Technology
Top News
- IRS to pay $70M in bonuses, Grassley says
- Small companies won't feel effect of lowered contractor pay cap
- Senators push Tangherlini for assurances GSA is improving
- As VA works to eliminate one backlog, one more might emerge
- BRAC-like commission proposed to hunt down government cost savings
- Sequestration claims another conference: DHS's GFirst cyber event
- Postal Service closing Capitol Hill post offices in 'symbolic' move
- Senators seek cost cuts for F-35 fighter jet
- Fed pens new furlough song
- Web guru Dorris brings new life to government websites
- EPA CIO Jackson returning to private sector
- Navy strikes enterprise licensing deal with Oracle
- Contractors with security clearances lack path to report problems
- NSA leak case gives vendors reason to reevaluate personnel
- 8 contract executives guilty of 8(a) contracting fraud
- Whistleblower suit leads to $12M false claims settlement by SAIC
Army IT Agency showing the value, potential of emerging technologies
Greg Garcia, the director of the Army's IT Agency, said the organization has been piloting a virtualized desktop initiative and almost is ready to move into full production.
Navy strikes enterprise licensing deal with Oracle
Navy department's second large enterprise licensing agreement will save an estimated $60 million over five years. Navy and Marine Corps components are required to use it for all of the Oracle database products it covers.
EPA CIO Jackson returning to private sector
Malcolm Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency's chief information officer and assistant administrator in the Office of Environmental Information, will leave government after three years.
The Dell Cloud for the U.S. Government
Dell's George Newstrom and Jeff Lush join host John Gilroy to discuss security and the federal cloud.
June 18, 2013
GAO: Agencies should expand TechStat reviews to all high-risk projects
Federal agencies need to step up their use of TechStat sessions, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a new report. The face-to-face meetings of IT officials and agency leaders have been put to use by the Office of Management and Budget and individual agencies to turn around or terminate dozens of failing IT projects. But only about a third of the agency projects deemed most at risk of cost overruns or schedule slips have undergone the reviews, GAO reported.
House approves IT reform amendment to Defense bill
The first major IT reform bill in a decade has cleared the first of three hurdles to become law. The bill would empower CIOs by reducing the number of people with that title to one per agency, and give that person authority over the IT budget and personnel decisions.
House lawmakers press VA for more details, assurances after cyber attacks
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and ranking member Michael Michaud (D-Maine) sent Secretary Eric Shinseki a letter asking for an explanation on why VA didn't tell the committee about multiple nation state attacks. The lawmakers call for VA to offer credit monitoring services to tens of millions of veterans.
NSA head says spy programs thwarted terror attacks
NSA director says surveillance programs disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks
DISA collapsing wired networks, expanding wireless
Dave Bennett, the DISA chief information officer, is reducing the number of classified and unclassified networks to reduce costs and improve capabilities. At the same time, he's ready to expand the use of wireless capabilities across Fort Meade, Md.
June 13, 2013
DHS finds classified cyber sharing program slow to take off
The Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program has seen a lot of interest by vendors, but few have invested in accepting cyber threat data from the government. Meanwhile, the Cyber Information Sharing and Collection Program is growing through the two-way sharing of unclassified threat indicators.
Industry driving development of first-ever critical infrastructure cyber framework
NIST, charged with developing the nation's first-ever cybersecurity baseline for critical infrastructure, says its job is to provide technical assistance to companies, but industry itself must lead the way. Gen. Keith Alexander said NSA will review the use of contractors.
Rep. Issa heading down familiar path for IT reform; Senate still in discovery mode
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) plans to offer the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) as an amendment later this week to the 2013 Defense Authorization bill. The Senate held a hearing looking at the best approach to empower federal CIOs. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard that transparency, visibility and senior leadership are common traits among successful CIOs.
Managing your data in the cloud
Dan Juengst, senior cloud strategist for Red Hat discusses how his company is helping federal agencies with their cloud computing needs.
June 11, 2013
Agencies improving security of IT networks slowly, but surely
The White House released updated progress report on the cross-agency cybersecurity goals and found most agencies improved. The administration said more agencies are using smart cards to log onto their networks and more are implementing continuous monitoring.
NSA contract worker is surveillance source
Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, revealed himself Sunday as the source of disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, risking prosecution by the U.S. government. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the revelation of the intelligence-gathering programs as reckless and said it has done "huge, grave damage."
Performance.gov faces identity crisis
Nearly two years after the site launched, the Office of Management and Budget still hasn't clearly defined its purpose or its intended audience, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
New data could be difference-maker for move to shared services
OMB and Treasury have been working with the four federal financial management shared services providers to collect information on cost and performance. OMB Deputy Controller Norman Dong said the data will help agencies make true comparisons of the providers.
New data service launches in government market
Eric Gillespie, founder of Recovery.org, launches Govini, hoping to fill the gap left by Deltek and Bloomberg Government in providing government market data.
IG: 'Serious problems' with OPM's $2B revolving fund must be addressed
The Office of Personnel Management's inspector general says he needs $6 million to address "serious problems" with the agency's $2 billion revolving fund. Patrick McFarland told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that his current budget isn't nearly enough to root out waste, fraud and abuse across the revolving fund and other areas of OPM.
