Author Archive

Frank Tiboni

Digital Government

Y2K progress continues; Hill seeks new tests

Each day the government finishes date code fixes on a few more mission critical systems. Ninety-three percent of essential systems are now year 2000-ready, John A. Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion, said last month. The administration said in March that 92 percent of the government's 6,123 mission-critical systems met the Office of Management and Budget's March 31 readiness deadline [GCN, April 12, Page 1].

  • By Frank Tiboni, GCN
Digital Government

Most agencies dodge Melissa

Federal agencies rallied their computer security forces last week to keep the Melissa virus in check. But the pesky mail-traveling infection nevertheless caused trouble for some agencies, including Defense Department organizations participating in the NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia. One DOD base was "pretty well wiped out," in a technological sense, March 26, said Col. John Thomas, chief of the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Operations and Security Office.

  • By Frank Tiboni, GCN
Digital Government

The V.90 standard for 56-Kbps modems gets union's approval

The International Telecommunications Union this month gave final approval to the V.90 standard for 56-Kbps modems. The union began developing the standard early last year. It supersedes competing modem vendors' K56flex and x2 technologies. To date, more than 800 Internet service providers have installed V.90 connectivity on about 40,000 local dial-up numbers.

  • By Frank Tiboni, GCN