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DHS' New Privacy Officer
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1235067917533.shtm">announced today</a> that she has appointed Mary Ellen Callahan as chief privacy officer for the department. Callahan is a partner in the international law firm Hogan and Harston in Washington working on privacy and security issues.
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Where're the Details on GovTrip Hack?
First it was <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090210_9221.php">the FAA</a>. Now news comes of another government Web site<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128173&intsrc=news_ts_head"> being hacked</a>.
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Cybersecurity: All Together Now
The latest in what seems to be an endless string of reports that take a stab at solving the nation's cybersecurity failures says more effective coordination, metrics, policies, and training is needed across markets. This seems to be a lesson everyone except government grasps.
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Air Force: No Security, No 'Net
If you're a soldier or a civilian working for the Defense Department, it's becoming harder and harder to do anything online. There's no YouTube, MySpace or even reading blogs for some. Now, for airmen at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, there's no Internet at all.
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From Sleepwalking to ZZZ-Mailing
Researchers from the University of Toledo, Ohio, report in the medical journal <a href="http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620282/description#description"><em>Sleep Medicine</em></a> about the first case of someone emailing while asleep -- an act related to sleepwalking.
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More Recovery.govs Needed
Staying true to its word, the Obama administration launched Recovery.gov today in conjunction with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so that "every American can go online and see how their money is being spent," Obama said in a statement.
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Public Outreach, Warts and All
It's been just three days since Virginia's Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine <a href=http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/02/social_networking_the_stimulus.php>launched a Web site</a> soliciting Virginians' ideas about how to spend the economic stimulus money the state may receive. As of Friday afternoon, 1,274 projects (and counting) were posted on <a href=http://stimulus.virginia.gov/> stimulus.virginia.gov</a>.
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Stimulus Bill Fogs Transparency
As I'm writing this post, I'm also trying to download part A of the 500-page conference stimulus bill posted on The House Rules Committee's <a href="http://www.rules.house.gov/">Web site</a> yesterday just before midnight. I've been trying all morning and it looks like it will take at least another 30 minutes to download the 13 megabyte file.
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Play Nice When Phish Training
In an update on the controversy over the Justice Department phishing test, Government Executive reporter Alyssa Rosenberg wrote near the end of her <a href=http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42022&dcn=todaysnews>article</a>:
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Social Networking the Stimulus
In the spirit of reaching out to the public to collaborate on policy decisions, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has launched a site asking Virginians to send in projects that could be funded by the billions of dollars soon to come form Congress.
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Senate Stimulus Spares Health IT
Fellow blogger Andrew Noyes, at CongressDaily's Tech Daily Dose, reports that health care information technology looks to have (mostly) dodged the knife in the Senate's economic stimulus bill. His analysis:
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Oops, a Top Secret Tweet?
Perhaps there is a limit to how much information the government should release via social media. From <a href=http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10159054-2.html>CNet</a>:
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Shameless Self-Promotion
Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but it's always nice to get recognition from Web 2.0 giants like Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org. In an interview with <a href="http://www.govloop.com/">GovLoop</a>, Newmark, whose is a member of the social networking site, said:
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OPM Settles on Retirement Calculator
The Office of Personnel Management has settled its dispute with Hewitt Associates over a faulty retirement calculator for the agency's RetireEZ modernization project. According to a Hewitt statement issued earlier today:
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Baker Tapped for VA CIO?
It looks like the Obama administration is vetting long-time federal IT executive Roger Baker for the chief information officer post at the Veterans Affairs Department, according to sources.
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The Unaccounted For IT Costs
Senate Republicans want to include in the economic stimulus bill a provision that would allow <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100259536">the federal government to offer 4 percent to 4.5 percent home loans</a> as a way to reduce foreclosures while at the same time goosing the U.S. economy by freeing up more money for consumer spending. This idea, like most policy decisions that come out of Congress, sounds good until agencies are asked to implement it.
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Virginia's IT Chief to fill CTO position?
The latest name to circulate as the possible pick for Obama's chief technology officer is Virginia's secretary of technology, <a href="http://www.technology.virginia.gov/OfficeInfo/chopraBio.cfm">Aneesh Chopra</a>, according to a source with inside knowledge of the administration's plans.
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The Lowdown on E-Health ROI
How long before the government's investment in e-health records -- mostly spent in the form of "incentives" provided through Medicare and Medicaid -- starts to pay off? Longer than you may think, if you look at the Congressional Budget Office's <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9968/hr1.pdf">analysis of the House stimulus bill</a>.
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