Briefing Book
Playing the field. Navy Department officials want Navy-Marine Corps Intranet bidders to propose non-DISN systems for long-haul communications, along with proposals that would use the Defense Information Systems Network, Rear Adm. Richard Mayo said.
Navy Department officials want Navy-Marine Corps Intranet bidders to propose non-DISN systems for long-haul communications, along with proposals that would use the Defense Information Systems Network, Rear Adm. Richard Mayo said.'We have to examine performance and the costs of proposals, and any non-DISN systems proposed must be compatible with DISN,' said Mayo, the Navy's director of space, information warfare, command and control. The NMCI request for proposals will be issued by the end of the month, he said. National Security Agency officials are investigating personal firewall technology, which would protect Defense Department and intelligence agency users from mobile-code security problems, said Marvin J. Langston, DOD's deputy chief information officer.'We haven't found any way of disrupting the malicious use of Microsoft ActiveX and Netscape JavaScript to alter or delete records when mobile code is being relayed between a Web browser and a server,' Langston said.The Office of the Secretary of Defense's information assurance panel'working with Air Force Lt. Gen. John L. Woodward Jr., director of the command, control, communications and computer systems directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff'is designing long-term and short-term solutions. Options could include a mobile-code ban signed by the end of the year by DOD CIO Arthur L. Money.Two years ago, Maj. James Cummiskey tried to make a Marine colonel understand the importance of notebook PCs during field operations.But the colonel responded, 'Major, when my map takes a bullet, at least I still have a map. When a notebook takes a bullet, you just have a paperweight.'Cummiskey, the mobile computing project officer for the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity at Camp Pendleton, Calif., answered, 'Yes, sir. But if the colonel takes a bullet, all we would have is a corpse.'The moral? Just because things can break in combat doesn't mean they should not be used, Cummiskey said.His story, during a speech last month at the Navy Connecting Technology conference in San Diego, drew laughter. Defense Contract Management Command officials, for their year 2000 readiness effort and Defense Message System rollout, have bought about 4,000 Compaq Deskpro 590 PCs, said Kimberly Taylor, acquisition systems manager for DCMC West in Carson, Calif. DCMC is part of the Defense Logistics Agency.'It was difficult to get PCs that can take Fortezza cards,' Taylor said.
NEXT STORY: New FlexPoint converters can stretch fiber runs