Digital Government
NARA releases interim records-management policy
With a critical court ruling still under review, the National Archives and Records Administration yesterday issued interim guidelines for how agencies should preserve electronic records.
Digital Government
Reno unveils center to protect infrastructure
Attorney General Janet Reno last week announced an interagency effort to track and analyze electronic threats to the nation's critical infrastructure, such as the private computer systems used to manage the financial, electrical and transportation industries.
Digital Government
Labor added to critical list in latest Year 2000 report
The Office of Management and Budget has added the Labor Department to its most critical list of agencies that are showing insufficient progress in Year 2000 computer conversion efforts, according to OMB's latest Year 2000 quarterly report, obtained by Federal Computer Week.
Digital Government
Intercepts
* Byebye base comm. The Navy plans to outsource the operation of 100 base communications offices as part of an overall plan to slash $2.5 billion from its budget by turning over nonessential functions to outside providers. Chuck Trigger, assistant chief of staff for the Naval Computer and Telecomm
Digital Government
NASA teleconferencing system to hasten spacecraft design
NASA has chosen a small arsenal of commercial products to create a new agencywide teleconferencing system that should help the agency design spacecraft more quickly and inexpensively. The system a loose configuration of more than a dozen hardware and software products will offer an alternative
Digital Government
Report slams DOD's Y2K efforts
Describing the Pentagon's Year 2000 problems as a national security risk, a Defense Science Board (DSB) task force recommended the Defense Department appoint a fulltime executive with 'requisite authority and staff' to oversee DOD's Year 2000 fix, according to an interim report obtained by Federal
Digital Government
NIH, Friendship Computer settle ECS II complaint
The National Institutes of Health gave Friendship Computer, Rockville, Md., a contract with its $2 billion Electronic Computer Store II program March 9, settling a protest against the agency in which the company charged it had been evaluated unfairly.
Digital Government
Report: NWS' key modernization project to cost hundreds of millions more
The National Weather Service's Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System may cost millions more than what was anticipated a couple years ago, according to a report that was discussed at a House hearing today.
Digital Government
CDC contract to expand its HIV/AIDS database
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month tapped Analytical Sciences Inc. (ASI) to establish a national database to distribute timely information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, to medical facilities nationwide. CDC awarded ASI a fiveyear, $33 million con
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
Dogged marketing Dennis Fischer, commissioner of the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service, is fond of telling vendors that he would like them to become partners with GSA in marketing their services to agencies. In a speech last week, Fischer likened this arrangement to a par
Digital Government
Set-Asides
Group to fight Clinton policy A group of technology companies and privacy advocates will announce this week the formation of a coalition that plans to launch a media and advertising campaign to fight the Clinton administration's encryption policy. Americans for Computer Privacy plans to run a media
Digital Government
Six vendors compete for charge card business
Six companies that won the right to issue charge cards to federal employees say the contracts provide an opportunity to test innovative services in the government sector that are likely to cross into the commercial charge card market, including smart cards and electronic commerce applications. The
Digital Government
GAO report sheds little light on costs of pension system switch
The General Accounting Office recently analyzed the potential cost to the government of an open season during which federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System could switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System. As usual, its analysis was less than impressive. In fact, the
Digital Government
Document management vendor officially enters federal market
Documentum Inc., a leading vendor of software for managing large repositories of electronic documents, formally entered the federal market last week. Based in Pleasanton, Calif., Documentum's offerings include the Enterprise Document Management System, which is designed to allow organizations to ma
Digital Government
USDA details plan, systems to rein in mismanaged telecom
The Agriculture Department, longcriticized for mismanaging its telecommunications systems, is one step closer to building an enterprisewide network that should help the agency control the hundreds of millions of dollars it spends on telecom every year. At the TeleStrategies conference last week, t
Digital Government
Three Army Web sites hacked
On the heels of the recent attack on unclassified Pentagon computer systems, three Army World Wide Web sites were hacked March 8.
Digital Government
IBM unleashes 333 MHz Pentium II workstation
At a time when government workstation buyers are considering Windows NT systems as replacements to traditional Unix machines for 3D graphics applications, IBM Corp.'s new IntelliStation M Pro offers a flashy design, solid performance and a refreshed feature set that will surely attract attention.
Digital Government
Costs to agencies escalate as computer misuse increases
More than half of federal agencies recently surveyed have been victims of unauthorized use of computer systems, with agencies' financial losses rising by more than 3,000 percent over last year, according to a new report being issued today.
Digital Government
Bell Atlantic wins GAO contract
Bell Atlantic Federal Systems expects to begin work this week on its first nationwide contract to offer telecommunications maintenance services and equipment to a federal agency. The General Accounting Office awarded the Consolidated Field Office Maintenance contract, worth a minimum of $1.4 millio
Digital Government