Scott Rose, a computer scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told Federal News Network in an interview posted Tuesday that NIST’s Zero Trust Architecture Special Publication 800-207 seeks to help agencies and cyber experts come up with a “conceptual framework” to adopt zero trust principles within their network infrastructure and operations.

“Think of it as a set of principles in which to kind of generate a set of architecture and operations, which then become your zero trust architecture. And then when you execute that architecture and actually start building to it, you could say you are building a zero trust enterprise,” Rose said on the network’s Federal Monthly Insights – Zero Trust Month.

Rose stated that the NIST publication provides a series of models and approaches to develop an abstract map for zero trust architecture and offers examples of the connection between zero trust and current federal policies.

NIST issued the zero trust guidance’s initial draft last fall and then added a new subsection to the document. The agency will accept public comments on the revised draft guidance through March 13.

Sean Connelly, Trusted Internet Connection program manager, said his office plans to have the final guidance for the TIC 3.0 policy and the first two use cases ready by spring, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

After the final guidance’s release, Connelly said his office will shift its focus on issuing individual use cases. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will set its sights on remote user and cloud service use cases, which were cited in the Office of Management and Budget’s memo in September 2019.

“Ultimately, there are a number of other use cases that we’re on the hook for: the Infrastructure-as-a-Service use case, the [Platform-as-a-Service], [Software-as-a-Service] use case, Email-as-a-Service and also the remote user. Those are the alternative use cases that are already embedded in the OMB memo,” said Connelly, who is also senior cybersecurity architect at CISA’s office of the chief technology officer.

Connelly said agencies such as the Department of Energy and the Small Business Administration have begun piloting some additional use cases.

“Our expectation is we’ll release the first two use cases—the traditional TIC and the remote office—with this final release,” he said. “Then, soon after, we’ll start, hopefully, being able to map some of those pilots we’re working with in the background to build out those use cases.”

The Government Accountability Office has found that federal agencies need to improve their estimates of improper payments which totaled $175 billion last fiscal year.

GAO said in a report published Monday that improper payments are those that “should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount” for federal programs. The total amount for improper payments in fiscal year 2018 was $151 billion.

According to GAO, $121 billion or 69 percent of the FY19 figure represented Medicare, Medicaid and earned income tax credit payments.

The watchdog noted that “incomplete, unreliable, or understated agency estimates” prevented federal agencies from understanding the full scope of improper payments in compliance with the 2010 Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act.

Inspector general reports for FY18 stated that agencies designated as noncompliant with IPERA were unable to publish and meet annual targets for reducing improper payments.

The Office of Personnel Management and NASA have jointly produced tools designed to facilitate the formation of future astronaut rosters.

OPM said Monday it worked with the space agency to construct a new approach to assess applications of potential astronauts for the Artemis program.

"With OPM’s support putting these new tools in place for the application process, we will be able to efficiently identify the top candidates who may someday explore the Moon and Mars,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator.

The tools leverage OPM’s USA Staffing system to automate the application process. The process also uses an online assessment battery co-developed by OPM and NASA.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued updates in its privacy impact assessment of a geospatial imaging tool built to provide information such as land ownership limits at the southern border.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a document that the Enterprise Geospatial Information Services platform collects mapping information and other data to monitor operations along the U.S. border. The web-based eGIS application also visualizes current and historical information from DHS source systems for situational awareness purposes.

According to the notice, Border Patrol deploys the technology for surveillance and interdiction functions to secure against threats at various points of entry.

DHS noted that it seeks to evaluate CBP’s use of landowner parcel and contact information, which are meant to inform the procurement and installation of assets such as command-and-control systems, sensors and relay towers.

The department said that information collated from eGIS will serve as records that “can be obtained or accessed from public sources”.