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Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts.The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.govan online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. Kamens was fired February 14 and said he doesn’t believe his role will be filled, leaving the site particularly vulnerable.“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA . . . are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told the Associated Press Monday evening. “I think they’re going to be lacking essential oversight over cybersecurity processes for VA.gov.”Kamens said he was hired over a year ago by the U.S. Digital Service, whose employees’ duties have been integrated into presidential adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the downsizing effort. Kamens was a digital services expert and the VA site’s information security lead when he was fired by email at night, along with about 40 other USDS employees, he said.Millions of people use the VA.gov website monthly, Kamens said, and the department is responsible for securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers. Others on the team will focus on protecting the site, but his expertise can’t be replaced, he said, noting he was the only government employee with an engineering technical background working on cybersecurity.“VA.gov has access to a huge number of databases within VA in order to provide all of those benefits and services to veterans,” Kamens said. “So if that information can’t be kept secure, then all of that information is at risk and could be compromised by a bad actor.”Peter Kasperowicz, a Veterans Affairs spokesman, said the loss of a single employee wouldn’t affect operations, and noted that hundreds of cybersecurity workers are among the department’s staff of nearly 470,000.Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees who’d also previously worked for USDS resigned Tuesday from DOGE, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”Kamens said he was required to have a background check and a drug test before he was allowed to access any system containing veterans’ data. He said he doesn’t understand why Musk and DOGE shouldn’t have to jump through the same hoops.“I don’t think they should have access to that data,” Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked. They’re not confirmed to be trustworthy.”Kamens also said he’s worried that DOGE is “trying to break down the walls of decentralization” that have kept data isolated in individual agencies. Centralization, he said, could increase the chances for abuse. He also described confusion since DOGE became involvedpeople didn’t know who their manager was, work became isolated, and people were “frozen out.”“The only motive that I can think of,” Kamens said, “is exactly because they want to be able to use that data to harm citizens that they perceive as enemies of the state.” Brian Witte and Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press
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For transgender students involved in a very special project at a culinary school in Pakistan, there is more to a class than just learning the art of cooking.Neha Malik used to dance at parties and weddings for a living and was, occasionally, a sex worker. Since January, she has been enrolled in a new course for the trans community at the Culinary & Hotel Institute of Pakistan.The free six-month program in the city of Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital, welcomed its first group of 25 trans students in January; the second group of 25 began training on Feb. 1.Now, Malik, 31, dreams of working as a chef in Dubai, the futuristic, skyscraper-studded city in the United Arab Emirates.She never misses a class. “I am so absorbed in learning that I don’t have time to dance anymore,” she added.Many Pakistanis have entrenched beliefs on gender and sexuality, and trans people are often considered outcasts in the conservative Muslim-majority country. Some are forced into begging, dancing and even prostitution to earn money. They also live in fear of attacks.The U.N. development agency said last year that the majority of trans people in Pakistan reported experiencing violence or abuse and that most reported being denied employment opportunities because of their gender identity. Just 7% were employed in formal sectors, the UNDP added.Trans women in public office and the media have raised awareness about a marginalized and misunderstood community, and overall, the community has seen some progress in the protection of their rights.Supreme Court rulings allow them to self-identify as a third gender, neither male nor female, and have underscored they have the same rights as all Pakistani citizens.Last year, Lahore got its first ride-sharing service for trans people and women in an effort to protect them from discrimination and harassment, and in 2022 Pakistan launched a hotline for trans people.“Society usually looks down on us,” said Malik. “We have to change this mindset. Now, people come up to me and ask what I do when they see me in a chef’s coat and hat.”Since classes started, students file into the Lahore culinary school with backpacks and beaming smiles, swapping their colorful clothes for white uniforms.However, it’s a struggle. They each get a monthly stipend of 8,000 rupees, around $26 nowhere near enough to live on as a student.“How can we survive on that when my rent is 15,000 rupees?” said 26-year-old Zoya Khan. Her utility bills swallow up most of it, she said.So she performs at a few events a month.“I used to earn a decent amount (from dancing), I won’t lie,” she added. But “there was no respect in it.”“Why do we come here? It’s because we see hope,” said Khan, who wants to start her own business after graduating a roadside cafe.Nadia Shehzad, the institute’s chief executive, said the project will help the trans community, a “rejected and ignored sector of society” get equal recognition.The school is trying to get government officials to help the aspiring chefs with visas to go abroad for work, Shehzad said. There are also talks with local hotels and restaurants about jobs once the students graduate with wages of up to 30,000 rupees, or about $107.Still, it’s not easy for for trans people to leave behind dancing, begging and sex work for the culinary program, said Shabnam Chaudry, a trans community leader.Many wonder if society would give them work or if people at restaurants would eat food cooked by trans chefs.In the past, Chaudry said she had seen many trans people taking makeup and sewing courses, only to fail to find jobs afterward and be forced to return to begging and dancing to survive.She is also concerned about their prospects of finding a job: Pakistan has hundreds of thousands of young people with skills and degrees who cannot find work.“In the face of this tough competition, who will give jobs to trans people,” Chaudry asked. “People are not ready to shake hands with us.” Babar Dogar, Associated Press
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Dating apps are a notoriously hostile space towards transgender users. If they list their transness in their profiles, theyre outing themselves to the world. If they dont, matches could accuse them of catfishing. Picking the right time to tell matches can feel impossible. With Match Note, Hinge wants to help these daters out. The feature, which launched this morning, lets users send a must-read note to their match before starting a conversation. The use cases extend far beyond trans users: The tool can also benefit neurodivergent daters, daters with children, and more. Listing these sensitive identity traits on a public profile can feel daunting; now, Hinge is offering a chance for users to keep some of their privacy. When youre dating, it can be vulnerable to open up to others, Hinge CMO Jackie Jantos writes in an email to Fast Company. Match Note gives all daters an opportunity to share what they feel is importantprivately and directlywith people theyve matched with.Hinges ploy to help minority datersIts a hard time to be trans in the United States. President Donald Trump has rolled back trans civil protections and encoded anti-trans language into his executive orders. His actions have also fed into an increasingly anti-trans corporate culture, as American companies continue to cow to Trump by cutting DEI initiatives. Even more companies, it seems, are afraid to say the word trans nowadays.Thats why its meaningful when Hinge announces new features specifically trying to help their trans customers. Match Note gives them more options, choosing exactly when and how they want to disclose their gender identity to other matches. Its popular, too: Of 2,000 daters who tested Match Note, 83% of trans and non-binary respondents thought the feature improved their ability to show up as their authentic self on Hinge, per Jantos.In the LGBTQIA+ community, trans, nonbinary, and queer+ folks used Match Note during testing to share more about their gender identity upon matching like highlighting from their profile that theyre trans or reminding matches about their pronouns, Jantos writes. Other members of the community, such as gay men, are using this surface to share more about their preferred sexual positions because it feels important to align on from the beginning. The tool could be useful for neurodivergent daters, too. Hinge users may not want the swiping world to know that theyre on the spectrum, for example. But that could affect their messaging patterns; with Match Note, that user could disclose their neurodivergence after matching. Or, imagine the single parent who needs their partner to love children, but doesnt want to breach the childs privacy by listing them on a public profile. With Match Note, they could save that information for just those they match with. How much do we share on dating apps?Even for traits that arent as personally sensitive, disclosures are becoming increasingly difficult. Think of the sober dater. While they may not care whether the world knows about their sobriety, its difficult to cram that into Hinges witty prompt boxes. (Generally, users dont look close enough to see a No next to Hinges glass icon.) Those disclosures also break the feeling of nonchalance that many users seek to create. What if they come off as overly earnest? Now, they can list their sobriety in a Match Note. [Animation: Hinge]Knowing when to share or repeat or go into detail about certain information can be tricky, Jantos writes. We hope this optional moment can save daters from any unnecessary confusion or heartache down the line and help you get on dates with the people youre excited about.
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