A safety lesson from Little League, GSA breach notification and Navy war gamers
News and notes from around the federal IT community.
Little League equipment could save CPB lives
Wireless impact sensors that are marketed to Little League baseball players could be adapted to the uniforms worn by Customs and Border Protection officers and other law enforcement officers to help guard their safety, according to Wolf Tombe, chief technology officer at CBP.
In remarks at the Mobile Gov Summit in Washington, D.C., Tombe said the sports equipment he saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January -- now used to gauge the potentially dangerous impact of errantly thrown baseballs and bats -- could be adapted to measure the impact of bullets fired on officers. The sensor-equipped uniforms could even gauge the caliber of weapon used by the strength of impact.
Coupled with commercial Fitbit-type wireless wristband monitors that measure and transmit wearers' vital signs, the wearable technology could come to the rescue of officers in trouble, he said.
GSA updates breach notification policy
The General Services Administration issued an updated version of its breach notification policy on March 31, outlining what actions should be taken when personally identifiable information has been compromised and employees and contractors need to be notified.
The policy says all incidents involving a known or suspected breach must be reported to the GSA Office of the Chief Information Security Officer within an hour of an incident's discovery. Employees and contractors must report incidents to their local helpdesk or information systems security officer. If the ISSO or helpdesk can't be reached, the information systems security manager and the OCISO should be contacted.
There should be no distinction between suspected and confirmed breaches, GSA said.
Navy invites war gamers to help put its big data in play
The Navy has more data than it knows what to do with, so the service is inviting virtual wargamers to help it solve the problem, Defense Systems reports.
The Navy Department's CIO site has posted an invitation to gamers, asking them to sign up to play Data Dilemma, a MMOWGLI (Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet) that will be staged April 6-17.
The only restriction on participation is that gamers must be 18 or older. Players who signs up will receive a notification when play begins.