Western civilization didn’t end last week, but the twitterati were aflame with 140-character discussions about the departure of Vivek Kundra, the Federal CIO, after two years on the job. Kundra has been one of the Obama administration’s most visible and colorful figures, launching numerous initiatives for transparency, IT procurement reform and basic computing approaches. WhatRead… Read more »
Reports surfaced from Reuters last week that an old cyber menace, the agent.btz work, is still bedeviling Defense Department networks. The worm, which first appeared in 2008, is resilient, and it appears to create open doors on machines for surreptitious downloading of other types of malware, such as keyloggers. Couple the worm attack with otherRead… Read more »
Contractors rarely get up on their collective hind legs and counter an administration head on. But it happened this month. After the Office of Management and Budget issued it’s ninth or 10th interim rule, the members of TechAmerica, the Professional Services Council, the National Defense Industrial Association and the Aerospace Industries Association said enough isRead… Read more »
Last week network monitors at Google noticed a concerted phishing attack against accounts held by senior U.S. government officials, including members of the military. The attack, if you can call it that, was plain old phishing, in which messages are crafted so as to look like they are coming from a trusted source — inRead… Read more »
Mary Armstead, Program Director for the NIH Information Technology and Assessment Center (NITAAC) at the National Institutes of Health, has been a Fed for 38 years. But that doesn’t mean she’s become jaded or cynical – quite the opposite. She’s enthusiastic about her job and works hard to mentor people with less experience or whoRead… Read more »
Thanks to increasingly powerful networking and mobile devices, the idea of cloud is going mainstream. In the federal government, CIO Vivek Kundra last month compiled a list of 78 cloud computing initiatives agencies had identified. But analysis of the list shows that the 19 departments or agencies who reported cloud projects are taking a decidelyRead… Read more »
The House and Senate are loggerheads, to say the least, over the 2012 budget. One side wants to cut civilian agency spending and boost Defense. The other wants to do just the opposite. Either way, it will affect IT spending. Read the latest coming from the House Appropriations Committee, and what the likely outcome willRead… Read more »
George Jakabcin, CIO of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), takes a conservative approach to new technology. Not surprising considering his cybersecurity background and the risk-averse agency he works in. FedInsider talked to Jakabcin about his role at TIGTA and within the IRS, and about his thoughts on virtualization, cloud computing, and otherRead… Read more »
With 50 bills in Congress having to do with cybersecurity, and none of them showing any imminent signs of movement, the White House at last weighed in with its own legislative proposal. In an online statement, the president’s staff said it was outlining its cyber legislative goals in response to a request from Senate MajorityRead… Read more »
The 3% rule, developed by the IRS, requires federal, state and local governments to withhold 3% of payments they make to contractors for taxes, much like employers withhold a percentage of employees’ income for tax purposes. Last week the IRS delayed the rule going into effect, which means there might be time to kill it.Read… Read more »