The Circuit

Tracing Terrorism

Even as President Bush ordered a freeze on financial assets of groups tied to terrorist Osama bin Laden, the Treasury Department's Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center launched a probe to track the assets of other potential terrorists. FTAT will use the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to track financial links between terrorist groups and legitimate financial institutions. FinCEN collects data under the Bank Secrecy Act and can cross-reference the names of terrorists and terrorist organizations with suspicious activity reports in that database.

But don't look for any more information, warned a Treasury spokeswoman, who said, "We would never discuss what types of technology that we are using to trace and track assets." And although the overall U.S. job market is sagging, the Sept. 11 attacks have sparked new jobs in some sectors. Joseph Atick, chief executive officer of security systems firm Visionics Corp., said he has 3,000 openings. The CIA and other law enforcement agencies have been flooded with resumes, and the FBI wants people fluent in Arabic, Farsi and Pashtun to aid in the search for terrorists.

Oracle Sans Software?

First, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison told a trade-show audience earlier this year to buy fewer of his company's products. Now this: Jack Pellicci, group vice president for business development at Oracle Service Industries, said during a session at the recent 21st Century Commerce International Expo 2001 in Phoenix that "in two to three years, Oracle will not be a software company, we'll be a services company that's just the way it's going." Whether or not it's an application service provider, the market will determine, Pellicci said. Who knows what's coming, but we anxiously await the next public statement from a senior Oracle executive.

The Inside Advantage

The government's main online procurement site, GSA Advantage, appears in the running to get part of the $20 million the White House has requested in fiscal 2002 for its $100 million e-government fund.

The Office of Management and Budget is heading up a task force of agency e-government leaders to pick 20 high-impact, quick-hit initiatives that will use fiscal 2002 cash. GSA Advantage gives agencies online access to every product sold on the Federal Supply Service schedules, including the information technology schedule, which in the first three quarters of this fiscal year processed almost $8 billion in orders.

GSA Advantage will still get money from the FSS budget, but agency officials are hoping to use the money from the e-government fund to provide further enhancements, according to one source.

On the Rise

Kathleen Dyer, a principal at Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc., will receive this year's Women of Color Technology Award for Lifetime Achievement fthe Career Com.munications Group, which publishes U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. The award recognizes individuals for their work in science and technology and for being role models.

At the consulting firm, Dyer manages high-impact projects for the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies.

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