Army shuts 996 Web sites for security check
The Army late last month took a dramatic step to remove sensitive information from its Web sites: It shut down all 996 sites as part of a servicewide security review. Lt. Gen. William Campbell, the Army's director of information systems for command, control, communications and computers, ordered commanders on Sept. 25 to immediately remove from the Internet all publicly accessible Web sites under their control. As organizations clear their sites of sensitive data, they are restoring
ProSwap lets users change notebook drives on the fly
Pros and cons: + No rebooting to swap devices in notebook bay – Doesn't work with all Dell notebooks, possibly others Real-life requirements: Win9x, 4M of RAM, 500K free on hard drive, 31/2 inch floppy drive Tioman ProSwap from Agate Technologies Inc. may turn out to be one of those obscure products that sweeps the computing world.
New token-ring LANs close in on Fast Ethernet speeds
Token-ring LANs are following Fast Ethernet into the 100-Mbps range. Under the emerging High-Speed Token-Ring standard, Olicom USA Inc. of Plano, Texas, has introduced a 100-Mbps file server adapter and a switch uplink module. Both HSTR products will reduce congestion on LAN backbones and extend the life of aging token-ring networks, said Dan Jude, senior product marketing manager.
BREAKING NEWS
Vice President Al Gore announced this month that a new government crackdown on software piracy will start at home—in federal agencies. "Today, we are declaring war on software piracy," Gore said. "The message is clear: Don't copy that floppy. At home or abroad, intellectual property must be protected." The vice president unveiled an executive order instructing agencies to inventory their software to ensure that they are not violating copyright laws. Under the order, all agencies must develop
GAO: Defense must trim $180 million from IT
The Defense Department should cut $180 million in information technology programs from its fiscal 1999 budget, the General Accounting Office said in a report to Congress. GAO wrote the report after reviewing DOD's procurement and research, development, test and evaluation programs, looking for ways to reduce Defense's budget request. It is also considering potential rescissions to appropriations in past years.
PROFESSIONAL CALENDAR
20-21 Information Management Conference Conference. Washington. Contact Federal Business Council Inc., 10810 Guilford Road, Suite 105, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701; tel. 301-206-2940. 20-22 InfoTech '98 Conference. Dayton, Ohio. Contact the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, 4400 Fair Lakes Court, Fairfax, Va. 22033; tel. 703-631-6130. 28 Managing Knowledge to Improve Performance GAO Technical Conference. Washington. Contact Federal Business Council, Inc. 10810 Guilford Road, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701; tel. 301-206-2940. 28-29 Fall
Administration uses a grassroots tack to boost year 2000 awareness
The administration is calling on the national field offices of federal agencies to mobilize small and mid-sized businesses to prepare for year 2000 computer failures. A National Y2K Action Week scheduled for later this month is the government's first nationwide effort to help communities avoid problems come 2000. "We've decided to give a full-court press to this effort," said Janet Abrams, executive director of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. Council members are senior executives from
Border Patrol: Web spoof ad
"Think we won't hire you? Think again!" said an advertisement for Border Patrol agents posted on the Web. "We have recently hired known criminals, drug smugglers, gangbangers, people out of drug rehab, pizza delivery guys … people who write on a fifth-grade level, and, yes, even illegal aliens." Although the ad appeared on the Web site of a Border Patrol agents' union, it was not an official want ad for the agency. It was a spoof,
OMB shelves new Web policy
OMB suggests principles for agency Web sites Strategic planning: Set clear goals with performance measures that demonstrate value, support consistent service, maintenance and product delivery, and ensure the security of information and systems. Service delivery: Use the Web to complement other service delivery tools. Exercise judgment when linking to nongovernmental sites. Public access, dissemination and the Government Information Locator Service: Strive for accuracy, relevance, timeliness and complete information for sites, and
Notebooks are main PCs for some feds
—Bill Wall, supervisory systems analyst, Navy Fleet Material Support Office, Mechanicsburg, Pa., on his Compaq notebook "The keyboard is a problem for me. I'm not a very good typist, and I've got big hands.'' —Dan Grispino, financial specialist for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Cleveland, on the Dell notebook he shares with his office mates
GAO says agencies must tie ROI to business planning
Weighing information technology projects against their expected return on investment is all the rage, but ROI estimates must be tied to agency business practices to be effective, a General Accounting Office official says. "ROI is a fad; ROI is a theme; ROI is a requirement that is being implemented right now," said David L. McClure, assistant director for GAO's Office of Information Management and Policy Issues.
Program aids agency's move to secure E-FOIA responses
One of the smallest federal agencies is taking some of the largest steps toward an all-electronic Freedom of Information Act request system. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. rolled out its Electronic FOIA system in May and eventually plans to move to secure, Internet FOIA responses. The E-FOIA system, built from commercial hardware and software, cost PBGC $83,000.
Network Associates creates subsidiary to sell CyberMedia security products
After buying CyberMedia Inc. for $130 million, Network Associates Inc. has created a software subsidiary to market CyberMedia's First Aid 98, Guard Dog, Oil Change and Uninstaller utilities as standalone products. Other packages Network Associates plan to push as standalones are the company's Nuts & Bolts and ViruScan products, said Pete Stewart, vice president and general manager of the Santa Clara, Calif., company's McAfee Software Division.
SmartSuite's price and variety of features balance software bloat
Pros and cons: + Year 2000-ready + Good program integration and very good price – Word Pro short on features common in its rivals – Speech recognition still not accurate Real-life requirements: Win9x or NT 4.0 or later; 16M of RAM; 150M free storage for default installation or 250M for full installation; CD-ROM drive
Donate computer gear, expertise to schools
There is a growing gap in U.S. computer literacy. The gap is roughly parallel to lines dividing our socioeconomic groups—our rich and poor. Homes with parents making lots of money often have two or three computers, including a fast one purchased within the year. But lots of homes have no computers, and kids are getting their only exposure to computers—if they get any exposure at all—in public schools.
ATF pioneers PC outsourcing
ATF used desktop PC outsourcing because it didn't have the budget to replace all its PCs, CIO Patrick Schambach says. The Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched desktop PC outsourcing long before the General Services Administration announced its Seat Management contracts. The bureau embraced the concept to keep up with rapidly changing technology, said ATF chief information officer Patrick Schambach. "It was a must for us," he said, because there was
Navy makes personnel moves with IT in mind
Navy secretary John Dalton this month named Dan Porter to take over as the service's chief information officer. Porter, the former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations for logistics, replaced Ann Miller and began work last week. Miller is now only the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, electronic warfare and space programs, or DASN(C4I). She had held both posts.
AF factory develops software
IT will be key element in Air Force's deployment of expeditionary forces. MONTGOMERY, Ala.—A 9-month-old software factory at the Air Force's Standard Systems Group is helping the service cut the time and money it spends developing and maintaining software. SSG's factory at Gunter Annex has about 700 employees and develops, tests and maintains Air Force combat support applications.
Energy will boost supercomputer speed using latest version of HPPI switches
The Energy Department's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative will turn to HPPI switches with an aggregate switching capacity of 512 Gbps to crank up a supercomputer to 3 trillion floating-point operations per second. Silicon Graphics Inc. is constructing the 3-teraFLOPS machine for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The switches, from ODS Networks Inc. of Richardson, Texas, are based on the American National Standards Institute's High Performance Parallel Interface 6400 standard.
IT will be key element in Air Force's deployment of expeditionary forces
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Information technology will play a central role in the creation of expeditionary air forces, said Gen. George T. Babbitt, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command. The Air Force recently announced plans to create 10 expeditionary forces—at least two of which will be on call at any time—capable of hitting targets anywhere on Earth within 24 hours.
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