Digital Government

Group: Health IT essential to health reform

Health IT may falter if it is not included in overall health reform, according to health industry organizations.

Cybersecurity

Experts urge federal efforts on cybersecurity

Experts from industry and academia today urged more federal involvement in cybersecurity research, development and education.

Cybersecurity

IG: Dulles IT security needs more work

The Homeland Security Department has made progress on IT security at Dulles International Airport, but gaps remain, says a new report.

People

Government contractors vs. federal employees: How to tell the difference

Like lions and hyenas, Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, the French and everybody, there seems to be a natural conflict here.

Digital Government

FDA creates info-sharing task force

A new transparency task force at the Food and Drug Administration will recommend ways to share information with the public.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity tops priorities for DHS' research and development arm

Sizable budget increase would fund 'leap-ahead technologies,' acting chief says.

Cybersecurity

Cell phones, other wireless devices next big cybersecurity targets

Mobile computing products are the source of a "coming tsunami of insecurity" as hackers develop ways to exploit the airwaves and their applications, security expert says.

Digital Government

With tight budgets, Air Force simulation center proves a cost saver

The Distributed Mission Operations Center also will provide training for the service's shift to rely on more unmanned aerial vehicles rather than fighter jets.

Digital Government

FDA creates info-sharing task force

Federal Computer Week

Modernization

DHS launches second test of biometric exit processes

Officials are determining whether Customs and Border agents or airport screeners are better positioned to collect information from visitors leaving the country.

Digital Government

EDS' Failure to Wipe

EDS, which runs the Navy Marine Corps Intranet under a 10 year, $10 billon contract, serves about 650,000 folks. Users turn in, on an annual basis, about 120,000 old computers for new ones. The company failed to magnetically wipe (the technical term is <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing>degaussing</a>) at least 12 hard drives containing secret information, according to a snippet from a Navy inspector general report, which made its way here to Whats central in Las Vegas, N.M.

Ideas

Looking for Leap-Ahead Tech

The Homeland Security Department's Directorate for Science & Technology, which is the primary research and development arm of the Homeland Security Department, requested an increase of $5.4 million for cybersecurity in President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget.

Digital Government

Web 2.0 as an HR Strategy

Companies have increased their reliance on Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking, blogs and webcasts to communicate with and engage their employees, especially as the economic downturn has shrunk funding for human resources, according to the <a href="http://www.watsonwyatt.com/research/resrender.asp?id=NA-2009-1242&amp;page=1">2009 HR Technology Trends report</a> by consulting firm Watson Wyatt.

Digital Government

Twitter, Facebook and CB Radios

Chuck Raasch wrote an interesting piece on USAToday.com on Monday comparing Twitter and Facebook to the CB radio fad of the 1970s. My parents basically met one another over CB radio, so I can see some truth in defining the medium as the social network of that decade.

Digital Government

Rotational Cyber Assignments

The cybersecurity report released by the Obama administration on May 29 includes a few important recommendations for the federal IT workforce. The recommendations include the usual suspects: determine how to improve the government's ability to attract and retain IT employees within the federal service and streamline the lengthy security clearance process to offset lost opportunities. But the report also includes one recommendation that I found interesting and somewhat ambitious, at least for now: