Digital Government

Proposed budget amendment funds security projects

The Clinton administration this week proposed a $39 million amendment to the fiscal 2000 budget for initiatives at five agencies that will support the governmentwide push to secure information systems.

Digital Government

DISA taps two for digital certificates

The Defense Information Systems Agency yesterday selected two vendors to supply and manage the digital certificates that provide the security underpinnings for several key Internetbased applications.

Digital Government

Schools expect glitches from last-minute fixes

While the nation's education community is only minimally concerned about the Year 2000 problem, schools do expect some glitches, particularly because of the lastminute fixes many schools are making, according to federal, state and local experts testifying before a Senate panel Tuesday.

Digital Government

N.Y. agency automates complaint system

A new automated document management system in the Consumer Services Bureau of New York state's Insurance Department will track and manage nearly 70,000 consumer complaints this year, easily outpacing the capabilities of the previous manual system.

Digital Government

Pa. crime labs get $1.8 million in tech grants

Crime laboratories across Pennsylvania received a boost last week when Gov. Tom Ridge announced the awarding of $1.8 million in grants for technology purchases.

Digital Government

Arkansas installs digital driver's license system

Arkansas has installed a digital driver's license system that makes the licenses more difficult to duplicate, and that will help law enforcement crack down on underage drivers as well as sales of liquor and tobacco to minors..

Digital Government

San Francisco gets new telecom, IS chief

Liza Lowery took the helm Monday as the director of the San Francisco's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS), with the Year 2000 problem and a 911 project heading her list of priorities.

Digital Government

CDC and ATSDR Y2K-Compliant

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today that it has successfully completed an endtoend Year 2000 test at the agency and at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and their partners.

Digital Government

Communities get a C on Y2K report card

Organizations in 37 communities around the nation received an average grade of C on a Year 2000 community report card released by the Washington, D.C.based nonprofit organization Center for Y2K & Society.

Digital Government

State official object to weak privacy provisions

More than 20 state attorneys general last week were to send a letter to the House and Senat

Digital Government

HP enhances net management offering

HewlettPackard Co. last month announced an enterprise network tool that enables network managers to accurately gauge the health and performance of local or widearea networks from anywhere in the world via the Internet. The product, HP OpenView NetMetrix Performance Center, is the centerpiece of

Digital Government

Officials question decision to close NTIS

Various government and industry officials fear the Commerce Department's plan to close the National Technical Information Service could make it more difficult for the public to find government documents. Commerce decided last month to close NTIS because its core function of selling government infor

Digital Government

TransportIT secures data transfers

If you feel that moving large data files over your agency's complex networks is like shoving an elephant through a pipe, or you know that you'd sleep better at night if you had more control over the security of your data transfers, then TransportIT may cure some of your headaches. TransportIT is de

Digital Government

U.S., Russia support joint warning center

More than six months after negotiations began, U.S. and Russian Federation officials last week signed a statement supporting the creation of a joint warning center that would help avoid an accidental launch of nuclear weapons resulting from system malfunctions caused by Year 2000related computer p

Digital Government

R&D centers growing too fat on federal dole

It's time to reconsider the role of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers as the federal government enters the third millennium. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) are unique organizations invented by the federal government in the 1940s.

Digital Government

Feds can no longer ignore Linux

Given government's focus on total cost of ownership and its insatiable desire to find deals that offer the best value, it should come as no surprise that Linux has reared its head on the operating system scene. For years, government information technology managers have not considered the fledgling

Digital Government

Making the pieces fit

As geographic information systems have moved into the hands of general users, the software has grown more interoperable and easier to use. However, significant interoperability hurdles still prevent the GIS market from realizing its full potential. Although standards and the increasing use of the I

Digital Government

Floyd drives traffic to two agency Web sites

Hurricane Floyd's brush with the East Coast last week led to record volumes of traffic at two agency World Wide Web sites. The National Hurricane Center's Web site (www.nhc.noaa.gov) was inundated with people tracking Hurricane Floyd last week, receiving 12 million hits Sept. 14 and 15 million hits

Digital Government

Sharing map data moves closer

In a significant step toward integrating the incompatible and disparate geospatial databases worldwide, a geospatial industry group demonstrated this month how industry standards nearing completion will enable users to tap into numerous databases via the Internet to create a multilayered digital ma

Digital Government

Bad workers can cause a deep impact

In a recent column, I described a report from the Office of Personnel Management that suggested that very few federal workers are poor performers.