Digital Government
Interagency panel backs away from proprietary security policy
In a move seen as inevitable, the Clinton administration has dropped its demands for a proprietary federal encryption policy and has proposed allowing agencies greater latitude in choosing offtheshelf solutions from industry. The proposal was made by an interagency working group cochaired by the
Digital Government
Competing encryption modes vie for acceptance
Civilian agencies are even further away from standardizing on an electronic messaging encryption method, as dispute over the suitability of three competing standards already in use intensifies. What is becoming clear is that Fortezzabased encryption, to be used in 2 million Defense Department PC s
Digital Government
RFP prepped for $600M operations consolidation pact
NASA is preparing a request for proposals to consolidate the agency's space operations support into one massive procurement expected to be worth at least $600 million a year. The contract, called the Consolidated Space Operations Contract, would support the planning and execution phases of NASA mis
Digital Government
The voices of America and other countries
A recent press release touted the Voice of America's new World Wide Web site. Nothing unusual about that lots of federal agencies have Web sites. What made this press release different was the glaring absence of the VOA Web site address. This is not the first time. Once before, when the VOA sent
Digital Government
Nichols Research captures $159M DOD modernization pact
Batting two for two, Nichols Research Corp. last week won an eightyear, $159 million contract to establish and maintain a Defense Department highperformance computing center at the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC), WrightPatterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Nichols had captured a contract of similar
Digital Government
PCs, software will be first GSA MAS wares
Computer software and accessories, PCs, Macs and workstations will be among the first multipleaward schedule (MAS) items that federal customers can buy from GSA Advantage, an Internetaccessible ordering and purchasing site. By October of next year, the General Services Administration hopes to mak
Digital Government
Feds sample hot Java apps
Government scientists are getting the first taste of what some call the next Internet "killer app": Javabased collaborative software environments. Leading the development of these environments is the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where participating students have selfassuredl
Digital Government
Consortium serves up Web guides for do-it-yourselfers
If you're putting up a new World Wide Web site or just refreshing an existing one, you might want to visit the Federal World Wide Web Consortium's Home Page Guidelines at http://skydive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/consortium/guide/hmpggl.htm. The consortium, led by the National Science Foundation's National Cent
Digital Government
GSA circulates draft of public key encryption policy
The General Services Administration recently released the first draft of a public key encryption policy, which is the first step toward establishing governmentwide standards for the technology. But the agency must resolve many issues before a final policy can be issued. GSA's Federal Security Infra
Digital Government
Internet access available on MAS
Federal agencies now have an easy way to buy Internet services. BBN Planet, MCI, STMS, BTG Inc. and Erol's late last month became the first companies to offer basic Internet services on the General Services Administration's Schedule E. AT&T and Netcom Communications have proposals pending before GS
Digital Government
ACE, Sunrise Project, mad cows vie for cyber attention
Americans Communicating Electronically sponsors a World Wide Web page to support its mission: to encourage interactive communication between members of the public and their governments. Point your browser to http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/ace. The organization, with a membership of 5,000, offers a wa
Digital Government
NIST stumps for federal security team
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will form a new security team to help guard against and respond to Internet breakins at civilian agency sites, under a plan being considered by the Government Information Technology Services (GITS) Working Group. The new security group would respo
Digital Government
Campaign Web pages for the history books
Among other things, the Smithsonian Institution collects quilts, Dorothy's ruby slippers, old appliances and rare gems. Add to that list a new entry: Web pages. The National Museum of American History has announced Web Archive '96, a project to record and track World Wide Web documents relating to
Digital Government
Paralon offers encryption product
Paralon is offering a hardware encryption device that delivers governmentapproved Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption services without requiring traditional key management. Paralon's PathKey system encrypts data in real time between two users by generating a onetime random key for each comm
Digital Government
DOJ snags Argentine hacker
The Justice Department has tracked down and charged a 21yearold computer hacker for allegedly accessing sensitive satellite, radiation and energyrelated engineering data contained in government computer systems. An arrest warrant has been issued for Julio Cesar Ardita of Buenos Aires, who gained
Digital Government
NRC nabs first revamp award
The HighPerformance Computing Modernization Program Office has announced its first contract award in its plan to revamp the Defense Department's scientific computing and communications infrastructure. Under the eightyear contract, estimated to be worth up to $155 million, Nichols Research Corp. (
Digital Government
Frank keeps DARPA on cutting edge
About 25 years ago, Howard Frank wanted to use the communications technology of the time to collaborate on a paper about ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the precursor to the Internet. He and his colleague, located in another city, decided to use teletype machines to exchange id
Digital Government
Export ban puts damper on agency efforts
The administration's encryption export ban is hampering federal agencies' efforts to build a secure electronic infrastructure, according to some agency officials and vendors. Most, if not all, federal agencies have identified the need for strong encryption to carry out future service to the citizen
Digital Government
Stalking the elusive Java
Java may be the future, but it's not yet the present at least, not on government Internet sites. Gateway Guide went on a hunt for Java applets on governmentsponsored World Wide Web home pages and came up with little more than the sites highlighted in the last issue of FCW [March 4, page 1]. Int
Digital Government
Java interest percolates
Java, a software language that is all the rage among Internet users, is still too new to make a big splash in the federal market. But many agencies are exploring how they might benefit from this new concept in network computing. Developed by Sun Microsystems Inc., Java supports a new form of softwa
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