Digital Government
INS to deploy fingerprint scanners in fight against citizenship fraud
The Immigration and Naturalization Service last week unveiled a plan to use technology to reduce rampant errors in the naturalization process, some of which have led to the granting of citizenship to criminals. The INS' naturalization process now is based largely on paper transactions, which has re
Digital Government
GAO sides with Raytheon in Volpe protest
Computer Sciences Corp. late last week asked the General Accounting Office to reconsider its decision to uphold a protest against a $171.4 million Transportation Department support services contract awarded to CSC. In a Feb. 2 decision, GAO directed the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
The dangers of email While Congress has been busily debating a variety of technologyrelated legislation since its return from holiday break, Rep. James Traficant (DOhio) this month brought up a new concern about the possible dangers of the Internet: conceiving via email. Traficant called for a
Digital Government
CA launches unsolicited $9 billion bid for CSC
Looking to extend its capacity for 'endtoend' systems management, software vendor Computer Associates International Inc. last week made an unsolicited $9 billion offer to buy systems integrator Computer Sciences Corp.
Digital Government
Dell taps Wang as fed service provider
Wang Laboratories Inc. will become a preferred service provider for all Dell Computer Corp. products used by federal agencies, under an agreement reached by the two companies last week. About 700 Wang technicians and support employees from the MultiVendor Services group, all of whom have security
Digital Government
Council chair to be 'facilitator'
When John Koskinen takes over as chairman of the President's Year 2000 Conversion Council next month, he plans to coordinate Year 2000 work among agencies and to work with the private sector to ensure Year 2000 fixes are compatible with federal systems. Koskinen, whom President Clinton this month a
Digital Government
Warfare center views Y2K fix as chance to upgrade system
Faced with fixing the Year 2000 software glitch in its financial management and related administrative programs, one Navy organization is turning what many agencies see as an onerous task into an opportunity to upgrade and modernize its computer systems. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (
Digital Government
Bill would guarantee funding for Next Generation Internet
After Congress balked last year at fully funding President Clinton's $105 million request for the highpowered Next Generation Internet (NGI) program, a Senate bill that was introduced this month would guarantee for the next two fiscal years almost the full amount the administration had been seekin
Digital Government
Spectrum battles mire Defense in budget & safety straits (Part 1 of 2)
If Defense Department cost estimates hold true, about half of the revenue Congress expects to obtain through the latest round of auctions of the radio spectrum now used by federal agencies will be lost because DOD will spend the funds to reallocate its systems to other areas of the spectrum. The Co
Digital Government
Outsourcing CIO post poses questions
The Army Reserve went outside its own agency way outside to find a suitable candidate for its chief information officer post. In a unique twist in the government's ongoing struggle to fill its CIO positions, the Reserve outsourced its CIO function to Unisys Corp., tapping Dennis Kelly, former I
Digital Government
Intercepts
* No deLight at NSA. My Fort Meade antenna site has picked up strong signals that the Hill has taken an interest in the followon to the National Security Agency's Light Core contract that was awarded last year to Cisco Systems at a bluelightspecial price of $34 million and then shelved followin
Digital Government
Fund honors dean's legacy
The Information Resources Management College has established the John M. Carabello Prize for Excellence in Information Resources Management Education in memory of the college's founding dean, who died Jan. 31 at age 56. Jerome Smith, Carabello's successor as dean of the IRM College, said the prize
Digital Government
Lawsuit challenges feds' right to put data on Web
In a case that could challenge the authority of federal agencies to publish data on the World Wide Web, a former top reviewer of federal regulations has sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its plans to enhance one of its most popular databases on the Internet. Jim Tozzi, a former Office o
Digital Government
DOJ takes crime-fighting message online to kids
With the increase in pornographyfilled World Wide Web pages and other sites that may be a hazard for young surfers, the Justice Department last month unveiled its effort to keep children safe and on the right track. Attorney General Janet Reno unveiled the DOJ Kids and Youth Page, a site devoted e
Digital Government
WAAS costs still headed skyward
The Federal Aviation Administration, which has faced continually rising costs on its major satellitebased navigation system, says the system will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more over the life of the program. In a report the FAA submitted to Congress last week, the agency said the Wide Ar
Digital Government
VA abandons PAIRS in favor of existing contract vehicles
Department of Veterans Affairs officials have pulled the plug on an estimated $875 million computer services procurement, opting instead to buy services from existing vehicles such as governmentwide contracts, blanket purchase agreements and the General Services Administration's multiple award sche
Digital Government
EPA manager creates environment for data
BOSTON On an afternoon in January, Mike McDougall, information resources manager for the Environmental Protection Agency's New England office, glanced out his 10thfloor office window at the traffic streaming along Boston's elevated Central Artery below. Road crews working on the nation's biggGMT
Digital Government
Amdahl unveils high-end CMOS mainframe models
Amdahl Corp. last week rolled out a new line of mainframes that provide highend capacity using the latest generation of mainframe processing technology. Amdahl's Millennium 700 Series Servers, released two months ahead of schedule, are the company's newest and largest models based on CMOS processo
Digital Government
Resellers, manufacturers jockey for market position
Decisions by BTG Inc. and Electronic Data Systems Corp. to sell their reseller business reflect a significant shift in the way the government buys technology, according to vendors and industry observers in the federal market. The problem stems from shrinking profit margins in the product business t
Digital Government