The Wrap: Shielding Sensitive Data; Replicator Picks Head to Hill; OPM’s AI Hiring Help

Welcome to The Wrap for Wednesday, February 28!

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From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

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White House Aims to Shield Sensitive Data

The White House – via an executive order signed by President Biden today – is aiming to pull off a very ambitious feat in what is a highly opaque worldwide market: keeping the sensitive data of U.S citizens out of the hands of “countries of concern” that are likely to include China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. The White House billed the new EO as the “most significant executive action any President has ever taken to protect Americans’ data security,” with a focus on putting an economic fence around things like genomic data, biometric data, personal health data, geolocation data, and financial data. What’s the big deal with that data? “Bad actors can use this data to track Americans (including military service members), pry into their personal lives, and pass that data on to other data brokers and foreign intelligence services. This data can enable intrusive surveillance, scams, blackmail, and other violations of privacy,” the White House said.? Who’s doing the heavy lifting? The departments of Justice and Homeland Security are getting the call to set high security standards to prevent access by countries of concern to Americans’ data “through other commercial means, such as data available via investment, vendor, and employment relationships” – while at the same time not acting to impede data flows necessary for financial services activities or hurting consumer, economic, scientific, and trade relationships that the U.S. has with other countries. Phew! Read all about it here.

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U.S. Tech Fueling Russian Military

For one real-world case in how hard it is to prevent worldwide commerce in highly-prized goods, look no further than witness testimony at a Feb. 27 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing about how U.S.-made technology is getting into Russian military hands and weaponry despite numerous sanctions in place aimed at preventing that from happening. It’s “quite shocking that despite all of the rhetoric of the Russian government about input, import substitution and independence, they rely on our technology to build systems that are designed to threaten us and our allies,” said James Byrne, director of the Open-Source Intelligence and Analysis Research Group at Royal United Services Institute. According to witnesses, advanced microchips produced using U.S. tech have been found in a range of Russian weapons from drones to missiles to armored vehicles, and a January Bloomberg?report found that despite U.S. and allied sanctions Russia imported more than $1 billion of advanced chips from the U.S. and Europe from January to September 2023.

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Replicator Picks Head to the Hill

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed today that the Department of Defense (DoD) has picked which systems it wants to field under the first tranche of its Replicator initiative and is now awaiting congressional approval and funding to start buying those still-secret systems. The Replicator program – unveiled last August by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks – aims to field thousands of innovative systems across multiple domains and into the hands of warfighters within the next 18 to 24 months as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to counter China’s rapid armed forces buildup. The public clues to those systems say they are “attritable” autonomous systems, with speculation that could mean unmanned aircraft that are reusable but also affordable enough to allow commanders to tolerate putting them at risk. “Our current priority is to receive Congressional approval for the first tranche of systems,” the DoD spokesperson said, adding the Pentagon is working on proposals for the second tranche of Replicator gear likely to include software solutions and other enablers to support the weapons portfolio.

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AI Hiring Help

How are Federal agencies going to make the many, many hires necessary to carry out ambitions to harness artificial intelligence (AI) technologies? The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is weighing in on that with new?guidance to agencies on recruiting and retaining the right kind of talent. High on the list of levers that agencies can employ: pay flexibility, incentive pay, student debt relief, and leave and workforce flexibility programs. “Agencies can use most of the flexibilities and authorities summarized in the [guidance] without OPM approval,” said OPM Director Kiran Ahjua. “For the few flexibilities that require OPM approval – special rates, critical pay, and waivers of the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive payment limits – we stand ready to assist agencies and respond to their requests for enhanced compensation tools.” OPM has already?authorized?a government-wide direct hire authority (DHA) for AI positions in an effort to help with the AI hiring surge following President Biden’s AI EO last year. The DHA applies to several AI-focused positions, including IT specialist, computer scientist, computer engineer, and program analyst.

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].