Leong-Hong is chief information officer for Defense Security Service
Belkis Leong-Hong has left the Pentagon. Today, she begins her new job as chief information officer for the Defense Security Service. For the past three years, Leong-Hong has been deputy assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence plans and re sources. At DSS, she will also be deputy director and oversee 3,000 em ployees, many of them investigators.
RB-1 hardware token card creates one-time network entry password
RB-1 hardware token card creates one-time network entry password The RB-1 hardware token card from Cryptocard of Toronto is a credit-card size password generator featuring dual replaceable batteries, user-managed initialization, multiple keys and multilingual capability. The token generates a one-time password for each network entry attempt. The company also offers its ST-1 token, a software authentication token written in Java. ST-1 is an on-screen reproduction of the RB-1 hardware token. Cryptocard last month announced that it is
Photo-quality printers make the grade
The GCN Lab asked printer manufacturers to send units that produced photographic-quality output. Six companies responded. They also sent special paper, other media, ink cartridges, toner, ribbon and other supplies. We set up all the printers according to the manufacturers' directions and adjusted software drivers to produce the highest-quality images possible on the manufacturers' glossy stock.
Single- and dual-processor servers - GLOSSARY
Client: Effectively the same as client process. Because powerful PCs are so cheap, the trend is to increase the size and power of clients, moving more processing tasks to the desktop. Client process: A program that communicates with a server and instructs it to perform an operation such as search a database or print a document.
Who needs an auditorium
The Defense Department streamed video broadcasts to Pentagon and DOD PCs around the world this month for the third annual Acquisition Reform Week. Top officials held interactive conferences—viewable through Web browsers over the Internet or on a Pentagon intranet—using software from Starlight Networks Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. The audience was able to take part in the webcast discussions or play back the videos on demand.
SSA: Go ahead, borrow from our 2000 contingency plans
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—When the General Accounting Office in February 1997 advised the Social Security Administration to establish year 2000 contingency plans, agency executives were skeptical. But not any more. SSA, widely viewed as one of the agencies best prepared for the millennium date change, is the first to have a plan for systems failure.
GAO: 2000 czar must be stricter with agencies
The Clinton administration's year 2000 czar must rein in agencies' year 2000 work if critical systems are to be ready in time, a report from the General Accounting Office said. GAO praised the administration for creating the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion and appointing a 2000 chief. But if the council is to be effective, the report said, it must use its influence to make sure agencies prevent disruptions to critical services.
Windows has date flaws
Microsoft Windows 98, now under Justice Department scrutiny, is the only fully year 2000-ready operating system from Microsoft Corp. Other Microsoft OSes aren't quite there yet, even though company officials describe the current Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows NT 4.0 releases as "compliant, with minor issues." The company earlier had said its 32-bit operating systems were ready for 2000.
Davis suggests spinning off FSS as private office
Rep. Tom Davis wants to privatize the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service to make it more flexible and competitive. The change would likely free FSS from the constraint of federal rules, including Civil Service regulations that restrict pay and compensation, the Virginia Republican said. A privatized FSS would have its own board of directors and would set its own rules and regulations, Davis said.
SSA's Vince Pianalto lassos trail boss of the year award
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.--The Social Security Administration's Vincent Pianalto last week received honors as trail boss of the year at the annual Trail Boss Roundup. But Pianalto, director of the Resource Management and Acquisition Division in SSA's Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations, refused to take all the credit for improving systems buying at SSA.
Transportation sets high-tech road map
More public-works funding is on the way for the Transportation Department's federal and state projects, and that means more money for information technology, according to the acting director of the statistical bureau that analyzes U.S. transportation systems. There will be a lot of incentive to spend more on systems as state transportation departments lose staff and as highway building and repair costs remain stable, said Robert A. Knisely, acting director of the department's Bureau of
Don't fear privacy protectionarm yourself with fairness checks
Horror stories are making individual data privacy a hot issue. But privacy is such an amorphous concept that people responsible for personal data are often not sure to how to approach it. Of the myriad issues that fall under the broad heading of privacy, information privacy quandaries are the ones federal and state agencies are most likely to face.
The server's the crux of the LAN matter
The GCN Lab recently surveyed the desktop computing landscape [GCN, Oct. 20, 1997, Page 23]. Now here's a map for what's down the network road. At the hub of enterprise networks, servers direct the flow of data to computers, peripherals and other servers. They receive data from all those sources and others such as digital cameras, remote-access servers and mainframes.
Microsoft gives Web Access easy, more flexible Outlook
Web e-mail access has shifted from quirky to picky in Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook Web Access. This function within Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 has improved significantly over Version 5.0 [GCN, Aug. 11, 1997, Page 47]. The new Outlook Web Access not only is significantly more reliable, it also has a calendar component.
8(a) vendors' share of the IT pie is shrinking
Federal agencies are buying fewer systems products and services these days from minority-owned and small businesses in the 8(a) program, according to Federal Procurement Data Center figures. Companies in the Small Business Administration's 8(a) program won about $2.1 billion worth of prime systems contracts during fiscal 1995, according to FPDC figures reported by Eagle Eye Publishers Inc. of Vienna, Va.
DLA shares its online catalog
The Defense Logistics Agency has posted an electronic commercial catalog called E-Cat for online comparison shopping. "Our main thrust is the military, but we intend to serve the entire government," said Roger McMillan, E-Cat program manager at DLA's Defense Logistics Information Service in Battle Creek, Mich. The E-Cat pilot began in April 1997. When it went live on the Web in December, E-Cat had seven vendors and handful of military customers. E-Cat is now accessible
Nuke systems get $2.5b in race against time
The Clinton administration considers numerical simulation so important to nuclear safety and reliability that it plans to spend nearly $2.5 billion on development through 2004. Energy Department managers in charge of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative see it as a race against time. The scientists who designed the nation's nuclear weapons are aging right along with the weapons, said Gilbert Weigand, deputy assistant secretary for strategic computing and simulation.
Delays in IT upgrades were OK, Customs says
The Customs Service's systems infrastructure modernization is five years behind schedule because of planning and programming delays, Customs officials said. Customs began migrating from its Automated Commercial System to the newer Automated Commercial Environment in 1994. The service also started designing new systems to simplify import-export procedures that same year.
They're mad about MiniCAD
Several federal building designers have found a computer-aided design package that matches their Macintosh operating systems for ease of use--once they get past the user manual. Two federal users of MiniCAD 7.0 from Diehl Graphsoft Inc. of Columbia, Md., said they design visitor centers for their agencies. "I'm looking for tools to manipulate forms," said Steven Ferretti, exhibit design manager at the Agriculture Department's Office of Communications. "The more I use [MiniCAD], the more flexible
Keep a grip on the reins
Stepping away from your own point of view can give you a new perspective on your own problems. It happened to me--and I suspect some federal systems chiefs, too--at the recent Information Processing Interagency Conference in New Orleans. Steven Junk, vice president for information systems at Sears, Roebuck & Co., spoke at length about his company's travails in using systems to bring the old-line retailer into the '90s.
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