Data scientists working for the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) data scientists said they have identified more than $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent loans issued under Federal government relief programs that were obtained by crooks using 69,323 stolen or fraudulent Social Security Numbers (SSNs). […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has failed to implement key practices and appropriate controls to manage its agile software development projects, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a new report. […]

While the Social Security Administration (SSA), like much of the rest of the Federal government has been largely operating in a work from home setting since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency is preparing to return to office through a phased re-entry plan, the agency confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Reform and Operations announced the witness list for the FITARA 12.0 hearing on July 28. Federal CIO Clare Martorana headlines the list of four witnesses, according to a release today by the committee. […]

In a pivot to focus on IT modernization, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is embracing agile development with much success, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released August 31.  The government watchdog agency said, however, that the agency would benefit from more clarity about the role of contracting officials in the new model.  […]

MetTel, formerly known as the Manhattan Telecommunications Corporation, won a $253.5 million enterprise infrastructure solutions (EIS) task order with the Social Security Administration (SSA) Feb. 4 for telecommunications services. […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced its intent to acquire a role-based cybersecurity training platform for employees in a Jan. 23 solicitation. […]

The Social Security Administration did not remediate multiple known vulnerabilities for over one year, according to a summary of a report from SSA’s inspector general, released October 24. […]

A Social Security Administration (SSA) audit to determine the effectiveness of controls identifying potentially fraudulent Internet Claims (iClaims) found the controls to be “generally effective,” but also said that the number of undetected fraudulent iClaims is unknown. […]

With a new mandate to stop sending Social Security Numbers (SSNs) through the mail unless absolutely necessary, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued a request for information (RFI) for a solution to replace them with a tokenization solution. Vendors have until February 1 to submit their responses. […]

Andrew Saul, the White House’s nominee for commissioner of Social Security, noted his commitment to continue the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) IT modernization efforts during a Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday. […]

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) IT modernization efforts won praise from the agency’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office at a House hearing on Sept. 27, but drew a more mixed review from members of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Social Security Subcommittee. […]

A new GAO report details how Equifax submitted to audits from agencies with which the company had contracts, but declined an offer of help from the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the company’s 2017 data breach that exposed sensitive personal information of 143 million Americans. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]

The last politically appointed agency-level chief information officer will leave his post April 15. Rob Klopp, the CIO of the Social Security Administration, had been asked by the Trump administration to remain in the post temporarily to provide continuity at a critical time for the agency. […]

The Social Security Administration—the agency that holds personal data on every American citizen, living or dead—is starting to look a lot like the Office of Personnel Management right before foreign hackers pulled off the largest data breach in government history. And that has lawmakers on Capitol Hill worried. […]