Digital Government
States institute Y2K freeze, too
Some states, including California, have barred any changes on their information technology systems well into the Year 2000 to avoid the introduction of untested and potentially bad date code.
Digital Government
Navy missile range taps Sun to prevent data loss
The Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility, which relies on advanced instruments to test missiles at a range located off a Hawaiian island shore, recently purchased a faulttolerant Sun Microsystems Inc. computer system to prevent the loss of valuable test data. The missile range, headquartered at t
Digital Government
Win2000 gives security boost
Federal systems administrators and users who have long bemoaned the security, or lack thereof, in Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems will have something to look forward to next year in the release of Windows 2000. Administrators in particular have had problems with the current default configuratio
Digital Government
Biz criticizes contract bundling
Congress and industry have become concerned about the increasingly popular trend in the Defense Department and other agencies to combine numerous small information technology contracts into one larger contract because it makes it more difficult for small businesses to compete for government work. S
Digital Government
RIF game coercive, not voluntary
A federal employee who was set to lose his job because of a reduction in force decided to take a new job at a lower grade to stay employed. However, when he decided to appeal the original RIF notice, he realized that he had few rights. The case involved Army employee Steven Johnson who, on July 22,
Digital Government
Intercepts
NewAge Army? In the process of reinventing itself into a lighter and more quickly deployable force, the Army has decided to use the troops at Fort Lewis, Wash., as the test bed for new concepts, equipment and tactics. The Army named Maj. Gen. James Dubik to spearhead the effort and gave him a titl
Digital Government
Y2K freeze
After spraying for bugs, you don't open the doors and windows. That's the advice the federal government has decided to follow with the Year 2000 bug. Many agencies, having spent billions of dollars fixing missioncritical systems for the Year 20000 computer problem, have barred or severely restrict
Digital Government
ITAA: Feds' outsource lists light on IT jobs
An information technology industry association last month accused several agencies of failing to fully comply with a federal law that requires agencies to identify government jobs that could be contracted out to the private sector. The Information Technology Association of America, after analyzing
Digital Government
Army battles irrelevancy
Atlantic City, N.J. Although the Army's latest plan to build lighter, leaner and more mobile forces relies heavily on information technology, the effort has nothing to do with breaking free of hulking tanks or creating a more lethal force out of an already lethal Army. What the strategy really i
Digital Government
Pentagon hit by 'World Wide Wait'
The Defense Department's exploding use of the Internet has put such a squeeze on network bandwidth that it threatens new strategies to use information technology systems to manage the Pentagon's business and fight wars. Although the Defense Information Systems Agency has more than doubled capacity
Digital Government
DOD, GSA buy into universal smart card
A new mandate that requires the use of a common smart card throughout the Defense Department and an upcoming estimated $1 billion governmentwide solicitation for smart card products and services have set the stage for the federal government to become the largest consumer of smart cards in the world
Digital Government
SEC seeks securities fraud Internet sniffer
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to develop a network application to scour public areas of the Internet to search for messages, unusual traffic patterns and other clues that may lead to the arrest of criminals engaged in online securities fraud. The SEC this month announced it would sol
Digital Government
LANDesk gives users a grip on desktops, servers
Intel Corp.'s LANDesk Management Suite 6.3 actually is more of a desktop management tool than a local or widearea network manager. It offers some of the functionality of a complete enterprise management suite, but it lacks the network monitoring functionality of network management tools such as H
Digital Government
VPNs could help astronauts send data
NASA astronauts working on a space shuttle or international space station eventually could use Internetbased systems to transfer data to controllers and researchers on Earth through a secure link. Earlier this month, engineers from NASA's Space Communications Office and Veridian Trident Data Syste
Digital Government
Remembering just how bad the bad old days were
On a recent flight, however, my interest was piqued when I glimpsed the celluloid pocket notepad holder of the woman sitting next to me.
Digital Government
Fedwire Briefs
Computer morphing a war crime Falsely communicating misinformation using altered images or documents, a strategy that the Defense Department has considered, would be a war crime, according to a DOD study released last week. The use of information operations tactics, such as deception and perceptio
Digital Government
Staying connected
Harold Gracey, acting chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, never served in the military unless you count his sixyear stint as a policeman in the National Guard. He was never wounded in combat or stormed an enemy encampment, but he understands what dedication to a miss
Digital Government
What are the policies of affirmative action?
A company representative asked the following question: Our company started out very small, but we have been growing. The company may have to comply with certain affirmative action requirements as we get larger. What are these requirements? To whom do they apply? All but the smallest government cont
Digital Government
How to make 'service to the citizen' meaningful
Some federal government agencies are giving new meaning to the term 'service to the citizen.' Agencies are adopting a commercial practice known as customer relationship management. The basic tenet of CRM is total organization or agency customer centricity. I am pleased that the leadership within g
Digital Government