of Android. According to reports, Cellebrite tools struggle more with GrapheneOS, especially on devices updated after 2022. In some cases, they may be able to do a “consent-based” extraction (meaning the phone has to be unlocked by the user), but they can’t fully bypass the security on a fully patched GrapheneOS phone. Because of that, from a security perspective, users are strongly encouraged to keep their firmware and operating system updated. Regular updates close vulnerabilities. Also, using strong passcodes, enabling encryption, and being careful about where sensitive data is stored can make a real difference in protecting personal data.

Our Case: Investigating a Murder Using an Android Phone

Now, let’s turn to our case. We are in the middle of a murder investigation, and we’ve managed to secure the victim’s Android phone. After talking with witnesses and people who were close to the victim, we believe this phone holds critical evidence. To analyze all of that, we are using ALEAPP, a forensic tool made specifically for parsing Android data.

ALEAPP and How It Works

ALEAPP stands for Android Logs, Events, And Protobuf Parser. It’s an open-source tool maintained by the forensic community. Basically, ALEAPP allows us to take the extracted data from an Android phone, whether it’s a logical extraction, a TAR or ZIP file, or a file-system dump and turn that raw data into a human-readable, well-organized report. ALEAPP can run through a graphical interface, which is very friendly and visual, or via command line, depending on how you prefer to work. As it processes data, it goes through different modules for things like call logs, SMS, app usage, accounts, Wi-Fi events, and more. In the end, it outputs a report, so you can easily explore and navigate all the findings.

You can find the repository here:

https://github.com/abrignoni/ALEAPP

What We Found on the Victim’s Phone

We started by examining the internal storage of the Android device, especially the /data folder. This is where apps keep their private data, caches, and account information. Then, we prepared a separate place on our investigation workstation, a folder called output, where ALEAPP would save its processed data.

Once ALEAPP was ready, we launched it and pointed it to the extracted directories. We left all its parsing modules turned on so we wouldn’t miss any important artifact. We clicked “Process,” and depending on the size of the extracted data, we waited for a few minutes while ALEAPP parsed everything.

When the processing was done, a new folder appeared inside our output directory. In that folder, there was a file called index.html, that’s our main report. We opened it with a browser and the GUI showed us different categories. The interface is clean and intuitive, so even someone not deeply familiar with command-line tools can navigate it.

Evidence That Stood Out

One of the first things that caught our attention was a trading app. ALEAPP showed an installed application named OlympTrade. A quick web search confirmed that OlympTrade is a real online trading platform. That fits with what witnesses told us. The victim was involved in trading, possibly borrowing or investing money. We also noted a hash value for the app in our report, which helps prove the data’s integrity. This means we can be more confident that what we saw hasn’t been tampered with.

Next, we turned to text messages. According to the victim’s best friend’s testimony, the victim avoided some calls and said he owed a lot of money. When we checked SMS data in ALEAPP, we found a thread where the victim indeed owed $25,000 USD to someone.

We looked up the number in the contacts list, and it was saved under the name John Oberlander. That makes John an important person of interest in this investigation.

Then, we dove into location data. The victim’s family said that on September 20, 2023, he left his home without saying where he was going. In ALEAPP’s “Recent Activity” section, which tracks events like Wi-Fi connections, GPS logs, and other background activity, we saw evidence placing him at The Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, Egypt. This is significant. A 5-star hotel, which could have security footage, check-in records, or payment logs. Investigators would almost certainly reach out to the hotel to reconstruct his stay.

The detective pressed on with his investigation and spoke with the hotel staff, hoping to fill in more of the victim’s final days. The employees confirmed that the victim had booked a room for ten days and was supposed to take a flight afterward. Naturally, the investigator wondered whether the victim had saved any ticket information on the phone, since many people store their travel plans digitally nowadays. Even though no tickets turned up in the phone’s files, the search did reveal something entirely different, and potentially much more important. We looked at Discord, since the app appeared in the list of installed applications. Discord logs can reveal private chats, plans, and sometimes illicit behavior. In this case, we saw a conversation indicating that the victim changed his travel plans. He postponed a flight to October 1st, according to the chat.

Later, he agreed to meet someone in person at a very specific place. It was the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas. That detail could tie into motive or meetings related to the crime.

What Happens Next

At this stage, we’ve collected and parsed digital evidence, but our work is far from over. Now, we need to connect the phone-based data to the real world. That means requesting more information from visited places, checking for possible boarding or ticket purchases, and interviewing people named in the phone, like John Oberlander, or the person from Discord.

We might also want to validate financial trail through the trading platform (if we can access it legally), bank statements, or payment records. And importantly, we should search for other devices or backups. Maybe the victim had cloud backups, like Google Drive, or other devices that shed more light.

Reconstructed Timeline

The victim was heavily involved in trading and apparently owed $25,000 USD to John Oberlander. On September 20, 2023, he left his residence without telling anyone where he was headed. The phone’s location data places him later that day at The Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, suggesting he stayed there. Sometime afterward, according to Discord chats, he changed his travel plans and his flight was rescheduled for October 1. During these chats, he arranged a meeting with someone at the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Summary

Mobile forensics is a deeply powerful tool when investigating crimes. A single smartphone can hold evidence that helps reconstruct what happened, when, and with whom. Android devices often offer more raw data because of their openness, while iOS devices pose different challenges due to their strong encryption. Tools like ALEAPP let us parse all of that data into meaningful and structured reports.

In the case we’re studying, the victim’s phone has offered us insights into his financial troubles, his social connections, his movements, and his plans. But digital evidence is only one piece. To solve a crime, we must combine what we learn from devices with interviews, external records, and careful collaboration with other investigators.

Our team provides professional mobile forensics services designed to support individuals, organizations, and legal professionals who need clear, reliable answers grounded in technical expertise. We also offer a comprehensive digital forensics course for those who want to build their own investigative skills and understand how evidence is recovered, analyzed, and preserved. And if you feel that your safety or your life may be at risk, reach out immediately. Whether you need guidance, assistance, or a deeper understanding of the digital traces surrounding your case, we are here to help.

Check out our Mobile Forensics training for more in-depth training

Interview transcript:

Sam Helmick The E-Rate Hotspot Lending Program is built on about three decades of the FCC’s E-Rate program, which has enabled libraries and schools to have discounts for broadband connectivity as we continue to develop 21st-century readers, learners and skills. And so traditionally that E-Rate funding could only be used for connections within libraries and school buildings. But then in 2024, the then-FCC chairwoman really launched this beautiful program called Learn Without Limits. And that expanded eligibility for the Wi-Fi hotspot devices that libraries could retain to be circulated much like books, particularly to households without reliable or affordable broadband. And the American Libraries Association deeply supported this. And it was executed in more than 800 libraries across the nation; schools and public have utilized this service. It’s about $34 million dollars’ worth of hotspot funding in the year of 2025 to make meaningful connectivity change for Americans.

Eric White Okay, got it. So the FCC voted to virtually end the program back on September 30th. What happened there? What was their reasoning for giving that and does that truly mean the end of the program, or are there other avenues that the program could take to stay alive?

Sam Helmick You’re absolutely right. On September 30th of this year, the FCC voted 2-1 to rescind the hotspot lending program and the school bus Wi-Fi initiative. The majority argued that the E-rate statute didn’t authorize funding for services used beyond library and school property. But the American Library Association, along with many of our partner organizations, disagree with that interpretation and have really urged the FCC to reconsider and maintain the program. This decision reverses rules adopted in 2024 that have just begun to take effect and we’re already sort of seeing the 2025 E-Rate cycle being denied. And we understand that a reader denied is literacy denied, and connectivity divide is almost like participation in civic and educational life denied.

Eric White Yeah, particularly in those rural areas where you may not have a steady connection. You can still obviously access the internet in the library, but you know, when you’re in a teaching scenario and you don’t want to take up the computer for too long because then you start to feel guilty, right? So what other options do folks have who are out in those rural areas that relied on this program?

Sam Helmick If the federal government isn’t prepared to create a robust infrastructure for broadband for our national security, entrepreneurial and economic development, and pursuit of educational wellness and happiness, then I think that we have to think about those students that are on bus rides for up to like three hours a day, back and forth, trying to accomplish their homework. Or folks who are applying for jobs on Sundays because it’s the only day they have off, but the library isn’t supported or resourced enough to be open to them for their public access computers. Also, folks who are trying to attend telehealth appointments, access government services, or even connect with loved ones. Often I think folks forget that libraries are spaces where during both triumph and trials in a community, this is where folks need to go to access internet to tell the broader world and their loved ones that they’re safe and they’re fine. And so we’re really thinking about the broad spectrum of American life and how the lack of connectivity infrastructurally has been devastating. And this was an effort to mitigate that devastation. Now to lose this really leaves a lot of Americans in the lurch.

Eric White We’re speaking with Sam Helmick, president of the American Libraries Association. Let’s talk about federal support for public libraries in general. I’ve spoken to your organization in the past. There were some concerns about dwindling support and obviously cuts have come across the board for a lot of federal programs and I’m sure that libraries are not immune to that. Do I have that correct? And you know, where do things currently stand?

Sam Helmick Oh, you’re absolutely right. In 2024, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded $266.7 million dollars through grant-making research and policy development that particularly supported not only our state libraries across the nation, but then our small and rural that rely on those matching state dollar funds to make sure that our tax dollars are working twice and three times over. So with the executive order seeking to dismantle that institute, as well as the lack of robust or comprehensive release of the congressionally mandated funds that fund that institute that support libraries around the country and therefore communities around the country, libraries are experiencing resource scarcity at the federal and then the state and then at the local level. Because despite the fact that those federal dollars have been paid by the taxpayers, they’re not getting returned back. And then if you have contracts through those state consortiums or state libraries, those contracts didn’t end just because the congressionally mandated dollars were not provided to the states. And so this is creating an undue burden on state taxes and taxpayers, and then that trickles down to hurting rural communities that are the least-resourced, but probably the most in need, when it comes to their community anchor institutions, which are a public or a school or an academic library.

Eric White Yeah, I was going to say I’m in no way living in a rural area, but going to any of the libraries in my vicinity, they’re as crowded as ever. So it seems as if the need for resources is almost at an all-time high at a time when they may not have all the support they need.

Sam Helmick Increasingly you and I understand that having digital connection is going to allow us to not only thrive civically but economically, educationally, and then just socially. And so to bar that access to any American, particularly in a country that is so well-resourced and rich, feels counterintuitive to ensuring that we continue to be a nation that thrives 250 years into our story.

Eric White All right, so the situation is what it is. What steps are organizations like yourselves taking, and are there other options on the table, you know, nonprofits, things of that nature? Or is it really just going to come down to more states and more local governments are going to have to step in if they want to save these libraries?

Sam Helmick I think it’s holding anybody, regardless of where they sit on the aisle, accountable to understanding that more Americans visit libraries than they do baseball games, which is our national pastime. And that 70% of us are not interested in abridging or censoring information for any reason — not for economic reasons, not for ideological reasons. That’s a large spectrum of American life, through third-party surveys, that show us how much we value access to information. So how do we support those values? Well, first we recognize that we’re about to be 250 years old as a nation, and that this unique form of government had an essential mechanism called libraries, which is why a lot of our founders invested in them, because they wanted a robust constituency and society that was educated so that it could progress and have informed decisions when it came to civic life. And if we’re going to continue to value that, that means we need to use our libraries. We need to dust off our library cards and make sure that they’re active. Increasingly and regularly, as folks who want to get into the advocacy piece, it’s visiting ALA.org/advocacy to learn how you can write an email, invite your Congress member to come visit their local libraries in their areas of representation, join a city council, join a library board of trustees, join a school board so that your voice and fingerprints are part of the conversation. It’s writing to your legislators and reminding them that you wanted to robustly support your libraries, and so you’re asking them to write policy and create funding that will make that manifest. And then lastly, you can also visit ILoveLibraries.org, so that if you’re wanting to support the American Library Association and library practitioners that are doing this work, you can donate your store, you can donate funds to support moving this national value 250 years into the future.

Eric White You bring up the 250 years portion and that provides me a nice segue. Your organization is a 150 years old, almost. From a historical standpoint, have the nation’s libraries ever really gone through anything like this before? I’m just curious if you have any historical perspective on if we’ve been here before, you know, through tumultuous times  throughout American history.

Sam Helmick Great opportunity to tell a story. I love telling stories, Eric. In 1938, Des Moines Public Library director Forrest Spaulding wrote the Library of Bill of Rights. And I think he did it for a few reasons. We had just gone through a Great Depression and recognized how instrumental our libraries were to supporting their communities during economic strife, but also lifting them up to build entrepreneurial and economic development. But then it was also going through between the world wars and recognizing that we were a melting pot. And sometimes the ideas and values of a very vibrant culture, they blend and harmonize, but sometimes they also brush and create friction. And so creating a set of values where it talks about the right to use reading rooms, the right to find books that both counter and support your own ideology, the right to assemble, the right to speak and to read were essential. And in 1939, the American Library Association adopted that to become an international of free people reading freely. And so when I think about our history, I think libraries have been very good at growing at the pace of their societies, turning inwardly to think about how they can do the work better, and then relying on their communities to do the work best. And so while I would argue that we probably are seeing a difficult time, probably something that even counters McCarthyism in the United States, we have always turned in and relied on our communities and our values to push through. And so using your library, visiting ALA.org/advocacy, using your voice to speak to those that you’ve elected into power — this has always been the recipe. And if we all stay in character, I think we can continue to thrive.

The post When the hotspots go dark, who connects the unconnected? first appeared on Federal News Network.

© The Associated Press

NASA is moving quickly to consolidate up to a quarter of its suburban Maryland campus.

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers told its members in a recent issue brief that the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is embarking on plans to close 13 buildings on the west side of its campus.

According to the union, the building closures began Sept. 23 and continued through the recent government shutdown. IFPTE said the consolidation of NASA Goddard’s campus includes plans to “empty” or “displace” nearly 100 laboratories — and in some cases, “discard unique and valuable labs, equipment, and materials.”

NASA’s master plan for its Goddard campus calls for a 25% reduction of its square footage by 2037. NASA released the master plan in February 2022.

Democratic lawmakers are warning NASA about the pace of this consolidation work, and raising concerns that relocating these labs could set back research projects across the campus.

Senior NASA leaders, however, say campus consolidation is urgent and will help the agency save tens of millions of dollars by closing unnecessary buildings.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is the nation’s largest organization of scientists and engineers who build spacecraft, as well as tools to study Earth, the sun, the solar system and the universe.

According to IFPTE, NASA expects the buildings marked for closure to be emptied out by March 2026, “a deadline that can only result in significant harm or destruction to NASA’s strategic capabilities and critical NASA missions.” The union said NASA called in Goddard campus employees and contractors during the recent government shutdown to move their equipment and belongings.

“The unplanned and hasty nature of the action is poised to result in the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded laboratory facilities, including sophisticated and high-value equipment that will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace,” IPFTE told its members.

IPFTE said it’s not clear whether this work was deemed exempt from the shutdown, or whether the consolidation activities violated the Antideficiency Act.

“In some instances, employees have been recalled from furlough status and given 48 hours to pack up their offices under threat of having their personal belongings thrown away or mishandled,” the union told members.

House Science, Space and Technology Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called on NASA to “immediately halt” all building closures and relocation activities. Lofgren said committee staff were told that additional Goddard facilities would be emptied out as soon as Nov. 12.

Lofgren told NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Secretary of Transportation, that the pace of consolidation could “irreversibly degrade critical functions supporting NASA’s flight missions,” damage specialized equipment and “permanently kneecap the agency.”

“The agency’s hastily planned moves and closures – some of which I understand are already well underway – risk causing significant delays for multi-billion-dollar missions under development,” Lofgren wrote in a Nov. 10 letter.

Lofgren said the consolidation plans would impact a propulsion lab that is “mission-critical” for the completion of the Roman Space Telescope, one of NASA’s flagship scientific missions.

“I fully recognize the challenges of NASA’s aging infrastructure and the need to modernize and improve the agency’s centers. But that is far from what is happening at Goddard today,” Lofgren wrote. She said she will ask NASA’s inspector general to investigate the Goddard campus consolidation plans.

NASA leadership, however, told Lofgren that claims NASA Goddard is being shut down or dismantled “could not be further from the truth.”

Cynthia Simmons, the acting director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, told Lofgren that rising operations and maintenance costs and a static budget “have forced NASA to implement efforts to ensure the center’s long-term viability through more efficiently utilizing available space and consolidating or reconstituting facilities.”

They said efforts to reduce operations and maintenance costs at other campuses started over five years ago, and that plans for consolidation efforts at the Greenbelt campus began in June 2023.

“This ongoing work will make Goddard better positioned to lead the development, integration, and testing of NASA Science flight missions,” they wrote.

Simmons and Fox said the campus consolidation will cut Goddard’s annual operating costs by $10 million, and would avoid $64 million in deferred maintenance costs.

“This work is being carefully coordinated with the mission project managers of the critical missions currently in development to avoid impacting schedule and/or increasing costs. In many cases, waiting to reconfigure laboratories or technical workspaces would unnecessarily delay program work and increase mission cost,” they wrote.

NASA, much like the rest of the federal government, has been funded through a continuing resolution for about the past two years — meaning its budget is locked in at spending levels set in fiscal 2024.

Simmons and Fox said these CRs, combined with rising operations and maintenance costs over a prolonged period, have forced NASA to ensure the campus’s “long-term viability through more efficiently utilizing available space and consolidating or reconstituting facilities.”

NASA also is funded at current spending levels through Jan. 30, 2026. Its safety, security and mission services budget, which includes building and infrastructure spending, is likely to remain unchanged in a fiscal 2026 funding bill.

IPFTE, however, says these building closures “are themselves extremely costly and wasteful.” The union says the labs impacted by the consolidation are also by other federal agencies, universities, and private-sector companies.

Lawmakers from Maryland are also raising concerns about the Goddard campus consolidation.

“We believe that any consolidation on the Greenbelt campus must sustain the world-class capabilities of Goddard for future science and exploration missions and comply with all applicable laws,” they wrote in a letter to NASA’s leadership.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and with Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), and Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.) say thousands of NASA employees at the Goddard campus have left this year, both through layoffs and voluntary separation incentives.

“Unfortunately, actions taken during the last nine months threaten the workers at Goddard and their ability to lead the world in this science and exploration,” the lawmakers wrote.

The post NASA advances plan to shrink Goddard campus by 25% first appeared on Federal News Network.

© The Associated Press

Interview transcript:

Terry Gerton From printed circuit boards to drone assembly, the Army’s organic industrial base is evolving to meet future combat needs. Colonels Brett Ayvazian and James Crocker from Army Materiel Command say modernization is underway, but aging infrastructure and supply chain fragility remain key challenges. They joined me at AUSA’s annual conference to discuss the situation…starting with a general description of the Army’s industrial base.

Col. James Crocker I think the Army’s industrial base is our organic ability to repair or manufacture things that are necessary for our Army to fight and win our nation’s wars.

Terry Gerton And some of these are Army-owned/contractor-operated, some of them are contractor-owned/contractor-operated?

Col. Brett Ayvazian Yes, ma’am. Government-owned/government-operated, government-owned/contractor-operating, and then part of the further broad defense industrial base is the contractor-owned/contractor-operated.

Terry Gerton Both of you obviously have direct personal experience here and you’ve been in combat operations, you’ve served at all kinds of different levels. From your perspective now, at the headquarters of Army Materiel Command, would you say that the Army’s industrial base is adequate to meet the demands that we face both today and in future operations?

Col. James Crocker I would say that our organic industrial base is evolving.  I think it’s evolving from what we needed in the last 15 to 20 years to what we need in the future. For my experience at Tobyhanna Army Depot, we were very focused on communications electronic command systems that would come in and do repairs on those systems. Very rote system; so many trailer-mounted communication things that come through a year, you’d refurbish them, put them out of the field, and meet those requirements that are coming out of specifically Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Today we don’t see that as much of a requirement inside Tobyhanna. So we see more of a move towards a technological requirement. In the last year, Tobyhanna has stood up its surface-mount technology printed circuit board manufacturing line to get after those things that are not necessarily easily available in the supply chain and try to enhance readiness that way. Focusing more on working with our PEOs and our PMs to work on the front side of the logistics cycle, like producing all of the mounting kits for all of our stuff going into next-generation C2. Things like that, I think, are where the future of our C5ISR depot are going. Because we may not be having to do overhauls that we did in the past, because of the cost are so cheap on those equipment, that there’s not really the benefit to do the overhauls.

Terry Gerton So tell me more about that in terms of how that’s changing the repair strategy for the kinds of equipment that Tobyhanna supports.

Col. James Crocker In your communication systems, you’re seeing — obviously, we’re still repairing shelters, right, there’s always going be a need for shelters that go in the back of Humvees and 5-Tons, and that’s a very vibrant repair line. But you may not be repairing all the components that go inside that shelter, right? You may just be refitting a rack, resetting up to a different configuration to meet the next requirement that the Army needs for the next evolution of what our communications architecture will look like.

Terry Gerton In the ammunition space, how are we doing there? We’re hearing a lot about ammunition inventories and supply. From your experience at Blue Grass, how are doing?

Col. Brett Ayvazian So ma’am, from the storage and distribution perspective and refurbishment at Blue Grass itself, I think we’re well-postured for where we are. However, our infrastructure definitely needs to be upgraded and updated. I mean, we’re still operating out of World War II-era facilities with just poor, old, degraded buildings. And so part of the whole OIB modernization effort is, over 15 years, to bring us up to date and up to speed to where we need to be as far as, you know, manufacture, refurbishment, storage, distribution, DMIL. So we’re on the path to get there. The last couple years that we’ve been in the OIB modernization space, the first portion of that is trying to upgrade our facilities so that we can modernize, we can get new lines, we can get robotics in there, we can expand our capacity. One of my subordinate units was Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, and they make the 155-millimeter metal parts.

Terry Gerton I’ve been to Scranton. It’s like a time travel experience.

Col. Brett Ayvazian It is. The building was built in like 1908 and it’s an old railroad car refurbishment place. When you walk and you still feel like you’re in the 1920s and 1930s. And one of the things that they’ve done there is they removed some of the older lines that they use to produce other munitions to put in additional lines to double their capacity for 155-millimeter production. So, you know, with the investments in that, and then as well as the investments where, at Blue Grass for example, they modernized one of their 105 millimeter-round refurbishment lines to additionally add on the capability to refurbish 155 millimeter as well. So we’re on the path. We’ve got a long way to go. It’s going to take a lot of time, a lot money, and we’re almost there, but we’re not close

Terry Gerton Our NATO allies really have modernized their ammunition manufacturing capacity significantly, really — 21st century capability. How does that mismatch in capacity and fabrication or manufacturing, how does that play out in operations?

Col. Brett Ayvazian Well, to be honest with you, I’m not so familiar with our allies and what their production capability and capacity is, but what I can tell you is that we have definitely played a big role in helping supply and double our production and with some of our government-owned/contractor-operated and contractor-owned/contractor-operated places, we’ve definitely expanded to be on point to double that production and make sure we meet up those needs to help not only ourselves, but our allies as well.

Terry Gerton One of the ways that we help close capability gaps in the industrial basis through partnerships, right? With OEMs, with other manufacturers, folks in various stages of the supply chain. Talk to me a little bit about how that’s playing out both in the depots and then in the ammunition plants.

Col. James Crocker Yes, I think at Tobyhanna, we had a very vibrant public-private partnership program. So I think we’re about 52 active P3s at Tobyhanna today, which is quite a bit. A lot of them for DMIL operations for communication security devices, but also some really good ones where we’re helping organic industrial manufacturers produce components of their systems to get in the hands of our soldiers. So like a P3 for being able to do weldments or do manufacturing. We’re trying to get into some space in some circuit cards up there today where we can help meet some reduced backlog for OEMs so that they can go into. So, places like that is where we really see a lot of benefit for our organic industrial base. Brett’s been working a lot with Dr. Hill on trying to revitalize P3s, or try to expand P3s inside the organic industrial base and really bring some of that greater defense industrial base cooperation together at our organic facilities.

Terry Gerton That’s got to help a lot with training the workforce as well on all the different kinds of technologies.

Col. James Crocker Absolutely, especially when we have — we’re in periods right now where we’re going through modernization. You don’t see as many refurbishments going through programs. And what that lets us do is really supplement our workforce so we can maintain that technological skill for human capital, so that when the Army does bring in the next sets of systems, those skills are still there and ready to move on to the next thing. So that’s really key for us.

Col. Brett Ayvazian Yes, ma’am, and to add onto that, one of the things that we’ve done at AMC headquarters in the last 60 days is conducting an assessment directed by the Secretary of the Army to understand where we are as far as our capability gaps, our capacity gaps, and then come up with recommendations on how to move forward. And part of that is we’ve decided that in certain places, where it makes sense, we’re going to explore partnering with industry to further grow public-private partnerships and augment our workforce. For example, one of the places, we’ve got a ton of underutilized storage capability. Ammunition bunkers, inside warehouses, outbound storage, container storage. So what we’re trying to do is partner with third-party logistics companies that have customers that are looking for short-term storage. We will partner with those companies and have them store and we will actually look to do the actual warehousing and distribution of that so it keeps our workforce fresh. And another example of something like that is we’re looking at potentially getting into partnerships with civilian companies that have heavy trucks and running them through our lines and doing some of the maintenance on it, so while it’s not doing military equipment, it’s still keeping those mechanics and those artisans still turning wrenches, still fresh in their craft, relevant and moving forward.

Terry Gerton Any other big observations from that assessment?

Col. Brett Ayvazian Well, at this point, the assessment’s not complete, ma’am, so what I can tell you is we owe an outbrief. We’ve done an interim. We owe an outbrief to the Army senior leadership, but we’re well on the way to producing this. We’ve got a backbrief here coming up to the end of the month to the Army Materiel Command commander, and then furthermore, the Army senior leadership.

Terry Gerton Got it, got it. We talked a little bit about technology coming into the depots. Technology, of course, is also coming into the end items that the Army is using, everything from unmanned systems, to satellites, to microelectronics. How are you adjusting — how is technology affecting both the work of the depots and arsenals, but also the kinds of equipment that you’re having to modernize and take care of?

Col. Brett Ayvazian I think you’ve got some great experience there with the SkyFoundry and that whole initiative.

Col. James Crocker Yeah, twofold for that. So the first point is from what we saw in the Tobyhanna workforce was actually a really large shift in what we consider floor laborers or our wage-grade employees moving towards more towards technical skills like engineers they require. Especially when you look at what Tobyhanna is doing for the future, more SATCOM-based work, managing everything from uplinks, doing testing and test environments before we deploy them on SATCOM systems. So a lot more complicated, a lot more software and digital requirements on our workforce than what we’d traditionally seen 15 or 20 years ago, for sure. And that seems to be a prevailing trend. Microelectronics, same thing. Getting into circuit card manufacturing, a lot of high-end electronics repair, and less reliance on what we would consider the old refurbishment labor in the past. Recently, AMC has taken on the initiative called SkyFoundry, and SkyFoundry is moving the organic industrial base into a SUAS manufacturing capability. The idea is over this next year to rapidly expand out five of our sites to do a distributed manufacturing model where we can produce at scale tradable UAS systems for our soldiers and support the department’s requirements. And so that’s a completely different kind of construct, different way of doing business. So instead of having a one-site set for one system, like at JMTC, we would use their advanced manufacturing capabilities to make the frames or the chassis. At Tobyhanna Army Depot we do the internal electronics and the brush motor manufacturing, and then we’d ship all those parts right over to Red River Army Depot, who would do the assembly of them, do the final test, they’ll make propellers and they’ll assemble batteries there for the final components and ship off to their soldiers. And then at Blue Grass Army Depot, where Brett commanded, we’re going to set up an innovation hub. And that’s a place where we do soldier-centered design, taking the feedback from the field, bring that in, and inform either a government design, or if it’s a public-private partnership where a company owns that design, we can give them that direct feedback. They can go to the innovator on it and say something that works great in CENTCOM, but it doesn’t work good in the Arctic. They can say, hey, we need to polarize this, get it ready for cold weather, and be able to up-degree that design for a one-off variant for what we’re going to ship up to that region, right? And we think that’s going to be very powerful for us. The folks at Blue Grass are doing a lot of great things on some AI, ML work on drones already, working with PEO-EIS. And so we’re just going to use that as a springboard to move forward. So really trying to use the strengths of our organic industrial base and not start from the ground up to move this a lot faster.

Terry Gerton That is fascinating. You mentioned AI, I’m just curious, how is AI changing the planning for Army logistics, especially at the depots? Are you doing more with predictive analytics?

Col. Brett Ayvazian So I think we’re just getting started on that. The Secretary of the Army and the under and the deputy just had recently an AI TTX, or tabletop exercise, and we’re looking and exploring options on how do we actually incorporate AI into our depots. Because again, we still operate in early this-century mode, at best, when it comes to data and data management and tracking and sorting everything that we do in our inventory and in our processing. So that’s one of the things that we’re exploring in looking at public-private partnerships to bring in companies that can help us take a look at how we might digitize the entire OIB, creating digital twins of the OIB so we can run simulations and we can factor in different data bits and data points so that we can better optimize our operations.

Col. James Crocker That’s a good point. And so for OIB modernization, one of the things we’re having to look at, it’s like SkyFoundry, and as we build in, we’ll digital twin that line before we install it, right? And so we may not be able to afford the automation in year one, but in year two, year three, we’ll have a cutout where we can go in and do automation at that point in time. You know, automate where it makes sense, keep manual where it doesn’t, right, but have those inflection points so that the line is designed to be able to do that, which is different than the past. And then once you have all that data, across the organization, based on the LOEs under Ms. Stephanie Hoagland’s OIB Modernization Task Force is to do automation of our network. So building the industrial control network necessary to control all those machines. Do all the fiber runs to make sure we have, you know, NIPRNET throughout the entire depot so that all your CNC machines, your lathes, your water jets, things like that. We can actually pull the data off there, look at it, use data-informed decisions when it comes to maintenance. Do predictive maintenance on those things and say, hey, when we saw this the last time, this is what went wrong, let’s go and order to that part now so we can fix it before it breaks, and we don’t have line stoppages. But also be able to look at capacity on those lines and say, “all right, we think we have capacity excess at Letterkenny, Tobyhanna, ship your excess workload down there,” and so Letter Kenny can execute that. Because it’s only a couple hours away, right, reducing shipping costs; they’re so close they should be mutually supportive. Those kind of decisions are what we’re looking at for that industrial control network and the ability to leverage that data. And then once we have that and we have good, clean data, then we’ll be able to use the artificial intelligence to help us make very, very risk-informed decisions.

Col. Brett Ayvazian And I can add on to that just one piece on the human workforce, human capital piece. As we digitize, as we start implementing more AI, we may not necessarily need workers on certain positions. But then that’s where we would actually retrain them and upscale them to focus on other areas so that they stay maintained, they stay operated, and we develop that workforce in that manner.

Terry Gerton I’m really glad to hear that. The AMC workforce is a national treasure, I think. I want to follow up here though, as we talked about the things that we’re doing to modernize the organic industrial base. Col. Crocker, I know you’re working with supply chain analysis right now. What are you finding in terms of the Army supply chain? Is it fragile? Does it have gaps?

Col. James Crocker There’s things we have to fix for sure, and so one of the initiatives I’ll talk about is our advanced manufacturing. So recently Lt. Gen. Mohan was granted authorities from the Secretary of the Army to qualify advanced manufactured parts, which is a game-changer for us. It lets us have another route to bring stuff in. So we’ve got, in fact at the Warrior’s Corner tomorrow, Brig. Gen. Behn from TACOM will talk about advanced manufacturing with our NIAR rep, who’s the partner we’re using on this, and so we’re trying to go fast. They qualified 60 parts in 60 days. And so the TACOM CG will talk about that, I won’t steal her thunder, but it’s a way for us to start getting parts faster, use our advanced manufacturing database so that when we get those parts, we can either get them out to a manufacturer or we produce them organically if we have the capacity to handle it, and that they’re already qualified parts that we know will work on our equipment, right? And so we’ll start with risk buckets, what’s low risk, what’s moderate risk, what’s high risk? Solve all the low risks and moderate risks and worry about the high risk later, right? And that way we can start solving readiness issues today as opposed to trying to figure out what the high risks will get us to. That’s a great initiative, one of the ways that we’re trying to help that supply chain.

Col. Brett Ayvazian And I agree in addition to that, again, our OIB workforce is so talented and they have such capability that they have been able to take a look at some of those long lead-time parts. They’ve been able reverse-engineer some things and have the capability to produce it themselves internally and like James just said, we’ve been granted the authority to go ahead and certify those parts, which gets us the parts that we need in the hands of the soldiers to fix the equipment a lot faster.

Col. James Crocker One last thing I’d bring on to that too, when you start talking about the more advanced supply chain — on the Q53 radar, one of the systems we maintained at Tobyhanna, there was a circuit card that was never intended to be repaired on it. It was made to be a disposable, supposed to be readily available, relatively low cost, and we found out because of post-COVID production lines, there’s like a two-year backlog on these things. So working with the OEM, no P3 involved, just working with Lockheed Martin, who was the OEM for that machine, they helped us figure out what it would take to do component repair on that, and so we can turn them around to five or six weeks as opposed to two years, right? And so not really a cost savings for the Army. But working with that strong defense industrial-base partner with the organic depot, it lets the manufacturer focus on manufacturing and getting the stuff they need out for the PM, but enabling the depot to be that source of support to make sure that we’re able to maintain our readiness. Things like that are important and what we’re going to have to continue to do inside our organic industrial base.

Terry Gerton Well, that seems to lead right into my last question, which is if the fight breaks out tomorrow, is the industrial base ready to scale at speed to support a major global conflict?

Col. Brett Ayvazian Absolutely. We’ve got the workforce, we’ve got the space and we’ve got the partnerships with industry to help us surge where we need to. Now again, as far as being in the modern facilities, we’re going to get there. It’s going to take us a little bit of time, but we’re ready to fight tonight.

The post The Army is racing to modernize its industrial base to stay ready for tomorrow’s fight first appeared on Federal News Network.

© The Associated Press

PinnacleOne recently partnered with a leading UK construction company to analyze the cybersecurity risks shaping the sector in 2025. This new report explores how evolving threats intersect with the construction industry’s unique challenges, including tight project timelines, complex supply chains, sensitive data, and high-value transactions. Aimed at CISOs and security leaders, it provides actionable guidance to balance opportunity with resilience, ensuring construction firms stay secure while building the nation’s future.

Report Overview

The UK construction sector is a vital part of the national economy, contributing approximately 5.4% of GDP and employing around 1.4 million people. However, this critical industry is increasingly the target of cyber threat actors seeking financial gains and espionage.

PinnacleOne recently collaborated with a UK construction company to review these trends and bolster their cyber strategy. In a new report, PinnacleOne synthesizes key recommendations for construction sector cyber strategy to help CISOs stay ahead of the threat.

The construction industry’s core characteristics make it a uniquely enticing target for cyber threat actors:

• Money: Construction companies frequently handle high-value transactions, making them susceptible to financial fraud via business email compromise (BEC). Attackers can achieve significant gains by intercepting even a single large transaction.
• Sensitive Data: Construction firms often possess a variety of sensitive data, including personal, sensitive personal, and client data, some of which is regulated by mandates like the Building Safety Act. This data is valuable to both threat actors and regulators, incentivizing attacks and regulatory scrutiny.
• Time Sensitivity: Construction projects operate on tight schedules and budgets. Cyberattacks causing delays can lead to reputational damage and liquidity issues, as rapid payment for invoices is often mandated.
• Broad Attack Surface: The industry’s reliance on numerous contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and a wide array of IoT/OT devices creates multiple avenues for threat actor infiltration, presenting significant cybersecurity challenges.

For construction companies, cyber risk is inherently business risk. Cyber incidents can directly impact project timelines, budgets, and even the safety and structural integrity of the built environment. The interconnected nature of the construction ecosystem means that attackers can leverage any exposed point of entry. This, combined with slim profit margins and inconsistent cybersecurity investments, elevates the risk profile for the entire industry.

By adopting a proactive, risk-based cybersecurity approach, construction firms can strengthen their resilience and protect operational continuity and client trust. Read the full report here.

Contributed by George Mack, Content Marketing Manager, Check Point Software.

A recent report has revealed that OneDrive is responsible for 30% of all cloud malware downloads, a far higher percentage than most other cloud applications. This is a dramatic increase of almost three times the amount from the previous year. This report highlights the need for greater security measures when using cloud storage applications.

Other cloud-based services that have been identified as vectors for malware downloads include SharePoint, which accounts for 7.2%, Gmail with 4%, Box with 3.6%, and Google Drive with 2.8%.

For the second year in a row, OneDrive has been the most widely used service for hosting malware. Hackers take advantage of these legitimate applications to upload and spread malware, as anyone can create an account on these sites. The associated brand recognition of Microsoft helps gain the victim’s trust to download the malware.

Thus, it is essential to scan any files originating from these sites. When a malicious file is downloaded from OneDrive, Drive, SharePoint, ShareFile, Box, or Dropbox, you need to have a security system in place that can detect and quarantine it to prevent it from spreading.

Ransomware is a particularly dangerous type of malware in this saga. Not only can it be delivered through OneDrive, but also to OneDrive, effectively targeting organizations’ data in the cloud and launching attacks on cloud infrastructure.

According to researchers, this approach involves using the built-in user-controlled versioning function to minimize the number of stored versions to one. This setting can be found in the versioning settings under list settings for each document library in OneDrive. However, setting the version limit to zero does not work for an attacker as existing versions can still be recovered by the user. If the limit is set to one, the file only needs to be encrypted twice before existing versions of the content are no longer accessible to the user. This gives the attacker the option of initiating double extortion if the file is exfiltrated prior to encryption.

With these threats in mind, what security solution can best prevent these attacks?

Check Point’s Harmony Email & Collaboration Suite provides a range of security measures to protect sensitive information and detect suspicious activity.

Data Leak Prevention and user behavior anomaly detection work together to identify compromised accounts and logins.

Content Disarm & Reconstruction (CDR) is an additional measure that helps protect end users from zero-day threats. This is accomplishing by removing any executable content from incoming files, rendering them safe for the recipient. All of this is done instantly and efficiently.

CDR is a process that works in real-time to break down files into their individual components, remove any elements that do not conform to the original file type’s specifications, and rebuild a “clean” version that can be sent to its intended destination. This process is beneficial because it removes zero-day malware and exploits, while avoiding the negative impacts on business productivity that come with sandbox detonation and quarantine delays.

Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, has declared that a Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) system is an essential component of any email security solution. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, it is important for organizations to invest in a comprehensive email security solution that includes a CDR system.

Instances of malware sent through cloud services are rapidly increasing, posing a major risk for businesses. If you are not taking steps to protect these critical applications, then you are significantly heightening the chances of a major attack.

Check Point’s Harmony Email & Collaboration security solution is an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes. It provides comprehensive protection against the latest email threats, such as phishing, malware, and ransomware. It also includes advanced analytics to detect and respond to suspicious activity. In addition, Harmony helps businesses comply with data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA. With its advanced security features, Harmony Email & Collaboration can help businesses protect their data and ensure compliance with regulations.

If your organization needs to strengthen its security strategy, be sure to attend Check Point’s upcoming CPX 360 event. Register here.

Lastly, to receive cutting-edge cyber security news, best practices and resources in your inbox each week, please sign up for the CyberTalk.org newsletter. 

The post Do you use OneDrive or Google Drive? Watch out for this malware appeared first on CyberTalk.