Web Headlines

Headlines from around the Web for Tuesday, Dec. 11.

Compiled by Melanie Bender

Web Leaders Seek More Searchable Government

The Washington Post

Leaders from Google and Wikipedia plan to tell the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs today to require federal agencies to make Web sites, records and databases more searchable.

Washington State Area High School Pilots Technology Program

The Columbia Basin Herald

Teachers can soon create customized computer desktops and offer students access to online resources from home. The school district is the second district in the United States to use a virtual-learning environment called Editure.

Trusted Users Pose Significant Security Threats, Survey Finds

NetworkWorld

It probably doesn't give security managers much comfort to hear that the majority of internal employees that pose a significant threat to network security are well-meaning, innocent offenders -- as opposed to those with malice on the mind.

DNS Attack Could Signal Phishing 2.0

ComputerWorld

Georgia Tech and Google estimate that as many as 0.4 percent, or 68,000, open-recursive DNS servers are behaving maliciously, returning false answers to DNS queries. They also estimate that another 2 percent of them provide questionable results.

CIA Tape Destruction Offers Cautionary Tale for CIOs

ComputerWorld

The recent revelation that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency destroyed videotapes of interrogations of two terrorist suspects may offer a timely reminder for CIOs at private companies in the U.S. tasked with electronic evidence preservation rules since last December.

New System to Track Evacuees with Special Needs

The Houston Chronicle

After dealing with massive, chaotic evacuations that followed hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Texas hired AT&T to help it improve the way it handles future disaster relocations. The system AT&T devised should help emergency workers better track "special needs" evacuees, or those who are unable to drive themselves to safety after a disaster.

N.J. Urging Congress to Halt Transfer of High-Tech Defense Jobs to Md.

The Baltimore Sun

One of Maryland's largest military base expansions is slated to come under congressional scrutiny this week, as civilian employees at Fort Monmouth press their fight to spare the 90-year-old base in New Jersey and keep its high-tech defense jobs from moving to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.

Saving E-mails Could Cost Missouri More Than $1 Million

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri's computer chief said it could cost more than $1 million to keep backup copies of the hundreds of thousands of e-mails that are sent and received daily by government workers. The move to back up the e-mails came as Gov. Matt Blunt was facing increased scrutiny over the e-mail deletion practices of his office.

New Software Improves the Reliability of Wireless Links

The Wall Street Journal

Traditional virtual private networks were designed to work with personal computers and laptops plugged into a phone or data line. But more recently, field workers have begun accessing VPNs from outside of the office or workplace, using a laptop and wireless card, or a smart phone. The applications these workers use weren't designed for wireless networks.