Digital Government
Report: Feds snub NIST's standards
Fourteen civilian agencies are using a commercial security technology that is not allowed under federal standards for encryption and digital signatures, according to a report released last week by the company that designed the technology.
Digital Government
Cooperation key to Y2K efforts
Even just a year ago, it would have been inconceivable that the United States would share information about its nuclear earlywarning and missile systems with Russia and other nuclear powers. But the Defense Department has proposed just such an exchange as a way to mitigate the risks of a nuclear m
Digital Government
SET-ASIDES
NSF group settles on privacy package After almost a year of collaboration, researchers with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program have developed a plan to eliminate cleartext passwords for the users of their systems. The National Compu
Digital Government
CUSTOMS MAKES $165M DEAL FOR MOTOROLA RADIOS
The Customs Service this month awarded Motorola Inc. a contract to supply radios for voice communications as well as ones that the agency can use to transmit data, such as digital photographs and reports. The contract, worth an estimated $165 million over five years, will help Customs replace radio
Digital Government
Kodak debuts Nikon-friendly digital camera
Eastman Kodak Co. has introduced a highperformance digital camera aimed at professional photographers who have been waiting for a way to begin using a digital camera without having to retire all their expensive Nikon lenses. Kodak collaborated with Nikon on the body design of the DCS 315 camera, i
Digital Government
Cyberattacks leave feds chasing 'vapor'
Top administration officials last week warned that the United States lacks the capability to quickly identify the nature and scope of a continuing series of cyberattacks against both federal and private systems that support the country's telecommunications, financial and energy critical infrastruc
Digital Government
Letters
VA ranking As the Department of Veterans Affairs' Year 2000 project manager, I am writing to correct serious factual errors contained in an article by L. Scott Tillett on the Office of Management and Budget's Year 2000 draft report [FCW, June 8, Page 1] and in Rep. Steve Horn's report card [FCW, Ju
Digital Government
Keeping Marines out of the danger zone
In December 1992, Marine Lt. Col. Carl R. Bott was walking the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. He was there as part of a small, special operations team that was assigned to reconnoiter the city before the main landing force of Operation Restore Hope arrived to deliver food and water to the wartorn
Digital Government
Fedwire
WITS 2001 deadline extended The General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service this month extended the deadline for commenting on the WITS 2001 draft request for proposals to June 24, setting the program back about a month. GSA personnel plan to meet individually with vendors to discu
Digital Government
Roster
Carl Schellenberg, a senior executive with the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Services Office, was named assistant administrator for financial services and chief financial officer of the FAA. Rich Efford, a senior staff member on the House Appropriations Committee's Transportation Su
Digital Government
Protest delays N.Y. telecom buy
The General Services Administration's procurement for telecommunications services around New York City will be delayed at least a month by a protest charging the program is not sufficiently competitive. WinStar Communications Inc., a wireless communications service provider, filed the preaward pro
Digital Government
Satcom price war brews
Government will pay 'the most favorable rates in the world' for phone calls placed over the $5 billion Iridium LLC mobile satellite system (MSS) that starts operation this September, according to the company's top government and industrial marketing manager. Meanwhile, a top executive of Qualcomm I
Digital Government
GTSI offering seat management services
Government Technology Services Inc. last week announced the addition of seat management services on its General Services Administration schedule and through the National Institutes of Health's Electronic Computer Store (ECS) II contract. The new offerings are intended to fill the gap left by depart
Digital Government
DOD in never-ending cyberwar
The pace and intensity of cyberattacks against Defense Department computers and networks has increased so much that the Pentagon now considers itself continually at war.
Digital Government
House panel matches $2.25B Y2K funding
A House Appropriations subcommittee voted June 11 to set aside $2.25 billion in emergency funding for civilian agencies to pay for century date fixes in fiscal 1999. The Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Subcommittee also said agencies that are in danger of not having their computer s
Digital Government
Intercepts
DISN price hike/desertion? That was the buzz at last week's AFCEA TechNet show, where service and industry officials predicted the agency will need to impose stiff rate increases in fiscal 1999 for users throughout DOD on the agency's premier DISN network. These rate increases stem from accounting
Digital Government
New Federal Grants System to Eliminate Confusion, Bureaucracy For State and Locals
New Federal Grants System to Eliminate Confusion, Bureaucracy For State and Locals
Digital Government
Round 2
In the May 4 issue, Federal Computer Week incorrectly reported on the Labor Department's resources to fix computers for the Year 2000 problem. The article should have reported that Year 2000 work done by Labor's Inspector General's Office has been 'limited by resource constraints.' In the same art
Digital Government