Digital Government

Vendors line up for NASA ODIN deal

Seven vendors will vie this month for the award of the $5 billion Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA (ODIN) for governmentwide outsourcing of hardware, software and services. Together with a similar General Services Administration Seat Management contract, also scheduled for award this month,

Digital Government

Remote Windows NT, 95 features flawed

A Minneapolis firm has discovered multiple flaws in Microsoft Corp.'s use of an Internet Protocol that could lead to security breaches for remote access and virtual private network (VPN) users of Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 95. The flaws could allow a hacker to access passwords and private i

Digital Government

Intellisource, RMS merge operations

Intellisource Inc. and RMS Information Services Inc. announced today that they will merge their operations into a new services integrator concern under the name The Intellisource Group.

Digital Government

Commerce, DOD launch tech info service

The Commerce and Defense departments have launched an online subscription service for contractors who can use the Internet to gather technical information on the military's 12 million separate supply items. Working with Denverbased Intessera Inc., Commerce's National Technical Information Service

Digital Government

NASA system tracks pre-launch shuttle preparations

NASA's Kennedy Space Center is developing a system that will integrate databases so that engineers can track via the Internet space shuttle work that was previously the space agency's responsibility but that now is performed by contractors. With the new system, called Insight, engineers can view da

Digital Government

Directive orders feds to safeguard systems

President Clinton last week announced a massive new national security program that would require federal agencies to inventory key information systems and work closely with the private sector to develop a plan for protecting against cyber and physical threats to the nation's critical infrastructures.

Digital Government

GAO investigators find State, FAA computer systems easy to hack

The State Department and the Federal Aviation Administration have pervasive computer security weaknesses that hackers could use to access international financial and travel information and to interrupt the nation's air traffic control (ATC) systems, according to reports released last week. The Gene

Digital Government

Clinton crafts new line of defense against cyberattacks

President Clinton today unveiled a new national security program that would requir

Digital Government

Commerce tapped to lead effort to protect national private infrastructure

A new national program would tap the Commerce Department as the lead agency in a massive interagency effort to take inventory of the federal government's critical assets and to coordinate with industry in efforts to protect of the nation's private infrastructures.

Digital Government

Reports reveal weaknesses in systems security at State, FAA

A test of computer systems security at the State Department and the Federal Aviation Administration revealed pervasive weaknesses that could threaten the operation of the agencies, according to reports released today during hearings before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Digital Government

Pentagon plans expansion of cyberthreat alert system

The Joint Chiefs of Staff is crafting a plan to require all military commands to create a new alert system that will track cyberthreats to Defense Department information systems. Similar to the wellknown Defense Conditions, or DEFCONs, that mark the military's status in response to traditional for

Digital Government

Agencies, vendors comply with security standard

Agencies and vendors slowly are beginning to comply with a federal standard that has been in effect for almost two years and that governs the purchase of hardware and software security products. A standard that was issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology required agencies after

Digital Government

NSA concerns could hamper DOD Y2K fix

The National Security Agency has slapped a security blanket on the Pentagon's efforts to fix the Year 2000 millennium bug, which could further slow the Defense Department's alreadybehindschedule Year 2000 fixes. NSA has determined that all information detailing DOD's computers and its efforts to

Digital Government

Air Force's Behler pilots Stratcom through high-tech 'virtual Cold War'

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. Brig. Gen. Robert Behler has spent the majority of his military career as a test pilot, having been the only pilot in the Air Force to have flown the world's fastest and slowest aircraft. In fact, he had limited experience with information technology before he became t

Digital Government

Year 2000 bug nets $2.25B funding boost

The Senate Appropriations Committee on May 14 created a $2.25 billion emergency reserve fund that agencies will be able to tap during fiscal 1999 to fix Year 2000 conversion problems in critical federal information systems.

Digital Government

Two new sites help feds solve Y2K problem, plan trips

For the next one year, seven months and a handful of days, anyone who is even remotely connected to information technology probably will need to turn their browser to the new World Wide Web site of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. Located at www.y2k.gov, this new site is still under

Digital Government

NTIS looks for partner to develop PKI services

The Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service has begun a search for a joint venture partner to begin offering publickey services to government agencies much in the same way it offers World Wide Web services through FedWorld. NTIS last month requested proposals for partners that

Digital Government

Bill puts digital transactions on par with paper

An amendment to the Internal Revenue Service restructuring bill created, for the first time in federal law, a requirement that agencies treat electronic transactions between the government and the public the same way as they treat traditional signed paper documents. An amendment to the Senate's ref

Digital Government

12 agencies piloting VeriSign's PKI products

VeriSign Inc. has garnered 12 agency customers for its publickey infrastructure (PKI) products as the federal government moves to experiment with the technology needed to secure electronic commerce and public access to internal networks. The agencies nine civilian and three military are using

Digital Government

OMB calls for a halt to sole-source tasking

The Office of Management and Budget last month asked federal agencies to stop designating a preferredvendor source for multipleaward task and delivery orders. In an April 21 memo to agency procurement executives, OMB acting director for management G. Edward DeSeve said the Office of Federal Procu