TimeStep's built-in certificate authority simplifies VPN planning
Easy configuration and solid security features distinguish TimeStep Corp.'s newest Permit/Gate 4520 virtual private networking device. It has a built-in certificate authority (CA) that greatly simplifies configuration of multiple VPNs. A network manager enters the configuration information once into a central CA, and it downloads to each VPN device coming online.
CIO Council proposes PC personal use policy for feds
How strict must agencies be about employees using e-mail for personal messages—say, from an office PC to a kid in college? How about buying something online, such as a book from Amazon.com? The Chief Information Officers Council says government employees' use of agency computers needs to be managed but not micromanaged, according to a draft guidance the group will soon submit to lawmakers.
Agencies keep secret data out of wrong hands by wiping the data off drives
A degausser/eraser device acts like a paper shredder for computer hard drives, floppy diskettes and other magnetic media. When agencies replace their PCs, some erase any hard drives that have stored data classified as confidential, secret or top-secret. Other agencies physically destroy the drives, said Terry Creek, regional manager for Security Engineered Machinery Inc., a Westborough, Mass., seller of degausser/eraser products.
ENTERPRISE COMPUTING | Beat the Clock
| Beat the Clock HCFA started in earnest only a year ago to make year 2000 fixes, and for months it has weathered the scorn of year 2000 congressional watchdog Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.). Last month, HCFA officials told Congress that work on mission-critical systems is 70 percent complete.
TrueSpace4 projects a strong light on virtual environments
TrueSpace4 from Caligari Corp. costs far less than Hollywood-style 3-D rendering software and has amazing powers, whether you plan to simulate a vehicle crash, design courseware or simply make an eye-popping Web graphic. Like previous versions, TrueSpace4 is strong at lighting effects. Precise lighting makes a virtual room look realistic, whereas bad lighting can make anything look fake.
VersaPath gateway products send mainframe data over IP networks
VersaPath Web-to-host gateway products from Kasten Chase Applied Research Ltd. of Mississauga, Ontario, deliver mainframe data and applications over IP networks. VersaPath comes with desktop PC client, browser client and thin client software, as well as a developer kit for ActiveX custom applications. Kasten Chase has provided host connectivity for terminals at Agriculture Department county offices across the United States through several generations of its products. Dave Mulder, the company's director of technology, said some USDA offices
Circuit-switched DTM channels deliver IP services
The DynaSwitch 100A is touted as the first commercial switch based on dynamic synchronous transfer mode (DTM) technology, which can guarantee quality of service for IP traffic. DTM, developed in Sweden by the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and Ericsson Telecom AB, integrates voice, video and data and ensures availability of IP applications.
Markup language update
Sidebars & Related Stories Tips for buyers What do you bet that the 1990s will be known in the next millennium as the Internet decade?
GSA dials for more dollars
The Federal Technology Service's next round of Metropolitan Area Acquisitions for local telephone service will not necessarily go to cities with large numbers of General Services Administration customers. The word came from Margaret C. Binns, an FTS assistant commissioner, speaking at last month's Federal Telecommunications Conference sponsored by Telestrategies Inc. of McLean, Va.
DISA suffers Y2K hiccups in Ohio
Year 2000 maintenance work at the Defense Information Systems Agency megacenter in Columbus, Ohio, caused temporary outages affecting several logistics and financial applications for three days last week. On Sunday, March 21, data center employees installing vendor-supplied microcode upgrades to direct-access storage devices and tape devices encountered intermittent incompatibility problems in three of the nine DASD devices that were upgraded, DISA spokeswoman Betsy Flood said.
Grants system makes tracks
Federal Transit Administration officials credit luck and a no-frills approach for faster-than-expected completion of the client-server Transportation Electronic Award and Management system. The agency is nearly a year ahead of schedule in fielding the dial-up version of its mainframe TEAM grants administration system, officials said. FTA administers $5 billion yearly in federal transportation grants.
Lab Notes
Catching the bug? The GCN Lab has warned before about virus hoaxes, but this time the warning is about a real virus called CIH 1.2 that can overwrite hard drives and corrupt flash BIOSes. The virus supposedly will strike a large number of PCs on April 26. Earlier versions were activated on the 26th of the month and tried to corrupt BIOSes. Such attacks rarely succeed because of the specialized nature of BIOS software. But disk
News
USDA deputy CIO Ira Hobbs calls for more IT training during a CIO panel keynote address.
10 to miss Y2K deadline
More than 90 percent of federal systems will meet the Clinton administration's March 31 deadline for agencies to have all mission-critical systems ready for 2000, the administration's year 2000 czar said this month. Ten of the government's 24 major agencies will have one or more systems to finish up in the coming months, according to the latest status reports that agencies sent to the Office of Management and Budget last month.
Get a grip on managing your network
Large networks can be as inscrutable as the Cheshire Cat. Understanding their connections takes plenty of infrastructure knowledge. Any administrator who wants to manage assets or find performance bottlenecks must have a map. The GCN Lab took a look at three tools, Visio Enterprise, Micrografx NetworkCharter Pro and netViz 4.0, for mapping devices connected to a network. Each takes a slightly different approach that fits specific purposes.
Cross your t's and dot your i's—digitally
The Cross pen, that ultimate analog tool, has gone digital. Cross Pen Computing Group designed the CrossPad XP to take handwritten notes and transfer them to a PC. It looks like a black clipboard, except for a tiny LCD window at the bottom, and it loads standard 6- by 9-inch yellow memo pads.
DOD tests online workspace| GCN
Mitre Corp. has developed a suite of integrated collaboration tools that could change the way Defense Department staffs work together. Mitre's Collaborative Virtual Workspace (CVW) is a multiuser object-oriented computing environment in which people interact with documents and one another in a shared virtual space. CVW has audio, video, chat and whiteboard features.
Win 2000 use will require prep work
If your agency plans to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 2000 after Microsoft Corp. releases the scalable operating system this fall, prepare for some changes. Microsoft's technology specialists manager Sean Murphy this month described the OS as "a very different animal" from earlier Windows versions. Speaking at FOSE trade show in Washington, Murphy said a third and final beta version of Win 2000, due in the next several months, will be feature-complete and almost ready for release.
Cyberterrorists visit sites before attack, so look for footprints
Call it techno-terrorism, cyberwarfare or Internet intelligence gathering, but what the Defense Department is experiencing goes far beyond amateur hacking into military networks. Hack attacks are escalating, and not only on DOD networks. To fight back, you need to know your vulnerabilities—what hackers using the latest tools can find out. GCN last year covered the onslaught of low-level network probes that seem coordinated from multiple locations. Early this month, the Pentagon said the systematic probes are being
Secure Unix server connections
ICE.PPN from J. River Inc. of Minneapolis, a PC-to-Unix connectivity developer, secures access to Unix servers for on-site and remote users. It guards end-to-end connections with or without a firewall. Its protection relies on the Secure Sockets Layer, Digital Signature Standard certificates for server authentication, Diffie-Helman key exchange and triple Data Encryption Standard encryption. It encrypts all Telnet and File Transfer Protocol sessions.
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