Digital Government

FAA puts maintenance system in holding pattern

Lack of funding and unclear requirements have forced the Federal Aviation Administration to stop fullscale development on a contract potentially worth $100 million for a computer system to track the maintenance of the nation's air traffic control system. The FAA recently informed contractor Raythe

Digital Government

GSA preps security pacts

The General Services Administration's Office of Information Security last week released a request for quotations on a $250 million security services contract to help agencies protect their critical computer systems. The blanket purchase agreement is the basis for Program Safeguard, an OIS effort to

Digital Government

Society supports electronic mapping system

Another large electronic mapping association has thrown its support behind creating a special organization to manage the creation of a system in which federal, state and local governments can more easily share electronic geographic data. The American Society for Photogrammetry ?#038; Amp; Remote Sensing (ASP

Digital Government

Preference cutoff handcuffs DOD

The government's effort to funnel more business, including information technology contracts, to small and minorityowned businesses took a hit last month when the Defense Department suspended for one year the preference it gives small and disadvantaged businesses when awarding contracts. The prefer

Digital Government

U.S. must fight cyberterror aggressively

Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told Congress last month that the United States has been under an organized and systematic attack for the past several months by a group of unknown hackers. Hamre's report prompted Rep. Curt Weldon (RPa.) to declare this month that 'we are at war.' Although the

Digital Government

Elliptic Curve Cryptography wins more converts

Certicom Corp.'s effort to promote the standardization of its encryption technology has gained momentum with the backing of seven additional companies. Certicom's Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) can be used for encrypting information and for generating a digital signature, which is encrypted data

Digital Government

Customs regroups its info tech staff

In an effort to improve its compliance with the ClingerCohen Act and address persistent criticism of the way it manages its information systems, the Customs Service has reorganized its information technology staff. S.W. 'Woody'' Hall, Customs' chief information officer, said the new structure will

Digital Government

Dual Pentium IIs pack power into servers

Testing by Andreas Uiterwijk and Chip Pettirossi If you are looking for a PC server with plenty of horsepower and storage space, a 450 MHz Intel Corp. Pentium II dualprocessor system may be the answer. This class of workgroup servers is designed for file storage and data safety. However, the dual

Digital Government

BMC to add New Dimension to product offerings

BMC Software Inc. has announced plans to buy New Dimension Software Ltd. in a $650 million cash transaction that will bring workload scheduling and security software to BMC's portfolio of enterprise management solutions, the companies announced last week. Both BMC Software and New Dimension Softwar

Digital Government

GTSI beefs up Web presence

Government Technology Services Inc. this week bolsters its presence online with a new electronic commerce function and a World Wide Web portal for federal information technology professionals. GTSI designed its new Web presence to be a separate segment within the company gtsi.com encompassing a

Digital Government

Roster Change

President Clinton nominated Kelly Carnes as assistant secretary for technology policy at the Commerce Department. Carnes is the deputy assistant secretary for technology policy in Commerce's Technology Administration. Kerry Miller has been named administrative law judge at the Government Printing O

Digital Government

AF awards final round of BPAs

The Air Force this week awarded a fourth and final round of 24 blanket purchase agreements under a $750 million program to provide information technology support services.

Digital Government

Agencies team on biodata project

Several agencies are combining efforts on a program that could lead to one of the most ambitious datagathering projects ever attempted, with the potential to become a global project. The goal of the U.S. program, which its backers hope eventually might be funded at $40 million a year, is to build

Digital Government

New Compaq server targets data centers

Compaq Computer Corp. today unveiled a fourprocessor enterprise server the company said provides enough horsepower to support the industry's most demanding business applications while offering a form factor perfectly suited for spaceconstrained data centers. The announcement of the ProLiant 6400R

Digital Government

Senate ready to dole out more Y2K money to feds

Although federal agencies have not spent all of the $3.25 billion that Congress earmarked last year to help make Year 2000 fixes to computer systems, the senator in charge of Year 2000 oversight plans to make more available just in case.

Digital Government

Air Force speeds awards for PCs, add-ons

Despite continuing opposition to its methods of evaluating and limiting bidders, the Air Force last week awarded blanket purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars to six vendors to provide the military service with information technology products and services. The Air Force's Standa

Digital Government

Bell Atlantic adds voice recognition tech

Bell Atlantic Federal plans to announce the availability of a new voice recognition telephone directory system at this week's FOSE '99 conference. The new product, Connect@once, will allow federal users to call into a central phone number and speak the name of any user on the system. Connect@once w

Digital Government

Navy tests virtual medical command center

The Navy's 3rd Fleet, known for its exploits during World War II under Adm. William F. Bull Halsey, last week launched an experiment using information technology to better coordinate the medical care of military and civilian patients.

Digital Government

Logicon's IT services portfolio has Northrop flying high

Not long ago, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s business was so focused on building military aircraft that you almost could say if it did not have wings, the company was not interested. Now the mighty aerospace contractor, with its subsidiary Logicon Inc. at the core of its information technology services a

Digital Government

Microsoft confirms Windows NT security flaw

IDG News Service SAN FRANCISCO Microsoft Corp. last week acknowledged a security flaw in its Windows NT operating system that could allow a person to access protected files on a workstation or even deny users access to a Windows NT server. The bug surfaces at an embarrassing time for the software