Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Wednesday, December 26, 2018. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, how the U.S. government shutdown is affecting cybersecurity, how the Open Government Data Act is possibly good tech governance,

Airbnb and Slack are considering non-traditional IPOs, and the state of AI research at the end of 2018.

Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Well, not only are a lot of folks in the US not doing a ton of work this week, there's also

the little matter of the government shutdown that hit right before the holidays began.

As you may or may not be aware, there are certain areas within the US government that are immune to shut down certain jobs that are still on the job, the so-called essential employees.

For example, when we traveled... the so-called essential employees.

For example, when we traveled during the shutdown on Sunday, TSA workers were still checking

our suitcases at the airport.

But guess what? Among the government employees not considered essential and thus

furloughed for the duration of the shutdown? Well, the US's cybersecurity

workforce. The National Institute of Standards and Technology

which sets cybersecurity regulations and in fact was scheduled to release a major report in the coming

weeks has seen 85% of its workforce furloug.

The Director of National Intelligence's Analysis and Operations Workforce has also reportedly seen a 60% reduction in its active workforce.

But quoting from a fifth domain report from last week before the shutdown happened, quote, it appears that the Department of Homeland Security's new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure

Security Agency, created just last month, is among the most protected in the event of a government shutdown.

The agency would only have 45% of its workforce foreload with 2008 employees exempt.

Spokespeople from the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to repeated requests for comment regarding how the shutdown would affect their agency.

My hope would be that anyone at DHS who is working on cyber those would be viewed as critical positions and would continue working, Senator Mark

Warner of Virginia told fifth domain, end quote. Yes, I would hope so too.

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