Digital Government

Obama pushes to expand NASA's public contests

Winners will receive millions of dollars in prize money for developing innovations in satellite launch technology, energy storage and robotics.

Digital Government

Health IT Checkup

Defense and Veterans Affairs lead the way in making a nationwide health information network a reality.

Digital Government

Homeland Security stymied by shortage of UAV pilots

DHS, which uses unmanned aerial vehicles to spot illegal immigrants entering the country, must compete with Defense for the skillful controllers needed to remotely fly the aircraft along U.S. borders.

Digital Government

'A Long Way to Go'

How far does the Obama administration have to go in moving the nation to full use of electronic medical records?

Digital Government

Some 'Hard Fun' with Robots

Those smart techie folks at Carnegie Mellon University have put together a program aimed at boosting young students' interest in computer science with the hopes that they can convince more teenagers to enter scientific and technological careers.

Digital Government

House Passes Telework Bill

The House on Wednesday passed legislation that would make telework a statutory requirement for every federal agency.

Ideas

Industry Seeks IT Acquisitions Reform

A major tech industry group is fighting back against the administration's threats to cancel information technology projects by forming a task force to suggest other options.

Cybersecurity

Just Can't Stop Clicking That Link

Federal employees, like workers in the private sector, do some risky things on their work computers. That's what the Government Business Council, a Nextgov sister business unit at Government Executive Media Group, found when it conducted a survey of government workers' cybersecurity practices.

Digital Government

Younger Feds Happier With Jobs

Federal workers age 25 and younger are generally more satisfied with their jobs, pay and benefits than workers in other age groups, according to data from the <a href="http://www.fedview.opm.gov/2010/Reports/AgeComp.asp?AGY=ALL">2010 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey</a>.

People

More feds may telework, House says

Teleworkers of the world rejoice! House lawmakers have passed a bill to expand the number of federal employees eligible to telework.

Digital Government

Training security personnel remains a challenge

Agencies are required under FISMA to provide training for IT security personnel, and the need to husband limited resources puts a high priority on matching appropriate levels of training with personnel. NIST offers some suggestions on meeting the challenge.

Digital Government

Can BlackBerry's rumored tablet unseat iPad?

The rumor mill is working overtime with stories of a Flash-friendly BlackBerry tablet from Research in Motion

Digital Government

Is your smart phone infected with malware?

An informal survey suggests that 18 percent of smart phones may be infected with viruses and spyware. Is yours? How would you know?

Digital Government

Need to crack someone else's password?

Tool lets investigators harness the power of distributed computing to search for and crack passwords and crypto keys.

Digital Government

Will digital certificates replace passwords?

Passwords have long been the standard for identity authentication. But there are limits to memory and scalability with every technique for generating and managing them, and eventually convenience and security clash. Is it time to move to digital certificates?

Digital Government

Agencies trying to wring more value from virtualization

Despite challenges, agencies hope to fully adopt client, server and storage virtualization by 2015.

People

How to improve the performance of the federal workforce

Civilian agencies need to take a cue from the Defense Department and begin focusing their employees on mission, not process, according to one reader.

Digital Government

Navy tightens cybersecurity training rules

The Navy secretary has issued a directive requiring the Navy and Marine Corps to ensure that their cybersecurity workforce complies with information assurance requirements.

People

House tightens reins around improper payments

House passes legislation requiring agency officials to review their programs every three years to find those that are susceptible to making improper payments, and levies penalties against agencies that fail to comply with accounting regulations.