AUTHOR ARCHIVES

Jill R. Aitoro

Results 761-770 of 782

Vista Flagged as Top Hacker Target in '08

November 16, 2007 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Criticism of Microsoft’s latest release of the Windows operating system Vista isn’t exactly uncommon, but few critics have gone so far as to identify Vista as among the most vulnerable targets for cyberattacks in 2008. McAfee did exactly that yesterday during a media call. That makes the Office of Management ...

'Making as Many Problems as We're Solving'

November 15, 2007 FROM NEXTGOV arrow “[A breach in] cybersecurity will be the next Pearl Harbor.” While not original (Win Schwartau, president of security consulting firm Interpact Inc., claims to have coined the phrase "electronic Pearl Harbor" more than 10 years ago), that’s what former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said during a media dinner in D.C. ...

Pipe Dream

November 15, 2007 Network managers want more bandwidth, but streamlining data is the answer for now. Data-rich files, audio and streaming video applications, and a mandate to share more information are eating up loads of bandwidth at federal agencies. The pipes connecting their networks are becoming more clogged with fat digital files, and ...

Google App Exposes Earmarks

November 13, 2007 FROM NEXTGOV arrow On Nov. 7, the Sunlight Foundation released software that could prove a valuable tool for Republicans critical of congressional earmarks. The Sunlight Foundation, an organization that, according to its Web site, “supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to ...

Safety in Numbers

November 13, 2007 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Sometimes it’s a good thing to share the spotlight. Among the commenters responding to a Web article posted last week about EMC Corp. and Canon USA decisions not to renew their General Services Administration Schedule contracts was this one from Josh Zecher, a spokesman for 463 Communications, the public relations ...

GSA's Long Reach

November 12, 2007 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The General Services Administration’s stepped-up pricing checks has schedule contract holders second guessing whether they want to do business with the federal government. But GSA has extended pricing checks to those information technology vendors that do not hold a GSA Schedule. Ingram Micro, which neither has a GSA contract nor ...

Two more IT vendors drop GSA schedule contracts

November 8, 2007 Two large information technology vendors recently chose not to renew schedule contracts with the General Services Administration because of increased questioning by the agency's inspector general into their pricing of services and products, with more defections possible, according to federal IT industry sources. EMC Corp., which develops software and systems ...

IRS modernization program moves forward

November 2, 2007 The Internal Revenue Service will move forward with information technology modernization efforts this fiscal year, but budget constraints pose a challenge, two agency officials said Thursday. The IRS launched its Business Systems Modernization program in 1999, with the goal of replacing the existing IT environment in 10 to 15 years. ...

Insider Threat

November 1, 2007 Controlling who gains access to what on computer networks is vitally important and devilishly hard. Success stories can help. In February 2001, the FBI arrested one of its own veteran counterintelligence agents, Robert Philip Hanssen, for providing classified information to Russia and the former Soviet Union. Hanssen gave up more ...

Hill doubts TSA’s timeline for port identification card program

October 31, 2007 House Democrats claimed Wednesday that the Transportation Security Administration's estimate on finishing its long delayed rollout of an identification card program for workers at the nation's ports was unrealistic, and characterized the program as "a real problem." TSA planned to begin issuing new high-tech identification cards, which will store biometric ...