Jared Serbu covers the Department of Defense for Federal News Radio. Jared's reports can be heard Monday - Friday on the Federal Drive and In Depth.

White House presses for stricter cyber rules for critical infrastructure

Information sharing is critical but insufficient, White House cyber chief says. Howard Schmidt said the federal government's responsibility is broader than its own systems and that is why any cyber bill needs stronger oversight of critical networks.

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State Dept. competition expands horizons of social networking

A contest sponsored by the State Department mobilized people online to find and photograph three individual (fictional) criminal suspects in five global cities in just 12 hours.

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IRS technology systems dramatically underfunded, commissioner says

In the IRS, IT has made some progress of late. But much of the agency's core taxpayer data system still relies on systems that were initially engineered in the punch card and magnetic tape era, the agency's commissioner said.

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Secure app store, more mobile devices coming to DoD

The Defense Department says it's fast-tracking the construction of an infrastructure that will support future mobile devices in the military. A network that can securely support Apple and Android devices should be fully up and running by next year, while a secure app store will be online within a couple months.

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Cutting, investing aren't mutually exclusive, federal CIO says

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel wants agencies to cut spending and invest in new capabilities at the same time. Savings from outdated or inefficient IT projects can be plowed into new innovations, he said.

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Navy tests cutting-edge technologies at new research lab

Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu tagged along for a tour of the Navy's new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, where robots get to interact with the real world without going outside the Beltway.

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Sequestration may hit defense industry harder than troops

Sequestration would kill hundreds of thousands of defense industry jobs, the Pentagon warns. Frank Kendall told senators during his nomination hearing to be the DoD acquisition chief that personnel accounts would be shielded so lower-tiered contractors would feel the brunt of cuts.

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Senators concerned over TRICARE fee increases

The Pentagon is telling lawmakers military retirees' share of health care costs is going to have to increase if it's going to meet the budget targets Congress and the President handed over with last year's budget control act.

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Army aims for more speed, security with new IT network standards

The Army has released the implementation plan for how it will get its networked systems to a state it calls the "common operating environment." The strategy is designed to phase out stovepiped systems and begin building technologies to a common set of open standards.

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Military leaders assert zero-tolerance for hazing

Military services still struggle to track hazing incidents, but insist incidents that harm or demean servicemembers won't be tolerated.

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Army systems leave soldiers vulnerable to late, inaccurate pay

The Government Accountability Office says that even while the Army has made some strides toward improving its pay practices, the service is a long way off from the kind of data integrity independent experts would need to see in order to green light the systems as audit-ready.

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Army tired of waiting for new mobile devices

The Army is in the middle of a major rethink of mobile devices, including how it secures them, how it buys them and ultimately, how it uses them. The push comes amid a mandate to find $1.5 billion in IT savings across the Army.

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Congress balances openness with cyber protection

Lawmakers weigh public's right to know against the need to protect cyber secrets. Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) provision in 2012 Defense authorization bill tightens the definition of "exemptions," but he questions the need for further rules to give agencies power to withhold information.

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House Armed Services chair says he will reverse DoD cuts

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that his committee's 2013 DoD authorization bill will undo Defense spending cuts the Pentagon has already proposed.

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Federal voting program's objective: Make itself obsolete

Even in the 21st century, it can still be awfully tough to vote in an election if you're thousands of miles from your local polling place. Making sure such voters can cast ballots in federal elections is the mission of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), a Defense Department office that offers assistance not just to military personnel, but to any U.S. citizen who needs help casting a ballot from overseas.

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U.S.S. Enterprise leaves for final deployment

Rear Adm. Ted Carter, commander of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, spoke with Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu from the Atlantic Ocean as the carrier heads off for one last set of missions in Europe and the Middle East.

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Army IT agency performs big mission with little fanfare

Don Adcock, executive director of the Army Information Technology Agency, tells Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu about how the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks forced the Pentagon to start consolidating data centers long before the topic was on most agencies' radar screens.

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Mandatory breathalyzer tests coming to Navy, Marine Corps

The alcohol screening program is part of a sweeping realignment of personnel and readiness programs in the Department of the Navy.

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Army acquisition dysfunction is a 'myth,' leaders argue

Army modernization leaders say they've gotten a bad rap on acquisition, and they claim it's undeserved. They point to several wartime success stories, and say they're implementing suggested reforms.

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Bill aims to overhaul wartime contracting

New legislation aims to implement some recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Contracting. Includes provisions that would automatically suspend contractors accused of wrongdoing in overseas contingency scenarios.

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