Digital Government
Hackers retaliate after NATO bombing
A group of Chinese hackers defaced the home pages of the departments of Energy and Interior this past weekend, apparently in retaliation for NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Digital Government
House bill pumps extra $71.9M into Defense IT
Included in the emergency supplemental spending bill the House passed last week for military and humanitarian efforts in the Balkans is $71.9 million for military communications and command and control facilities in Europe and the Middle East. The Navy would receive $37.8 million for improvements t
Digital Government
SANs rise on fed horizon
Faced with the prolific growth of data and networks, a growing number of federal users are building early versions of storagearea networks on which they can offload traffic from increasingly burdened localarea networks. An extension of a client/server architecture, SANs are used to centralize sto
Digital Government
DOD-wide database pact imminent
The Defense Department plans to award the first in a series of departmentwide licensing agreements for database management systems as early as this week. Under the arrangement, Oracle Corp. will provide its software at volume discount pricing that is unavailable through existing contracts. The Pent
Digital Government
Two methods to manage e-mail madness
With more offices and homes getting on the Internet, a rapidly increasing share of the country's business commercial and governmental is carried out electronically. The ensuing flood of email messages and World Wide Web forms can create a tidal wave at the receiving end. Two products steppin
Digital Government
Rep. preps IT research funding bill
The chairman of the House Science Committee this spring plans to introduce legislation proposing a program for federal information technology research. Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (RWis.) , chairman of the committee, said last month he would not describe the upcom
Digital Government
States Agree to Swap Crime Data Files
A number of state legislatures clear the way to share data in noncriminal screenings of school teachers, bus drivers and others.
Digital Government
Procurement reform happens
It is becoming clearer every day that writing and passing procurement reform legislation even though it took years to accomplish may have been the easy part of changing the way government buys information technology. Making the acquisition reform legislative package known as the ClingerCohen
Digital Government
Security must include information superiority
As the Defense Department undertakes a program to improve the security of its computer communications network, the NonClassified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNET), it should keep in mind that security and communications are essentially opposites on a continuum. Few argue against the need
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
RETURN OF THE GDAI. The General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service Network Services Conference '99 in Kansas City, Mo., last week took its cue from the 'Star Wars' mania sweeping the country. At the opening session, FTS chief Dennis Fischer donned Luke Skywalker garb and wielded a
Digital Government
Feds Offer IT Security Services to State and Local Governments
New Commerce Department platter serves up PKI, encryption and other security technology.
Digital Government
Langston foresees an IT-dependent DOD
A top technology official for the Defense Department last week described the agency as an organization that 10 years from now will operate as a virtual department, with computer systems that are '99 percent' reliable for filling users' needs. But some information technology experts question whether
Digital Government
California Hires San Diego DP Corp. for Y2K Work
Nonprofit computing center will provide state with consulting services.
Digital Government
Army expects PIII swap
NORFOLK, Va. The two Personal Computer3 contractors should upgrade their offerings to include Intel Corp.'s forthcoming Pentium III processors at no additional costs to the customers, an Army procurement official said last week. Intel Corp. plans to begin phasing out its Pentium II line in Augu
Digital Government
IRS plans to request first Prime funding
The Internal Revenue Service's top technology official last week told a group of industry leaders that the tax agency this week will request its first set of funds from Congress to develop a business plan for the IRS' highprofile, multibilliondollar modernization project. During a meeting of the
Digital Government
USIA plugs in Kosovar refugees
Refugees from Kosovo are being given Internet access and email accounts that they can use to obtain news and try to contact their relatives as part of an international relief effort launched last week by the U.S. Information Agency. The program, called the Kosovar Refugee Internet Assistance Initi
Digital Government
Provenance upgrades records software
Provenance Systems Inc. last week announced a new version of its ForeMost electronic recordkeeping software that is designed to be more userfriendly and easier to deploy to large numbers of users. ForeMost Enterprise is a 32bit upgrade to earlier versions of ForeMost, with a new, threetier archi
Digital Government
Microsoft probes Unix territory
Microsoft Corp., making an unprecedented foray into Sun Microsystems Inc. territory, is scrambling to put together a Unix version of its messaging software after being shut out of the Army's strategic program for deploying commercial hardware and software to the battlefield. The Army has chosen to
Digital Government
States More Proactive Than Feds on Privacy Protection, Advocates Say
State and local governments are leading the federal government in protecting citizen information, according to privacy advocates lobbying for a new federal agency to regulate how online businesses use consumers' personal data.
Digital Government