In Depth interviews – Feb. 26

Furloughs are one possibility of sequestration. If you’re furloughed, you won’t make as much money as you do now and that can impact your Thrift Savings Plan account too. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, joins In Depth with some helpful information about how sequestration and furloughs can affect your TSP account.

Furloughs are synonymous with sequestration now. But they might not be entirely legal. Tom Shoop, editor-in-chief of Government Executive magazine, joins In Depth to discuss the laws and rules governing furloughs.

Agencies Are Supposed to Avoid Furloughs (related link)

The sequestration deadline is three days away, but the action on Capitol Hill is rather mechanical. No one seems to think the situation is very urgent. David Hawkings, editor of CQ Roll Call’s Daily Briefing, joins In Depth to discuss what’s happening on the Hill.

Passwords are one of the biggest security problems at federal agencies and other organizations. Hackers are getting better every day at hacking weak passwords and getting into networks. Ashwini Rao and her colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University are studying the grammatical patterns of passwords. She joins In Depth with some advice for building strong passwords.

‘Andyhave3cats’ is a better password than ‘Shehave3cats,’ study finds (related link)