Most RTC date problems are limited to older PCs
Practically every real-time clock in-side a PC or server today is ticking away the years in two digits. But LAN administrators and users running Microsoft Windows NT need not worry about RTC misbehavior as they make their year 2000 checks and upgrades. Users running Windows 95 and Windows 98 will enjoy a reprieve until 2001 rolls around.
Test of year 2000 puts administrators on the line
At the Social Security Administration, they call it Day 1. It won't be an ordinary work day at SSA's offices, that's for sure. For one thing, Day 1 will be a Saturday. It also will be New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 2000. Kathleen Adams, SSA assistant deputy commissioner for systems, will be there through the holiday weekend, verifying that the agency's systems are running smoothly—that, when the clock struck midnight, no computers mistook '00
Network managers stick to the basics on security
You can protect your network; the technology exists. Sophisticated tools will let you set up firewalls to screen every e-mail message for potentially dangerous protocols, encrypt application files and run checksums to ensure no files have been changed. Tools can install antivirus software on networks and desktop PCs and keep users off suspect Web sites. Others can scan a user's retina, iris, fingerprint or face before granting access, closely circumscribe user privileges, track use and review audit
Military command purges sensitive data from Web sites after security evaluation
HONOLULU—U.S. Forces in Korea as well as the United Nations and Combined Forces commands are scrubbing their Web sites of any sensitive information that might prove useful to an enemy. "Our home page apparently was a wonderful source of intelligence for anybody that wanted to surf the Internet," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Hayden, deputy chief of staff for the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea.
Agencies suffer an IT worker drought, GAO says
Already strapped for high-tech workers, agencies cannot find people to do year 2000 work, and managers expect the staffing problem to get worse, the General Accounting Office concluded in a new report. The work force deficiency could become complicated as industry and government vie for personnel from a limited pool of applicants, GAO said.
SBA hires Unisys for variety of loan systems support services
The Small Business Administration recently awarded a contract worth $51.9 million to Unisys Corp. to consolidate and operate systems that support the agency's loan programs. SBA awarded the seven-year contract under the General Service Administration Virtual Data Center contracts. The agency estimates the contract at $44 million, but if the agency exercises all its options over the life of the contract, it will edge toward $52 million, said Dan Vellucci, SBA's director of planning
FAA document management system helps users stay on track
Federal Aviation Administration users turn to their Web browsers and an intranet to file and index regulatory documents and track their revision status. FAA's Integrated Rulemaking Management System, based on the Docs Open document management system from PC Docs Inc. of Burlington, Mass., has 700 users. They can track items by docket number, federal regulation section number or other parameters, said Joseph Hawkins, director of FAA's Office of Rulemaking.
Federal agency leaders fall behind hackers in security expertise
Federal systems and network security managers who often lack adequate training for their jobs are finding it nearly impossible to fight numerous and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. The Defense Department sounded a wake-up call last year during its Eligible Receiver 97 exercise. Before DOD network managers were out of their beds one Monday morning, they were hit with the news that several DOD systems had been maliciously hacked into the night before, and the security of data
New information system promises lots of change for the Mint
The Mint brought employees from all its offices to Washington to participate on the COINS team. The Mint this fall fulfilled a promise to its employees when it went live with an enterprise resource planning system. The Mint unveiled its new Consolidated Information System, or COINS, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Washington. Mint officials tout COINS as the first enterprisewide system in the federal government that integrates financial, manufacturing and marketing management [GCN, June
GSA's technology unit unveils '98 revenues
After a year at the helm of the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service, Dennis J. Fischer still calls himself a recovering bean counter. He fell off the wagon during a year-end briefing last week, producing preliminary figures for the agency's fiscal 1998 performance. FTS revenues increased 37.5 percent, from $2.5 billion to $3.4 billion—good numbers for an agency that supports itself through sales to government customers.
NASA adopts electronic forms, workflow to manage closeouts of its subcontracts
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has installed electronic forms and workflow software to simplify closing out its subcontracts. The Pasadena, Calif., lab works with scores of aerospace and information technology subcontractors, said Francine Fisher, a member of JPL's Acquisition Division. Operated by the California Institute of Technology, JPL is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
Readying for 2000: One agency's story
When Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey and Ray Long, head of the agency's year 2000 program, board a plane Dec. 31, 1999, for their much-publicized flight across the continent, it will be neither a rash publicity stunt nor a stunning act of bravado, the two officials have repeatedly said.
GPEA is a giant step toward hassle-free government
The passage of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act means that major changes are in the wind for federal information technology. Despite a lack of fanfare, this legislation promises to be as significant as the Brooks Act of 1965, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 and its 1995 amendments, or the Information Technology Management and Reform Act of 1996.
STARS work continues after GAO denies Keane's protest of INS contract award
After four months of delay, the Immigration and Naturalization Service can move forward with a contract aimed at improving 73 of its information technology systems now that the General Accounting Office has denied a protest of the project's contract award. At issue was the second phase of the Service Technology Alliance Resource program. STARS has three components: systems management and integration, performance, and independent verification and validation.
Discord mars MAS program
Despite all the good will between the General Services Administration and Multiple-Award Schedule vendors in recent years, there is plenty of ill will over the schedule's pricing and audit clauses. That GSA and MAS vendors—after years of debate—are once again at odds over the requirement that vendors offer government users their best prices and that GSA has the right to audit vendors' books brought immediate discussion at the Federation of Government Information Processing Council's recent Acquisition
BRIEFING BOOK
Joining forces. A Joint Task Force on Computer Network Defense is expected to be up and running this month. It will serve as a network monitoring center, coordinating responses to cyberattacks on Defense Department systems. The Defense Information Systems Agency will lead the task force, which will work out of DISA's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Maj. Gen. John Campbell, DISA's vice director, will oversee a staff drawn from DISA, the services, and intelligence and law enforcement
Group demos way to shop multiple e-catalogs
A coalition of government and industry groups last week demonstrated a pilot program to let agencies shop multiple online catalogs easily, securely and simultaneously. The Catalog Interoperability Pilot is a significant step in the development of ubiquitous electronic commerce because it will make it easy to compare products online, said G. Martin Wagner, associate administrator for governmentwide policy at the General Services Administration, during a presentation of the pilot last week.
GSA posts schedule sales, contract details and other buying info on Web
Flooded by Freedom of Information Act requests about Multiple-Award Schedule contracts, the General Services Administration is creating a Web site that will provide access to the details of vendors' schedule sales. The Federal Supply Service gets hundreds of FOIA requests for contractor sales information, assistant commissioner of FSS for acquisitions William N. Gormley said this month at the GCN Forum luncheon in Washington.
Agencies have more choice in buying
Telos, a software development company founded in 1968, was experiencing a midlife crisis in its government work. Wood decided the privately held company should focus on advanced messaging, database integration, information security and wireless networking. In 1995, Telos won the Army's Small Multiuser Computer II contract, through which it sells network infrastructure products and services. The previous year, the Immigration and Naturalization Service had awarded Telos the Personal Workstation Acquisition Contract.
Air Force signs with Lockheed for Microsoft products
The Air Force has signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide the service with Microsoft Corp. products at discounted prices over three years. More than 300,000 Air Force users are expected to benefit from the new volume discount agreement that will be a part of Lockheed Martin's Global Combat Support System–Air Force contract.
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