The Buzz

Office Identity Theft

In June, for the third time this year, federal employees got word personal information they shared at work was lost or stolen. This time, current and former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation staffers heard that thieves who stole personal data early last year used it to get fraudulent loans. The purloined data included names, birth dates, salaries and Social Security numbers and covered 6,000 people, according to a June 10 letter from the director of the agency's administration division.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents nearly 5,000 FDIC employees, says at least 28 cases of identity theft already have occurred, including the loans taken out under employees' names at a government credit union.

In May, travel credit card data for about 80,000 Justice Department employees stored in a laptop was stolen from a travel agency's Fairfax, Va., office. Earlier, charge card data for nearly 1.2 million federal employees, including some senators, went missing while Bank of America was shipping the data to a secure location.

The FDIC vital stats covered all employees who were in an official pay status as of July 2002. The agency first found out about the theft March 30, when the FDIC inspector general notified officials that former employees were victims of apparent fraud. The next day, affected workers were notified. Not until June 9 did the agency discover the extent of data stolen. The FBI and the inspector general are investigating.

On the Outs

After two months on the job, NASA's new boss, Michael Griffin, told the leader of the moon-Mars initiative and numerous other key executives he was reassigning or replacing them. NASA says Griffin has a right to choose his own management team. It hasn't disputed news reports that as many as 50 senior managers will be shown the door.

• Craig E. Steidle
  Associate administrator, exploration systems
  The former admiral became exploration chief in January 2004. He quit June 24, 2005, and is now Aerospace Industries Association vice president of international affairs.
• William F. Readdy
  Associate administrator, space operations
  Former astronaut oversaw Columbia disaster recovery. Told colleagues he would depart after shuttle's return to flight. Reassigned. Plans: Undecided.
• Alphonso V. Diaz
  Associate administrator, science
  Guided management response to shuttle post-accident recommendations. Oversaw merger of Earth and space science programs into a single directorate. Plans to retire.
• Michael C. Kostelnik
  Deputy associate administrator, shuttle and space station
  Rehabilitated over budget, behind schedule space station program. The retired Air Force major general is departing after shuttle's return to flight.
• J. Victor Lebacqz
  Associate administrator, aeronautics research
  Winner of NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and Exceptional Service Medal. Departing after transition to new management. Not reassigned. Plans: Undecided.

Giving Vets a Hand

A new $5 billion governmentwide contract will enable businesses owned by service-disabled veterans to more easily sell technology services to federal agencies.

INPUT, a leading tracker of government contracting dollars, says the Veterans Technology Services Government-wide Acquisition Contract, known as VETS GWAC, also will help agencies meet an October 2004 executive order requiring them to make sure 3 percent of government contracts go to businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. Currently, agencies fall well below that goal.

The Defense Department, government's largest purchaser, awards more than $500 million a year to service-disabled veterans-about 0.3 percent of its total contract dollars.

The contract has created a schism between service-disabled and other veterans competing for federal business. Brian Haney, INPUT research director, suggests companies team up with service-disabled veterans to win work under the GWAC.

• 3,246 Companies registered as owned by service-disabled veterans before the October2004 order that 3 percent of federal contracts must go to them
• 6,415 Companies registered as owned by service-disabled veterans as of May 2005

Source: Federal Sources Inc.

America's Spies

The Army credits its intensely accurate online video game America's Army with helping lure recruits from the PlayStation and Xbox generation. Millions of gamers have registered to play at the free site since it launched in 2002. Now it appears that intelligence agencies are moving onto the GIs' turf.

In mid-June, In-Q-Tel, the CIA's nonprofit venture capital firm, cut a deal with video game developer Destineer Studios, creator of 3-D games, including Close Combat: First to Fight, created for the Marines. Destineer will be working on virtual training simulations for the CIA.

The Army began using games as training tools in 2003 with Full Spectrum Command. Then last year it released the popular Full Spectrum

Warrior, designed to run on the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PCs. Since many soldiers spend their off time playing video games anyhow, the Army reasoned, why not give them ones that hone their skills?

In-Q-Tel apparently is thinking along the same lines. "Video games have gotten so sophisticated that if you take the map and create a 3-D view of an environment, you get much better situational awareness," In-Q-Tel President and Chief Executive Officer Gilman Louie told USA Today in June. "That realism saves lives in the training and mission ops side of our business and it sells on the game side."

In-Q-Tel often invests in companies to help steer development of commercial products so they'll be useful to the CIA. Destineer eventually will create video games from what it learns making spy training simulations. Future spy recruiting tool? You make the call.

Moving Your Money

Thrift Savings Plan open seasons ended June 30. Now participants can shift their funds anytime. Participation has grown to 3.4 million since the first open season in 1987. The 401(k)-like fund, worth $157 billion at the end of May, is one of the world's largest.

* Beginning in January 2002, members of the uniformed services were permitted to make employee contributions.

Source: Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board