Digital Government
The March of the Botnets
Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, provided a <a href=http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20090225_testimony.pdf>grim statistic in his testimony</a> on Wednesday at a hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He said 15 percent of all networked computers in the world are in <a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet>botnets</a>, computers hijacked and remotely controlled to deliver spam or launch distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Modernization
DHS' Beckström: Feds need to define cyber goals
An expert says the government needs to clarify its vision of what constitutes successful cybersecurity.
Modernization
NIST creates cloud-computing team
The team will identify possible risks to federal agencies that use the emerging technology and determine how to make it secure, a NIST official said.
Cybersecurity
FAA will use software to identify sensitive data
A recent data breach demonstrated how difficult it is for agencies with a large infrastructure to know where all their sensitive data is and to assure its security, an official says.
Cybersecurity
DHS secretary discusses department's IT programs
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today an initial review showed that a 2012 deadline for DHS to scan for radiation all U.S.-bound sea cargo was not going to work. She also discussed information-sharing.
Modernization
GSA puts its USA.gov Web site in the cloud
Outsourcing storage and maintenance of the site's applications will halve costs and provide better service and security, agency officials say.
Digital Government
Billions for health records rest on NIST standards
Health professionals say finding agreement is the key to success for the economic stimulus act's $19 billion for automating health records.
Modernization
Officials eye a geospatial 'Virtual USA'
Officials from the Homeland Security Department and several states have started a project intended to make state and local geospatial data interoperable.
Digital Government
Oh, AHLTA is a Proper Noun
Last week <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/02/a_new_vista_for_ahlta_redux.php>I referred to AHLTA</a>, the Defense Department's electronic health record system, as an acronym that stood for Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application system. It did when AHLTA was introduced in 2005.
Ideas
Federal CIOs' Power on the Rise
For CIOs, some good news from the latest <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090224_9757.php CIO survey conducted by Tech America</a>, the industry association that was formed with the merger of the Information Technology Association of America and AeA.
Ideas
Headline of the Day
From the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Feb. 24 issue of TechBeat, the agency's biweekly tip sheet for journalists:
Ideas