Digital Government

Draft plan requires agency use of key-recovery technology

While the debate on encryption policy continues to play out this month on Capitol Hill a technical advisory committee has yet to decide whether to force agencies to include the controversial key recovery in a standard it is developing for governmentwide use. The committee which is developing a stan

Digital Government

DOD orders info-assurance review

With electronic information playing an everlarger role in Defense operations Secretary of Defense William Cohen last month formed a panel to look at how DOD manages its critical data and protects against information warfare and system vulnerabilities. DOD is tackling a concept called 'information

Digital Government

Fortner fine-tunes gear for federal data mining

Fortner Software formerly Fortner Research has revamped its federal strategy and is launching a new datamining product aimed at helping researchers at NASA and other agencies tap into large amounts of stored information. Fortner which has supplied data visualization applications and Fortran develo

Digital Government

Group says few fed sites protect privacy

While a growing number of agencies are collecting personal information such as Social Security numbers from visitors to federal World Wide Web sites few have policies or mechanisms to guard against the data falling into the wrong hands according to a report released last week by OMB Watch. The nonp

Digital Government

NRC report calls for making NII accessible to everyone

Government and industry must initiate a major research effort to make the National Information Infrastructure (NII) accessible to the public regardless of individual abilities or where people live according to a National Research Council report released last week. Although the explosive growth of n

Digital Government

Rep.'s site offers floor info; NASA sells online

When Congress reconvenes next week those interested in keeping up with the flurry of new legislation action can do so by pointing their browser to Majority Whip Tom DeLay's (RTexas) home page. DeLay's home page on the Web (majoritywhip.house.gov) has been quite popular of late according to DeLay's

Digital Government

Feds urged to plug software hole in Unix, NT servers

Security experts are urging network administrators to plug a software hole present in all Unix servers and many of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT servers a hole that already has been used to redirect portions of Internet traffic. The vulnerability exists in software called the Berkeley Internet Nam

Digital Government

NASA CIO Ronald West announces retirement plans

Ronald West chief information officer at NASA last week announced plans to retire within the next few months. West who was named CIO in March 1996 said he will retire to his native Texas when he leaves the government. His replacement has not yet been appointed he said. Before accepting the CIO posi

Digital Government

Exodus of key IT policy-makers could jeopardize reform efforts

The departure of many senior federal policymakers leaves an information technology management void that must be filled to sustain reforms in procurement policy according to industry and government observers. Information technology officials in the private and public sectors say Steven Kelman John

Digital Government

OAO lands $200M job at NASA

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has selected OAO Corp. to negotiate the award of the fiveyear $200 million Desktop and Network Services (DNS) outsourcing contract to support 7 000 PCs. Under the performancebased contract OAO will provide personnel computer hardware and software as well as

Digital Government

NASA's Electronic Handbooks offer paper-free management

Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a software tool that they say enables the largest endtoend completely electronic use of the Internet by the federal government to date. The tool called Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) is designed to eliminate all paperwork required to m

Digital Government

Designers team via virtual reality net

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is developing a prototype network that will allow NASA designers and scientists scattered nationwide to collaborate in real time on spacecraft designs that will be used for future missions to Mars and other planets. The Integrated Spacecraft Design Environmen

Digital Government

Agencies use browsers to link legacy systems

In a meeting of newage and oldline technologies federal agencies are exploring the use of World Wide Web gear to access legacy data and applications housed in mainframes. The Air Force NASA the Patent and Trademark Office and the intelligence community are among the federal organizations looking

Digital Government

House panel OKs updated security bill

The House Science Committee last week unanimously passed the Computer Security Enhancement Act which updates a decadeold federal computer security law and strengthens the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to promote the security and privacy of federal systems. The bill whi

Digital Government

Keep tabs on IT with DOD's Tech Navigator

Government users who feel overwhelmed by attempts to keep up with developments in information technology should point their browsers to the Defense Department's new Technology Navigator World Wide Web site.

Digital Government

NASA pulls Hughes' $148 million contract

NASA's Ames Research Center has withdrawn a $148 million software support award from Hughes STX Corp. amid a protest that accused the agency of wrongly judging the past performance of the incumbent contractor.

Digital Government

Energy gives colleges access to super CPUs

Setting a new standard for government/academic partnerships the Energy Department announced plans to give five universities unprecedented access to the agency's supercomputers and $250 million in funding to develop advanced software tools for nuclear weapons research. Under its Academic Strategic A

Digital Government

Agencies victimized by more complex attacks

BRISTOL England Almost half the security incidents handled in the past eight months by the newly established Federal Computer Incident Response Capability team for civilian agencies were system intrusions according to recently released FedCIRC statistics obtained by Federal Computer Week at the F

Digital Government

DOD aims to protect Web users

In an effort to protect the privacy of users who visit its World Wide Web sites the Defense Department is crafting a policy on what kind of information it will keep about individuals who access its Web pages. The policy which also will address the maintenance of other electronic records such as fil

Digital Government

House panel bolsters NIST security role

Members of the House Science Committee last week introduced legislation to provide strong federal guidance and commercial tools that will push civilian agencies to protect their computer systems. The Computer Security Enhancement Act of 1997 which would revamp the 10yearold Computer Security Act