Page 9 - FCW, Nov/Dec 2016

13 agencies had shared government-created work
on Code.gov as of Nov. 8
ID protection to expire for more than 100,000 OPM hack victims
Some federal employees and others whose personal data was compromised in the breach of Office of Personnel Management systems in 2014-2015 will have to re-enroll in the identity protec- tion services offered by the agency.
All 21.5 million victims of the breach are eligible for free identity- and credit- monitoring services, but about 100,000 to 150,000 will have to take steps to make sure their coverage is current beyond Dec. 1, according to OPM.
In June 2015, the 4.2 million victims of the personnel records hack — the first known breach — were offered coverage from Winvale Group’s sub-
contractor CSIdentity, a Texas-based identity protection firm. The 21.5 mil- lion people affected by the breach of background check records were offered free services from Identity Theft Guard Solutions, doing business as ID Experts.
A group of about 600,000 who were hit only by the personnel records breach were eligible to obtain Winvale coverage, and about 100,000 to 150,000 did so. However, OPM is letting its $20 million contract with Winvale/CSID expire on Dec. 1 so that the agency can combine the coverage for all the victims under a single contract.
OPM planned to mail notification let- ters and 25-digit PINs to the affected victims in November. Once they enroll online, those individuals will begin receiving services from ID Experts on Dec. 2 — free of charge.
However, if Winvale/CSID receives an insurance claim on or before Dec. 1, the company will complete the case even if it is not resolved until after the contract expires. No ongoing claim cases will be transitioned.
Breach victims who are already reg- istered in the ID Experts database are not affected by the contract expiration.
— Chase Gunter
FCW INSIDER
Technology Transformation Service gets a new leader
Former Pixar executive Rob Cook will take over leadership of the Gen- eral Services Administration’sTech- nologyTransformation Ser-
vice, the agency announced
in late October. Cook started
his new job on Oct. 31.
He succeeds Phaedra
Chrousos, who left GSA
soon after helping to estab- lishTTS.The service was formed
in May by combining GSA’s 18F innovation shop, the Office of Citizen Services and InnovativeTechnolo- gies and the Presidential Innovation Fellows program.The division is intended to be a third pillar for GSA, along with the Federal Acquisition Service and the Public Buildings Ser- vice. GSA CIO David Shive has been serving as actingTTS commissioner since Chrousos’ departure.
Although GSA Administrator
Denise Turner Roth had said the next TTS commissioner could come from within the government, officials had
signaled repeatedly that they were actively recruiting in Silicon Valley. Cook, a software engineer and computer graph- ics pioneer, spent the better part of two decades at Pixar and, since stepping down as
that company’s vice president of software development in 2012, has been advising a number of Silicon Valley firms.
“We need three things to suc- ceed,” Cook said in the press release announcing his hire. “First-rate technology expertise, effective relations with industry and great partners throughout government. Close collaboration with our agency colleagues is crucial to making this possibility a reality.”
Also important is a fourth factor that Cook failed to mention: time. Most political appointees will see their terms expire along with Presi- dent Barack Obama’s on Jan. 20, and many senior vacancies this late in an administration go unfilled. But a GSA spokesperson told FCW that Cook is not a Schedule C appointee and will be “serving a three-year appointmentasaseniorexecutive.”
Cook has degrees from Duke and Cornell universities, and he ran and sold two smaller software compa- nies between stints at Pixar. And he might well be the only executive in the federal IT community to have won an Oscar: In 2001, Cook and two colleagues were recognized for their development of Pixar’s Render- Man software.
—Troy K. Schneider
Rob Cook
November/December 2016 FCW.COM 9
GRAPHICS.PIXAR.COM