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Giving credit where credit is due Rep. Rob Portman (ROhio) cochairman of the commission that is revamping the Internal Revenue Service has spent the last few weeks trying to get witnesses to grade the agency on how well it has mastered its technology problems. Most demur saying only that they hop
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Fedwire
NSF awards supercomputing grants The National Science Foundation has tapped two universities for a new program that will replace its supercomputing centers. An academic and research institution partnership led by the University of California San Diego and one led by the University of Illinois Urban
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The budget breakdown: win, lose or draw
Defense Department William S. Cohen the new secretary of Defense who marked his last year in the Senate with the passage of information technology procurement reform legislation made clear his commitment to IT in his Feb. 6 press briefing on the 1998 Pentagon budget. Cohen said DOD needs to sus
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Canvas targets feds with application-specific systems
Canvas Visual Communications a videoconferencing vendor once owned in part by British Telecom is taking aim at the federal market with a new federal office and a General Services Administration schedule awarded earlier this year. Canvas which opened its Federal Division in Herndon Va. plans to tack
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Video tech aids VA health care
As part of its ongoing efforts to make its medical facilities more competitive with commercial health care providers the Department of Veterans Affairs has installed videoconferencing equipment at hundreds of its medical centers and clinics to run applications ranging from telemedicine to distance
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FEDWIRE
Army forms security team T he Army is expected to officially announce its Computer Emergency Response Team (ACERT) today at a ribboncutting ceremony at Fort Belvoir Va. ACERT which was activated last September will be managed by the Army's Land Information Warfare Activity office. The team will tr
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Use of electronic food stamps rises, but USDA faces tough challenges
An increasing number of states are moving to electronically issued food stamps but the lack of interoperable systems among states is challenging the widespread use of the debitlike cards. Mary Ann Keeffe acting undersecretary for food nutrition and consumer services at the Agriculture Department t
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Netscape unveils its blueprint
Netscape Communications Corp. last week announced plans for its nextgeneration client and server software products the springboard for the company's leap into the networked enterprise market. The products could help federal agencies access applications across different hardware and operating syste
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NIST issues standard for authentication
The National Institute of Standards and Technology last month published a new federal standard for authentication technology that is designed to extend agencies' use of digital signatures. The new Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 196 titled 'Entity Authentication Using Public Key Cryp
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DISA preps own virtual IT store
Following in the footsteps of the National Institutes of Health the Defense Information Systems Agency plans to create a huge virtual computer store in which many vendors would offer hardware and maintenance services to agencies and offices throughout the Defense Department according to industry so
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1108th wears many hats serving as DSCS gatekeeper
Combine the functions of a worldwide satellite communications company with a local telephone company throw in a bunch of Spanish linguist radio operators and stir in the operation of the mythical WashingtonMoscow 'hot line ' and you begin to get a sense of the mission of the Army's 1108th Signal B
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Vendors tout cost of ownership in new wares
As the fiscal 1997 buying season kicks off this week with the FOSE show in Washington D.C. federal PC buyers can choose from a host of new desktop options designed to reduce the cost of maintaining and supporting standard PCs. On display at FOSE will be "network computers " or NCs one of several
Digital Government
DOD, DOT join forces to expand civilian use of GPS
The Defense and Transportation departments reached an agreement last month that ensures civilian users continued access to a second frequency from the Global Positioning System (GPS). DOT officials called the agreement 'essential' for applications such as the nextgeneration GPSbased air traffic c
Digital Government
IT spending remains flat
Total federal spending on information technology systems and services will hit $24.8 billion in fiscal 1998 up slightly from $24.7 billion in the current fiscal year according to Bruce McConnell director of the information policy branch of the Office of Management and Budget. McConnell said that wh
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House panel seeks 30-day delay in Post-FTS 2000 RFP
Rep. Dan Burton (RInd.) chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee last week asked the General Services Administration to postpone its solicitation for PostFTS 2000 contracts for 30 days and form a task force to iron out differences between sectors of the telecommunications i
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JIEO services deal is a boon for small businesses
The Defense Information Systems Agency's Joint Interoperability and Engineering Organization Systems Engineering program is a showcase for small businesses with skills ranging from satellite communications to logistics systems. DISA in January awarded the $610 million multipleaward pact to seven s
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Marines upgrade 386s to Pentiums, save money
Just as the famous Parris Island S.C. Marine boot camp instills guts in its recruits the base's computer division installed more powerful guts in the base's computers. The Depot Computer and Telecommunications Division (DCTD) at the Marine Corps' Recruit Depot Parris Island recently installed high
Digital Government
IRS earns `C-minus' rating for security policies
The Internal Revenue Service last week received a 'Cminus' grade for work on its information security policies and procedures from a consultant who said the agency's biggest challenge is to match the protection it has developed for data to employees' need for access. Joseph Mahaffee a principal wi
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Northrop Grumman takes on IDIQs
Northrop Grumman Data Systems and Services Division reached a milestone recently when the company landed its 15th indefinitedelivery indefinitequantity contract. The win pushes the company further into the professional services market from its base in systems integration. The General Services Adm
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