Digital Government
The March of the Botnets
Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, provided a <a href=http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20090225_testimony.pdf>grim statistic in his testimony</a> on Wednesday at a hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He said 15 percent of all networked computers in the world are in <a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet>botnets</a>, computers hijacked and remotely controlled to deliver spam or launch distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Digital Government
Oh, AHLTA is a Proper Noun
Last week <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/02/a_new_vista_for_ahlta_redux.php>I referred to AHLTA</a>, the Defense Department's electronic health record system, as an acronym that stood for Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application system. It did when AHLTA was introduced in 2005.
Digital Government
Mullen's Thumb Drive Road Show
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seems to be using trips to bases nationwide to reinforce his view on thumb drives and removable media.
Digital Government
Casting the 'Net for a Replacement
Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, has used the <a href=www.health.mil>Military Health Systems Web site</a> both as a bully pulpit and a <a href=http://38.118.42.202/story_page.cfm?articleid=38853&ref=rellink>two-way communications tool</a> with corpsmen, medics, doctors and nurses worldwide since he took the job April 2007.
Digital Government
Actor Kilmer's Nasty Take on 'Nam Vets
Val Kilmer -- the actor who has portrayed Jim Morrison in the movie "The Doors," Batman in "Batman Forever," Moses in "The Prince of Egypt," and a naval aviator in "Top Gun" -- now has his eyes on a new real life role, governor of New Mexico.
Digital Government
DISA Lands Ning CEO
Some folks may look at the Defense Information Systems Agency as the antithesis of techno-cool. But, it sure has latched on to a speaker for its <a href=http://www.disa.mil/conferences/2009/index.html>Customer Care conference</a> in April who embodies cutting edge social networking technology:
Digital Government
Forget the Exquisite Satellites
That's the message from the thinking man's Marine, General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who <a href=http://pentagontv.feedroom.com/?fr_story=4bec59f4322f139dfb694c60ece93b65b32b8d99&rf=rss>told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce confab in Washington yesterday</a> that the Defense Department may lose its edge in space because of a policy that has led to slow development of costly satellites.
Digital Government
Tallying Inaugural Cell Phone Traffic
The best technologies are ones that work in the background and don't have to think about making them work. That approach applies to the National Communications System and its wired and wireless emergency communications systems, which withstood the test of Inauguration Day.
Digital Government
Two Stars for Navy Networkers
The Navy has nominated Rear Adm. (lower half) Charles E. Smith for promotion to Rear Admiral (upper half) and promoted Rear Adm. Janice Hamby for the same boost in rank.
Digital Government
Digital Photo Frames: National Security Risk
The headquarters of at least one Combatant Command - which I will leave unnamed - has expanded the <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20081121_2238.php">Defense Department ban</a> on storage devices that use flash media to include digital photo frames, which are just like regular picture frames except they display a digital, not paper, photo, a reader told me in an e-mail sent from his home computer.
Digital Government
Obama's Transparency Lost on Defense
I had great hopes that President Obama's memo on <a href=http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/>transparency and openness</a> in government, as well as the new <a href=http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/FreedomofInformationAct/>Freedom of Information Act memo</a> would at last help me pry out the hidden details on the billions of dollars on task order contracts let by all three services, the Defense Information Systems Agency and other Defense agencies.
Digital Government
Yuppie-izing the Marine Corps
It looks like my Marine Corps has gone yuppie. The Corps plans to issue every Marine a set of running suits better suited for K-Street lobbyists than "The Few, The Proud, The Brave," based on this <a href=http://pentagontv.feedroom.com/?fr_story=bbd12a9bb5eee92e1b3140d3b9b1dc94cca35319&rf=rss</a> Pentagon Channel clip I just watched.
Digital Government
More on Thumb Drives
Lisa Schlosser, who runs the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Information Collection, who also serves as a reservist with the Amy's 1st Information Operations outfit, told me that she believes thumb drives serve a real function in easily transporting data from point "A" to point "B." Stick a drive on one computer, download a file, take the drive, go to another computer and copy a file from the thumb drive to that computer.
Digital Government
Two Top VA Slots Filled
President Obama has nominated W. Scott Gould, currently vice president for public sector strategy at IBM Global Business Services, as the next deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Digital Government
Florida Guard's Ice Storm Expertise
At first it may seem bizarre why the state of Kentucky would ask National Guard units based in the Sunshine State of Florida for help in dealing with the aftermath of last week's ice storm, described by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear as <a href=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1876304,00.html>the worst natural disaster</a> in that state's history.
Digital Government
Cyber Czars, Thumb Drives and Marines
I recently had a chat with Dale Meyerrose, former chief information officer for the Director of National Intelligence, and since last month the vice president and general manager of Cyber and Information Assurance for Harris Corp. I want to pass on some of his insights on cyber czars and how clever Marine NCOs can figure out how to do end runs on security policies.
Digital Government
National Labs Moving to DOD?
The Obama administration is studying shifting control of the national laboratories operated by the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration to the Defense Department, the <em>Albuquerque Journal</em> <a href="http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/">reported</a> on Wednesday in a copyrighted story by John Fleck.
Digital Government
Mobile Armor for the Navy
That's not the kind you wear. It's the kind you put on your computer to protect data at rest from bad guys.
Digital Government
Services to Share the Cyber Thing
That's the bottom line on cyberspace from the <a href=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2009/QRMFinalReport_v26Jan.pdf>Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report</a> signed by the secretary of Defense last week. And it seems to put an end to <a href=http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40246&printerfriendlyvers=1>Air Force hopes</a> of running the cyber show.
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