MONOPOLY MONEY. Acquiring wellsituated property is the theme of the Monopoly board game, and it's starting to look as if it is the key factor in the sale of Boeing Information Systems, the integrator arm of the aircraft company that hasn't distinguished itself recently in the hurlyburly battle fo
MONOPOLY MONEY. Acquiring well-situated property is the theme of the Monopoly board game, and it's starting to look as if it is the key factor in the sale of Boeing Information Systems, the integrator arm of the aircraft company that hasn't distinguished itself recently in the hurly-burly battle for government contacts.
I've picked up strong signals that DynCorp and Science Applications International Corp. plan to bid for Boeing IS, with SAIC viewing any deal as a real estate play. The main Boeing IS facility on Gallows Road in Falls Church, Va., sits on a prime chunk of land: 33 acres on the periphery of Tysons Corner zoned for the development of three of those large, bland office buildings so beloved by the IT companies of Northern Virginia.
If real estate is the determining factor in any Boeing IS deal, maybe Til Hazel will enter the bidding fray. The Virginia developer transformed Tysons from a quiet country corner into the scene of world-renowned traffic jams.
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NEW DISA TECHNO-GURU. Defense Information Systems Agency boss Lt. Gen. David Kelley tapped Dawn Hartley as DISA's new chief technology officer, saying "no one is better suited" for the job than Hartley, who has spent the past few years in the depths of DOD's Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment.
Hartley previously served as DISA's chief engineering executive, helping to develop the Joint Command, Control, Intelligence, Combat Support and Information Dissemination Management System.
Hartley did her undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon University, where a surprising number of students converse only in C++, and she has a master's degree in computer science from Loyola Marymount University.
She also does a darn good job with PowerPoint slides, without which DOD would grind to a halt.
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DEPUTIZED AT LAST. Former Capitol Hill aide and former Litton/PRC Inc. executive Paul Brubaker, who has been interested in a high-level DOD job, achieved his goal this month. He now labors away in the corridors of power working as the deputy to Marv Langston, the principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for ASD/C3, making Brubaker a real deputy's deputy.
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MOUSEPAD PASSWORDS. The Pentagon keeps beefing up its high-tech defenses against hacker attacks while more than a few DOD personnel still do not follow low-cost security measures, such as password protection.
Lt. Gen. William Campbell, the Army's director of information systems for command, control, communications and computers, wants all his users to adopt nondictionary-based, hard-to-crack, alphanumeric passwords.
Then he wants them to store the passwords in the brain, "not the bottom of the mousepad.''
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HOW ABOUT DRASTIC? Campbell chided the Interceptor for terming his decision to shut down all publicly available World Wide Web sites for a security scrub last year as "Draconian." He believed I should have come up with a better term to describe what he called "a patriotic act" to deter cyberleaks. Campbell said those exposed to Jesuit education - such as the Interceptor - should choose their words with better care. OK. How about "drastic move"?
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