DOD creates new office to battle cyberterrorism
Deputy secretary John Hamre says that cyberspace has no definable geographical borders. In what deputy Defense secretary John Hamre called a radical departure, the Defense Department is creating a new office to defend the United States' infrastructure from cyberattack. It's radical because the scope of the work is outside DOD's jurisdiction, he said last month at the Defense Special Weapons Agency's Annual International Conference on Controlling Arms.
President makes year 2000 stump speech
Using the bully pulpit for the year 2000 problem for the first time, President Clinton last week promised the public that agencies would finish their date code work on time. "The solution, unfortunately, is massive, painstaking and labor-intensive," Clinton said in a speech at the National Academy of Sciences. "It will take a lot of time to rewrite lines of computer code in existing systems, to buy new ones and to put in place backup plans
JWID demos become jewels
"The C4I technologies will boost interoperability," said Gen. Henry Shelton, Joint Chiefs chairman. The 1998 Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration begins a new chapter in the short history of the annual exercise designed to mine Gold Nugget—or outstanding—information technologies. JWID '98, sponsored by U.S. Atlantic Command, runs through July 30. Though this year's demonstration is smaller than last year's monthlong exercise, Defense Department officials are calling it a groundbreaking event.
Like an la carte menu, today's system management tools
System management tools are the glue that keeps an enterprise network together. Whether for software distribution or capacity planning, these tools are what systems administrators rely on to manage the computers on the network and often the network itself. The network has become such an integral part of the work environment that many system management vendors have added some network management ability to their products. Network management vendors have begun including system management tools in their
Flowchart app eases mail flow
With an eye to keeping costs in line, Postal Service officials have turned to diagram and flowchart software to streamline the sorting, processing and delivery of mail. "A lot of little improvements add up to a lot," said Cris Dreher, a USPS quality specialist. The independent agency launched the effort more than three years ago, because an organization with 800,000 employees can save millions of dollars a year from small changes, he said.
coming UP
Are you planning to give a presentation anytime soon? Will you need to explain, teach, train or persuade your audience? Check out the July 27 Super Buyers Guide to learn how the proper hardware can help you create a presentation that does more than just fill time. You might recognize government reformer John Mercer as the speaker in a new training video making the federal rounds. Catch Federal Data Corp.'s deputy director for government performance planning
Feds were hip to PC leasing before Seat Management
PC leasing had already picked up momentum before the General Services Administration awarded its Seat Management Program contracts this month. The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs has a new blanket purchasing agreement for leasing in place and plans up to five more during the next month, said Kevin Friel, a contract analyst for OSDHA.
Faxes are low on Army's priorities list
Congress wants the Army to replace thousands of fax machines with new fax technology, but the Army envisions the digital battlefield of the future as one without fax machines. The Senate Armed Services Committee requested a report from the Army on the future of secure fax machines, including the cost of replacing legacy systems in the fiscal 1998 Defense Authorization Act. The Army, however, told the committee that fax technology doesn't play a big part in
Verification system sniffs out false subsidy claims
The Housing and Urban Development department is using a system to crack down on residents who receive housing subsidies illegally. The Tenant Eligibility Verification System (TEVS), rolled out nationally this year, collects recipient eligibility records filed with local housing authorities and checks them against Social Security Administration and IRS records, said David L. Decker, supervisory auditor for HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing Controller. It also lets local housing authorities and HUD exchange the information
HUD reroutes organizational flow chart to mirror changed mission
The Housing and Urban Development Department's new chief information officer position is part of a larger reorganization of the department's management structure. Even the HUD CIO's place in the organizational chart is changing, officials said. For instance, former HUD CIO Steven M. Yohai, as director of the Office of Information Technology, reported to the assistant secretary for administration.
CIO strength is in ideas
Now that it's out in the open, the spat among members of the Chief Information Officers Council has exposed weaknesses in the underpinnings of the CIO position and in the legislation that mandated it. The Information Technology Management and Reform Act doesn't confer any real power on CIOs. Nor is there a lot of power conferred on the CIO Council.
IBM to optimize DB2 Universal Database management system for Starfire servers
Federal data centers soon can buy IBM Corp.'s DB2 Universal Database management system optimized for E10000 Starfire servers from Sun Microsystems Inc. The Gigaplane crossbar servers accept up to 64 UltraSparc processors. IBM officials said the optimization, which could take up to six months, will require changes to about 10 percent of the database management system's code, which IBM reserves "to optimize for the operating system and the hardware underneath," said Jeff Jones, IBM program manager for
Some cookies leave a bad taste; be careful if you nibble on the Net
Mom warned you about taking cookies from strangers; although she wasn't talking about the Internet at the time, her advice is still relevant. Behind their innocuous name, cookies are essentially requests for information about you. If you accept a request to send your computer a cookie, the sending Web site can retrieve its cookie later along with whatever information it gleaned.
LAB NOTES
Flights of fancy. It may take Microsoft Corp. programmers several service packs to make a hassle-free operating system, but they are experts at creating Easter Eggs—small, built-in programs accessible via an arcane series of keystrokes and mouse clicks. Once accessed, an Easter Egg applet usually blends cute graphics with a list of the main product's developers.
Who's in charge? Major HUD Programs
Who's in charge? Andrew M. Cuomo Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Gloria R. Parker Chief Information Officer Leslie H. Graham Jr. Deputy for Operations David S. Cristy Director of Policy TOP CONTRACTORS (in millions) Lockheed Martin Corp. $81.7 Advanced Technology Systems $18.9 Computer Data Systems Inc. $18.0 Aspen Systems Corp. $7.8 Price Waterhouse $7.6 Merrill Lynch Mortgage $7.0 ABT Associates Inc. $6.1 American Management Systems Inc. $3.7 Nyma Corp.
Daniel R. Young: veteran fed reseller
Federal Data initially resold IBM Corp. products and provided services for mainframes and RISC systems at data centers. More recently, Young's company has begun supporting users of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 in addition to Unix. GCN associate editor Bill Murray interviewed Young at his Bethesda office.
NFC's ready to 'take on' 2000
The National Finance Center has finished making its date code fixes, which is good news for the 470,000 federal employees whose paychecks the New Orleans facility processes. "Frankly, I would be prepared to take on the next century today," said the center's director, John Ortego, who reported completing the code assessment, fixes and initial tests.
DropChute+ is quirky but useful for file exchange
Pros and cons: + Faster than e-mail for large files + Prevents needless file duplication – Requires Internet Explorer 4.0 for added security under Windows 9x Real-life requirements: Windows 9x or NT 4.0, 4M free on hard drive, modem or direct TCP/IP connection, Internet Explorer 4.0 or NT Service Pack 3 for high security
PROFESSIONAL CALENDAR
21-23 Treasury Partnership Conference. Washington. Contact Federal Business Council Inc., 10810 Guilford Road, Suite 105, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701; tel. 301-206-2940. 21-23 Leveraging Emerging Technology Conference. Washington. Contact Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C. 20319; tel. 202-685-4426. 28-30 Data Warehousing Conference and exposition. New York. Contact Digital Consulting Inc. Customer Service, 204 Andover St., Andover, Mass. 01810; tel. 978-470-3880.
Education office smokes out its stovepipe systems
The systems design will focus on individual services, Russomano said. IRVINE, Calif.—The day of the stovepipe system is dead—at least in the Education Department's Office of Postsecondary Education. The office is moving away from separate systems to a modular environment that will increase integration and vendor competition, said Jerry Russomano, director of program systems service for the postsecondary office. Russomano is overseeing the reorganization of the division's systems.
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