Digital Government

Navy eases shipboard purchasing

The Navy Supply Systems Command has upgraded its standard logistics software and communications program to enable deployed ships to electronically sign government credit card invoices, allowing those ships to avoid paying interest on late payments. This upgrade to the Navy's Standard Automated Logi

Digital Government

Navy kicks off radical intranet buy

The Navy plans to use a radical strategy to build its much anticipated megaintranet, which will provide 450,000 users worldwide with items ranging from PCs to communications pipes and could cost as much as $2.2 billion. In an industry briefing set for July 7, the Navy plans to back what it describ

Digital Government

Hill freezes GPS funds

Congressional concern about a Federal Aviation Administration program has the potential to jeopardize civilian and Defense Department initiatives based on the satellitebased Global Positioning System. In fiscal 2000 Transportation Department appropriations bills, the House and the Senate have kill

Digital Government

DOD debates GPS receivers

The details surrounding this spring's capture of three U.S. soldiers who were patrolling the border between Macedonia and Yugoslavia have sparked a debate among Defense Department officials about the usefulness of an information system that some say could have prevented the incident. After Serb for

Digital Government

Unisys expands e-commerce site for fed biz

Unisys Corp.'s Federal Systems Division has revamped its 2yearold electronic commerce World Wide Web site known as Select IT so that federal buyers can access databases holding Unisys' governmentwide acquisition contracts. Select IT, which will remain part of the revised site, has served governme

Digital Government

Washington clears state programs for Y2K

Washington agencies are all but finished clearing state programs for the Year 2000 date change, according to statewide riskassessment report released last week.

Digital Government

Report: Government must work to attract IT workers

Report released last week by the CIO Council argues that the government must do whatever it can to make federal jobs more attractive to potential information technology workers, but the group stopped short of recommending a separate government IT pay scale.

Digital Government

Gemplus tailors smart card for PKI

Smart card vendor Gemplus this week will unveil a smart cardbased security solution that authenticates users who access corporate networks and perform online transactions. The solution also provides tools to manage the cards. Extranets, intranets and virtual private networks are driving new ways o

Digital Government

GSA launches intrusion-detection net

The General Services Administration last week asked industry for information about emerging security technology for detecting unauthorized users on agency networks, with the goal of building a government intrusiondetection system by the end of next year. In building the Federal Intrusion Detection

Digital Government

Switching to the fast lane

Because of their speed and simplicity, network switches are replacing hubs and routers as the dominant form of internetworking in localarea networks today. Federal agencies are making the leap away from hubs and routers to take advantage of new capabilities offered in the latest generation of netw

Digital Government

SAIC to leverage Boeing fed work

Science Applications International Corp. has been busy buying up small technology companies at the rate of more than one per month since January, but it had not shopped in the federal marketplace until this month, when it announced plans to buy Boeing Information Services Inc. SAIC's purchase of Bo

Digital Government

IRS' Prime can set an example

If ever written, the history of federal information technology projects would not be a testament to good management and efficiency. The list of overbudget, behindschedule and poorly performing systems is a long one. So it came as a mild but welcome shock when the General Accounting Office a

Digital Government

What are the rules on spam?

A private organization asked the following questions: What are the rules on sending bulk e-mail? What does Virginia's new anti-spam law provide?

Digital Government

Senate passes bill to restrict access to chemical database

The Senate this week unanimously passed a compromise version of a bill that would restrict public access to information, especially data in electronic form, about the risks of chemical accidents.

Digital Government

Senate panel nixes Customs upgrade funding

The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday denied funding for a massive Customs Service modernization program.

Digital Government

Rhode Island New Home to Microsoft Training Center

Warwick, R.I., will be the next home of a Microsoft Corp. Certified Technical Education Center (CTEC), with classes beginning this summer, city officials said this week.

Digital Government

Interior unveils Indian record system

The Interior Department today unveiled a computer system that it hopes will improve the management of records associated with the Indian Trust Fund a complicated amalgam of land records, bank accounts and other records that the department acknowledges has been poorly organized and maintained.

Digital Government

OMB Wants Earlier Cutoff on State/Local Y2K Buying

House committee members and administration officials on Wednesday said they generally support a proposed bill that will allow state and local governments to buy Year 2000 products and services off General Services Administration federal supply schedules, but they do not agree on the end date.

Digital Government

USPS taps NCR for customer terminals

The U.S. Postal Service awarded a $67 million contract this week to NCR Corp. for terminals that the Postal Service plans to use to offer more services and information to customers at retail windows.

Digital Government

FCW's Web site wins national award

Federal Computer Week received a top national award this week for its online news coverage.