Digital Government

Social Security turns to the Web to manage escalating workload

Online services would ease burden on field offices scrambling to keep up with spike in beneficiaries, agency CIO says.

Cybersecurity

Unplugged VA computer affects treatment of cancer patients

Without network connection, doctors could not check X-rays of veterans with prostate cancer to determine how they were responding to radiation, the department's inspector general reports.

Cybersecurity

Security reporting overhaul costly but necessary, analysts say

Old FISMA requirements not sufficient to fight threats, but new programs will require more funding.

Digital Government

E-health records grants to create 1,000 jobs, White House says

The Obama administration awards $220 million in stimulus funds to communities selected as pioneers in expanding the use of digital patient records.

Digital Government

1. Social Media

It's your turn to tell us what's really going on! In the FCW Challenge, we're going to devote an entire issue of Federal Computer Week magazine to the "Six Big Questions for the Future of Gov. 2.0." Up for debate here: government social networks.

Digital Government

Search is dead: Long live 'findability'

Enterprise searches should be dynamic and interactive, speakers said at the 2010 Knowledge Management Conference. NASA Langley Research Center is one example of agencies embracing the virtues of findability.

Digital Government

Knowledge management a key cog in Open Government Initiative

Knowledge management techniques are integral to supporting the government's Open Government initiative and managing the culture change that goes with it, panelists at the Cloud Computing Conference agreed.

Digital Government

Moving to the cloud? You need new skills.

Dan Mintz, former Transportation CIO, told an audience at the Knowledge Mangement Conference that manging Web applications and external cloud providers is different from what agencies are used to.

Digital Government

Treasury shuts down 4 cloud-hosted Web sites after infection

Malicious code, which apparently came from servers in Ukraine, discovered in four Treasury Web sites hosted by a cloud service provider causes Treasury to shut down infected sites.

Digital Government

10 years later, the LoveBug still resonates

The LoveBug, or the ILOVEYOU worm, which appeared in the Philippines on May 5, 2000, and quickly spread to Asia, Europe and the United States, marks its 10th anniversary. It's still considered one of the worst worms of the computer age.

Modernization

Agencies’ transparency plans need improvement, groups say

The open-government plans of the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget were ranked poorly by transparency advocates.

Digital Government

A Slick Response

Multiple federal agencies, led by the Coast Guard, are trying to manage the oil spill and damaged drill site that is spewing at least 5,000 barrels of a day into the Gulf of Mexico. They have set up an omnibus website called <a href=http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/>Deepwater Horizon Response</a>, named after the drilling rig that exploded and caused the mess.

Digital Government

More Study Needed for EHR Safety

Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology, said last week that an advisory committee investigating reports of adverse events and patient injuries from the use of electronic health records submitted their report to him about three weeks ago. The message: We need to study it more.

Ideas

Body Scanners Spur Opposition

The Transportation Administration is continuing its <a href=http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2010/03/recovery_funds_fuel_body_scans.php>rollout</a> of the much-embattled full body scanners, which privacy groups have called invasive and not as anonymous as TSA claims.

Digital Government

OPM's OpenGov Plan

The Office of Personnel Management's open government plan ranked in the top five of all federal agencies creating such plans to improve transparency and collaboration, according to a recent <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/opengovtplans/">audit</a> by OpenTheGovernment.org.

Cybersecurity

Facebook Attacks X's and O's

If the Internet is <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0301/rebuilding-paller-america-internet-give-me-your-hackers.html">God's gift to espionage</a>, Facebook is like a cruel joke. And it appears the latest Facebook fix is in, an attack referred to by experts as social engineering.

Digital Government

Virtual Career Fairs

Katherine McIntire Peters <a href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45175&oref=todaysnews">writes</a> at <em>Government Executive</em> about the intelligence community's <a href="http://wiredworkplace.nextgov.com/2010/01/ic_seeks_cyber_it_specialists.php?oref=search">push</a> to host virtual career fairs as a way to save money and draw the kind of tech-savvy candidates it is seeking. The idea started at the National Security Agency, which generated 2,200 resumes within 12 hours after its first virtual career fair in February 2009.

Cybersecurity

Coast Guard has IT internal control problems, audit says

The Coast Guard performed slightly better in its fiscal 2009 audit of IT controls, but an audit still found problems.

Modernization

FEMA goes mobile with disaster info

FEMA has a new Web site to help victims get disaster-related information on their mobile phones.