Headlines from around the Web for Friday, Nov. 30
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Outsourcing Moves Closer to Home
InfoWorld
As stories circulate about the cultural barriers U.S. companies hit when outsourcing IT to locations in India, offshore service providers are moving some operations back into the United States -- an effort they hope will increase their appeal to U.S. companies.

Police Raid Botmaster Blamed for 1 Million Infections
NetworkWorld
Police have raided the home of the alleged ringleader of an international group of cybercriminals said to be responsible for infecting more than 1 million computers.

Voting System Dropped from EAC Certification Program
Government Computer News
Advanced Voting Solutions told the Election Assistance Commission in October that it did not plan to continue the testing process, and EAC notified the company it has been dropped from the program. It would have to reapply for certification if it intends to pursue certification to federal guidelines.

GOP in Texas' Wharton County back to old ballots
Houston Chronicle
Precinct chairmen in the county southwest of Houston decided this week to return to using paper ballots in the March GOP primary for president, congressional seats and local races. About 3,000 people are expected to vote in the primary.

DHS Submits Revised Real ID Plan to OMB
Federal Computer Week
After taking public comments into account, Homeland Security Department officials have submitted a revised set of minimum federal standards that states must meet when issuing driver’s licenses and identification cards to satisfy the Real ID Act.

Reports of Mentally Ill Double in National Firearms Database
The Washington Times
The number of mentally ill people named in a federal database barring them from buying guns has more than doubled since the Virginia Tech shootings, the Justice Department said yesterday.

200 Security Cameras Installed in Delaware Psychiatric Center
The News Journal
High performance digital cameras are strategically located to transmit continuous video to a hard drive storage system as well as each nursing station. Video will be displayed in real time on desktop monitors, and digital recorders will store video for up to 30 days.

Maine's CDC Launches AIDS Web Site
Bangor Daily News
The Maine CDC recently launched a new Web site aimed at providing the estimated 1,200 people with HIV-AIDS living in the state with a means of getting reliable information and connecting with one another.

Maryland, D.C. and Virginia Police Launch Crime Database
The Gazette
Police chiefs and sheriffs gathered on Wednesday for the official launch of a new Web-based service that gives them access to each others’ crime reports. Officials hailed the Law Enforcement Information Exchange dubbed LInX as an important tool for crime fighting.

TSA Plan to Gather More Data Protested
USA Today
A government proposal to start collecting birth dates and genders of people reserving airline flights is drawing protests from major airlines and travel agencies that say it would be invasive, confusing and "useless."

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal claims that the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, may have improperly deleted files on his office computer. The story lays out an odd sequence of events, in which Bloch, in December 2006, bypassed his own IT shop and called Geeks on Call to come to his office to erase all files on his hard drive and the drives on two laptops used by deputies. Bloch claims in the article that the he was trying to rid the computers of a virus, and asked Geeks on Call to conduct a “seven-level” wipe of the hard drive, one of the most thorough cleansing operations for hard drives, which leaves virtually every file unreadable. The WSJ quotes a Geeks on Call executive saying the company typically doesn’t conduct seven-level wipes to remove viruses and that it is unusual to get calls from government officials. The article doesn’t say why Bloch felt it necessary to ignore using his own IT staff to rid the computers of the virus, and a WSJ examination of the $1,149 Geeks bill mentions nothing about a virus.

Bloch, whose office is conducting an investigation into the White House’s political operations, is himself under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general, who is looking into claims that Bloch retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases before thoroughly examining the charges. The IG has asked Bloch for emails; Bloch says the hard-drive erasure did not affect files pertinent to any investigation. In June, Bloch sent a report to President Bush recommending he punish General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan to the “fullest extent” for violating the law prohibiting federal employees to use federal resources for political purposes.

Headlines from around the Web for Wednesday, Nov. 28
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Hey, IT Planners, Remember that Pandemic Threat?
ComputerWorld
In a report this summer about pandemic planning, the White House said that attention to the pandemic has "waned in the media," while "the threat of avian influenza and the potential for an influenza pandemic has not."

20 Percent of Ohio County's Election Printouts Were Unreadable
Cleveland Plain Dealer
A recount after next year's presidential election could mean disaster for Cuyahoga County based on problems discovered Tuesday with paper records produced by electronic voting machines. Board of Elections workers found the damaged ballots when they conducted a recount Tuesday of two races, which involved only 17 of the county's 1,436 precincts.

FTC Survey Shows 8.3 Million ID Theft Victims in 2005
Government Technology
Of the victims, 3.2 million, or 1.4 percent of all adults, experienced misuse of their existing credit card accounts; 3.3 million, or 1.5 percent, experienced misuse of non-credit card accounts; and 1.8 million victims, or 0.8 percent, found that new accounts were opened or other frauds were committed using their personal identifying information.

Oregon DAS Director to Lead Emergency Communications Network
Government Technology
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has announced that Lindsay Ball, director of the state Department of Administrative Services, will leave his present post to lead the effort to set up a modern wireless communications system that lets law enforcement, fire fighters and other emergency responders communicate effectively.

If Security is Expensive, Try Getting Hacked
Forbes
A set of case studies released Wednesday by the Ponemon Institute surveyed 35 companies that had experienced data breaches and found the average cost of a private information leak in 2007 to be $6.3 million, up from $4.8 million in 2006.

IG: DOD Fails on Competition
Federal Computer Week
The Defense Department awarded numerous task orders without competition, and it failed to justify why officials went outside of the department for acquisition services, a new report found.

Lawsuit Charges CRT Makers with Price-Fixing
InfoWorld
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Nathan Muchnick Inc., alleges that six manufacturers artificially inflated the prices of CRT products to remain stable despite a rapid decline in demand.

Arizona Court: Balancing Needed on E-Mail Anonymity
The Arizona Republic
Courts must balance First Amendment concerns and competing interests when considering whether to require identification of senders of anonymous e-mails, an Arizona court ruled Tuesday in a case stemming from a corporate executive's personal life.

Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request
Associated Press
Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show.

John J. Young Jr. started work as the under secretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, last week, following confirmation by the Senate Nov. 16.

Young replaces Kenneth Krieg, who announced his resignation in June. Young previously served as the director of Defense research and engineering and the department’s chief technology officer.

Mr. Young also served as former assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. As the Navy's senior acquisition executive, Mr. Young implemented a wide range of innovative organizational and business practices to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of Navy and Marine Corps procurement and research programs.

Prior to his Navy appointment, Young was a staff analyst with the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, where he worked on Defense procurement, research, development, test and evaluation programs.

Next year promises to be an event filled year for information technology. What’s in store for the federal IT market in 2008? We're sure you have an opinion. Now it’s your chance to give it.

We invite you to take our online survey on where the federal technology market is headed. In the December issue of Government Executive, we’ll be taking a look at where the federal technology market is headed in the coming year. And we’d like your help in figuring that out. How will presidential politics affect the IT market? What lies ahead for IT procurement oversight, and will government meet the 2008 deadlines for HSPD-12 and IPv6?

So, in connection with our friends at Government Futures, we’re offering an online survey to measure your views of what will be hot in 2008. And on top of that, you can place your bets on what’s going to happen at the prediction markets section of the Government Futures site.

In January, we’ll host a webinar to discuss the results of the survey and present an analysis of the predictions.

Respondents to the survey will receive the full results and a chance to win a copy of the book We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business, by Barry Libert and Jon Spector.

Headlines from around the Web for Tuesday, Nov. 27
Compiled by Melanie Bender

IMs about Fantasy Football Throw Productivity for a Loss
NetworkWorld
Not only does football consume much of America's weekend this time of year, but new survey data also reveals that fans let their Fantasy Football obsession eat up time at work via instant-messaging chats.

DHS Researching New Methods of IED Detection
USA Today
The Homeland Security Department is developing camera systems, chemical sensors and other technologies to detect improvised explosive devices, a threat government officials warn is growing in the nation's big cities.

Young Government IT Workers Say Tech is Dated
InfoWorld
Young IT workers in the U.S. government believe technology is obsolete by the time it is rolled out and are concerned that they can't get the experience they need because some functions are outsourced, according to a focus-group report released Monday.

Rush to Verify Legal Status of Hires in Arizona Expected
The Arizona Republic
Under Arizona's new employer-sanctions law, all employers must begin using E-Verify by Jan. 1 to check the employment eligibility of new hires or risk having their business licenses suspended or revoked if caught knowingly hiring illegal workers.

Baltimore Technology Park Helping to Fill a Rising Need to Safeguard Digital Files
The Baltimore Sun
Data center demand in the Washington region, which includes Baltimore, grew nearly 22.5 percent during the past five years, but supply has grown just 5.6 percent, according to data from Tier1 Research. National demand climbed about 14.7 percent with supply increasing 6.5 percent during the same time frame.

Opportunities Beckon to Work in a Data Mine
Washington Technology
Although several high-profile federal data-mining programs have been shut down, contractors supporting the work say new opportunities continue to develop for agencies to use commercial data mining and analytics.

Military Data Gave Firefighters an Advantage
San Diego Union Tribune
For what may be the first time in U.S. firefighting history, commanders directing aircraft and fire engines had access to a barrage of photos, videos, infrared views and data fed from airborne cameras and sensors to sophisticated software on the ground.

Canada Fumbles Health Data in Security Breach
eWeek
Canadian health authorities have lost intimate medical data including HIV and hepatitis test results for an undetermined number of citizens in a recent security breach, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador admitted Nov. 26.

The word ‘retirement’ doesn’t count for much in government. As soon as an official graciously departs his or her post, industry pounces. Such is the case of former U.S. Army CIO, Steven Boutelle, who retired less than four months ago. He has joined Cisco Systems as vice president of the networking vendor’s Global Government Solutions Group.

Boutelle will lead Cisco’s participation in the Internet Routing in Space program, which is a collaboration between industry and government to demonstrate the viability of conducting military communications through an Internet router in space. In theory, satellite systems could integrate with ground infrastructure for anytime, anywhere IP-based data, video voice and mobile communications.

Headlines from around the Web for Monday, Nov. 26
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Connecticut Going High-Tech with Dam Safety
The Hartford Courant
If a major rain storm soaks Connecticut, Wes Marsh will soon know with a click of a mouse or a text message on his cell phone whether any of the 234 dams owned by the Department of Environmental Protection are in trouble.

E-Voting Vendor Calls Lawsuit 'False Claim'
ComputerWorld
E-voting vendor Election Systems & Software, which was sued by the California Secretary of State for allegedly selling uncertified ballot-marking devices to five counties in the state, was hit by another related lawsuit a day later from San Francisco.

Military Fears 'Electronic Pearl Harbor'
The Sacramento Bee
Military officials say that a computer-network attack by foreign enemies or terrorist groups would result in "an electronic Pearl Harbor" that would shut down electricity, banking systems, cell phones and other tools of day-to-day life.

Radiation Detection an Arduous Task at Ports
The Los Angeles Times
Over the past year, customs officers have begun scanning every container that enters the United States for traces of radioactivity, as the Bush administration has embarked on a far-reaching technological effort to achieve a nearly leakproof barrier.

Faster, Cheaper Broadband Internet Coming to Michigan Health Care Providers
Government Technology
Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and members of the Michigan congressional delegation announced that Michigan will receive $20.9 million over the next three years from the FCC to extend high-speed broadband internet to 390 public hospitals, primary care clinics, and other health care providers that serve critical populations in rural and tribal areas.

Agencies Face New Foe in Data Storage Fray
Washington Technology
Federal agencies are increasingly turning to contractors to run their ever-expanding data centers, but they face growing competition from commercial companies for storage space and management expertise.

Maine Mulls Electronic Record Upkeep
Bangor Daily News
The state is screening bids from 14 companies that are outlining ways to capture, store and maintain electronic files. This may also bring about a way to sift through e-mails by using keywords to isolate and capture those containing information about pertinent subjects.

It’s been more than 10 years since President Bill Clinton described the 21st Century classroom as a place in which “computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards." Since then, schools -- and parents -- have spent millions of dollars on computers for students and their children under the assumption that the computers are directly related to improved learning and higher test scores. The problem is that no national study has proven those claims.

Now, more than a decade after the fact, the federal government wants to find out what the link is and has awarded a grant to education researchers at Indiana University to study how teachers and students use computers to learn. This seems a bit late.

For sure, the study could shed light on just what value computers give students in the classroom. But this fact has been debated for years. As Todd Oppenheimer pointed out in his article (subscription required) that appeared in the July 1997 issue of The Atlantic, computers’ value to education is questionable. An excerpt from the article:

… Alan Lesgold, a professor of psychology and the associate director of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, calls the computer an "amplifier," because it encourages both enlightened study practices and thoughtless ones. There's a real risk, though, that the thoughtless practices will dominate, slowly dumbing down huge numbers of tomorrow's adults. As Sherry Turkle, a professor of the sociology of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a longtime observer of children's use of computers, told me, "The possibilities of using this thing poorly so outweigh the chance of using it well, it makes people like us, who are fundamentally optimistic about computers, very reticent."

Oppenheimer compares the computers-in-the-classroom phenomenon to film-strip technology students used 40 years ago: “‘Computers in classrooms are the filmstrips of the 1990s,’ Clifford Stoll, the author of Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), told The New York Times last year, recalling his own school days in the 1960s. ‘We loved them because we didn't have to think for an hour, teachers loved them because they didn't have to teach, and parents loved them because it showed their schools were high-tech. But no learning happened.’”

There's no reason to believe that these arguments are outdated -- especially given the fact the federal government just issued a grant to find out if they are. Besides, the rush to introduce computers in the classroom before researching whether they would, indeed, increase performance is part of a long string of similar information technology investments that organizations of all kinds have made, an act of chasing the hottest technology under the assumption that technology, in and of itself, will allow us to work faster and be smarter. “It’s technology, after all," goes the argument. "It must provide value."

For years, IT managers in federal agencies and in the Office of Management and Budget have tried to head off such thinking before it gets too far down the IT investment road. OMB's requirement for agencies to write business cases are just one example of this. A technology may seem like it would create efficiencies and add value, but the results from an IT investment are typically hard to measure – if an organization ever measures them at all. Or, which is more likely, the added value many times falls far short of the expectations managers had when the technology idea was first dreamed up.

The computers-in-the-classroom policy seems to have followed this same line of reasoning, although, at first, some research showed computers raised achievement. Years ago supporters pointed to the study “Connecting K-12 Schools to the Information Superhighway,” conducted by McKinsey & Co. for a Clinton task force formed to study technology and education, as the reasons why the federal government should support a policy that made computers a big part of curriculums. It concluded:

Many schools have experienced significant improvements in student performance after introducing computer-assisted instruction. For example, the Carrollton City School District in Georgia established a computer lab, among other changes, to reduce the failure rate in 9th grade algebra from 38% to 3%. In New Jersey, the Christopher Columbus Middle School saw student performance rise from well below to above state averages on standardized tests in reading, language arts, and math after the school implemented reforms that included extensive use of networked computers. The academic literature confirms technology's role in these improvements: a review of 254 controlled studies concluded that appropriate use of computers in the classroom reduces the time needed to master certain types of knowledge by as much as 30%. Put another way, in three school years, students benefiting from computer-assisted instruction can learn almost a full year's worth of material more than students who do not have access to the technology.

But Oppenheimer, in his article, refutes many of these findings.

Back to today. Now Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy will try “to figure out how teachers use technology in lessons and how students learn from that technology,” according to the Indianapolis Star article. “There have been some larger efforts, but it's mostly been a study here, a study there,” Jonathan Plucker, director of the center, told the Star. “It's a critical question that has never been answered. That's just so exciting.”

It might have been a good thing to ask that "critical question" more than a decade ago before schools and parents spent billions of dollars on computers without knowing for sure if they do indeed raise student achievement or how the computers could be used to do so.

The study is due to be completed in April 2009.

Headlines from around the Web for Wednesday, Nov. 21
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Telecommuting Found to Boost Morale, Cut Stress, Researcher Says
Computer World
In an analysis of 46 studies on telecommuting, researchers found that working away from the office by using computers, cell phones or other electronic equipment can have more pluses than negatives for people and the companies that employ them.

Lack of Black Tech Professionals Hurts U.S., Bill Gates Says
InformationWeek
A recent study says that less than 10% of graduates of computer science programs in the U.S. are black -- a fact that will contribute to a shortage of technology professionals in the years ahead, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said.

Pa. County Ends Name Search Function on Property Web Site
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a 9-6 vote, Allegheny County Council members yesterday approved county Chief Executive Dan Onorato's proposal to change the county's real estate Web site so that computerized searches by property owners' names will no longer be possible, saying safety trumps transparency in this case.

'Operational Failure' Misplaced Records for 25 Million Children
Computer World
U.K. banks could be forced to close the accounts of all child benefit claimants affected by an HMRC "operational failure" that resulted in the loss of 25 million records stored on discs, a Gartner analyst has warned. Its loss, moreover, proves to at least one fraud expert that that the British government can't be trusted with biometric information, and that the U.K. national ID scheme is untenable.

Electronic Trash Sent Overseas
The Baltimore Sun
Most Americans think they're helping the Earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.

E-Mailers Send a Message: Please Don't Leave a Paper Trail
The Los Angeles Times
In March, popular environmental Web site TreeHugger.com encouraged readers to add a don't-print plea to their automatic e-mail signatures. Since then, the message has spread beyond the granola-and-Birkenstock crowd to the cubicle armies of Corporate America. Architects, airline employees and even button-down accountants have gotten in on the act.

Spam-Spitting Storm Virus, Now a Year Old, as Tricky as Ever
USA Today
Since it touched down in e-mail inboxes, the Storm virus has infected at least 1 million PCs worldwide and is responsible for billions of spam messages. Since July, e-mail management company Postini alone has blocked nearly 1.5 billion copies of Storm. The virus is expected to crank out 500 million messages during the holiday season.

The Army’s key, next-generation battlefield communications systems, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, earned the dubious distinction of ending up on the Defense Department’s list of programs that experienced cost increases of more than 15 percent or schedule delays of six months or more. These programs are reported to Congress.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the Defense Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) put the cost of WIN-T at $16.4 billion in constant 2003 dollars, up $4.6 billion from the 2003 baseline. That’s nearly a 40 percent increase, for those keeping count.

WIN-T is the network glue intended to stitch together the myriad platforms in the Army’s Future Combat Systems program. The Government Accountability Office reported in March that the Army has restructured WIN-T system development for five years, delaying a production decision until 2011.

I bet new Army CIO Lt. Gen. Jeffery Sorenson was just delighted to find out WIN-T had made the SAR-list on his second day on the job.

Headlines from around the Web for Tuesday, Nov. 20.
Compiled by Melanie Bender

User Demand for the Internet Could Outpace Network Capacity by 2010
Government Technology
Consumer and corporate Internet usage could outstrip network capacity both in North America and worldwide in a little more than two years, according to a study conducted by Nemertes Research. This study is the first to assess internet infrastructure and model current/projected traffic patterns independent of one another.

DHS Erred in $475 Million Contract Given to Native Firm
The Washington Post
The Department of Homeland Security improperly awarded a half-billion-dollar, no-bid contract in 2003 to a little-known company to maintain thousands of X-ray, radiation and other screening machines at U.S. border checkpoints, incorrectly designating the firm a disadvantaged small business, according to a report by the department's inspector general.

The VA's Computer Systems Meltdown: What Happened and Why
ComputerWorld
Characterized by the director of clinical informatics for the San Francisco VA Medical Center, as "the most significant technological threat to patient safety the VA has ever had," the most recent systems outage has moved some observers to call into question the VA's direction in consolidating its IT operations.

Carriers try to Avoid the Warrantless Eavesdropping Spotlight
InformationWeek
As Congress pushes forward in its effort to bring some visibility to the Bush Administration's warrantless-wiretapping program, the nation's major telecom companies find themselves in increasing danger of having their own role in the program exposed in court.

California Suing Voting Machine Maker for $15 Million
San Francisco Chronicle
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen sued a Nebraska voting machine company on Monday, seeking fines and reimbursements of nearly $15 million from the firm for allegedly selling nearly 1,000 uncertified machines to San Francisco and four other counties.

Dallas Officials Cite Positive Stats with Red Light Cameras
The Dallas Morning News
Preliminary statistics show that accidents and citations are drastically down at intersections with red-light cameras during the first six months of the program, according to a report presented to the City Council's public safety committee Monday.

State Department Proposal Would Make Smart IDs a Must for Contractors
Washington Technology
The State Department has proposed a change to its acquisition rules to add new language to require contractors to use interoperable, smart identification cards to gain access to federal buildings as required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.

Maryland to Tax Computer Services
eWeek
The measure levies a 6 percent sales tax, beginning in 2009, on IT facilities management and operation; custom computer programming; systems integrators; systems consultants; computer disaster recovery services; and hardware or software installation, maintenance and repair.

Radiation Detectors for Border are Delayed Again
The Washington Post
A $1.2 billion plan by the Department of Homeland Security to buy a new kind of radiation-detection machine for the nation's borders has been put on hold again, a blow to one of the Bush administration's top security goals.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt wrote in his blog that he wants to see Medicare and Medicaid and large federal health care providers make e-prescribing “a mandatory part of medical practice soon.”

Leavitt wrote in his blog that a low rate of adoption by physicians has slowed e-prescribing nationwide. “Most doctors haven’t invested in the necessary technology to do e-prescribing,” he wrote. “The reasons are complex and range from a perceived lack of financial incentives to a reluctance to give up the familiar prescription pad. It is not expensive. This change needs to happen, and from my standpoint, sooner rather than later.”

Leavitt did not define what he meant by soon, and I’ve not heard back from HHS asking about it. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services released Nov. 16 final standards for the Medicare e-prescribing program, which covers million of patients. Ray Sass, an HHS spokesman, said he expected these rules to be adopted in less than a year.

Lee Shapiro, president of Allscripts, an electronic health record and e-prescribing software vendor, said cost should be no impediment to adoption of e-prescribing. Allscripts, along with its partners in the National ePrescribing Software Initiative, have offered to provide free software to any clinician in the country who wants to give up their prescription pads and enter the electronic age.

Shapiro said e-prescribing will help cut billions of dollars a year from the national heath care bill and go a long way to reducing the 7,000 deaths a year caused by adverse drug reactions.

The Senate confirmed Friday Jeffery Sorenson for promotion to Lt. Gen. from Maj. Gen. and his new job as the Army chief information officer and director of command, control, communications and computers, Army spokeswoman Margaret McBride said.

President Bush had originally tapped Sorenson to replace now-retired Lt. Gen. Steven Boutelle in February, but the nomination paperwork sent to the Senate mistakenly put him in for a deputy chief of staff position, and it has taken since then to get it right.

Maybe Sorenson can automate the nomination process in his new CIO job.

Headlines from around the Web for Monday, Nov. 19
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Border Web Cams to Go Online Again
The Houston Chronicle
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has identified $3 million in federal funding to restore a short-lived but highly publicized "virtual border watch" program that allows Internet users to access video feeds from cameras set up along the border.

Deja Vu All Over Again at Veterans Administration
ComputerWorld
In what's become a fairly familiar routine for them of late, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating a potential data breach -- the theft of three computers containing personal data on potentially 12,000 individuals.

Indiana University to Conduct National Study of Technology in Schools
The Indianapolis Star
In the first national study of its kind, the school's Center for Evaluation and Education Policy has received a $3.1 million contract from the federal government to o conduct the definitive study of how teachers should use technology in their classrooms.

Legislation to Provide Next-Generation Border and Maritime Security Technologies
Government Technology
The goal of H.R. 3916 is to improve long-term planning for research and development at the Department of Homeland Security, especially in the area of border and maritime security technology. The bill also authorizes specific border security technology programs.

IT One of Justice Department's Most Pressing Problems
Federal Computer Week
Despite some progress, many major information technology projects at the Justice Department remain at risk in terms of cost, schedule and performance, according to the inspector general’s annual review of the department’s management and performance challenges.

Auditors: One NASA hack cost $1.5M
Government Computer News
A recent series of intrusions into the Earth Observing System’s networks “cost NASA $1.5 million for incident mitigation and cleanup costs alone,” said the agency’s inspector general, Robert Cobb, in a memo issued Nov. 13.

New Hampshire Joins States Offering Social Services Hotline
The Nashua Telegraph
Dubbed 2-1-1, not to be confused with the police emergency number, 9-1-1, the service was launched last week as a pilot program in three counties. The free hotline allows a user to access human services assistance by dialing the three-number code.

N.J. Considers Scrutiny Regarding Internet Dating Sites, Background Checks
Asbury Park Press
In another move by state lawmakers to try to boost Internet safety, online dating sites would have to notify New Jersey residents whether they do criminal background checks under a proposal set to be considered this week. The bill is opposed by Internet companies such as Yahoo!, AOL, eHarmony and Match.com.

Headlines from around the Web for Friday, Nov. 16
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Chinese Spying Biggest Threat to U.S. Technology
The Washington Post
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan panel, also said that advances by the Chinese military are catching U.S. intelligence officials by surprise and that the Defense Department may be inadvertently outsourcing the manufacturing of key weapons and military equipment to factories in China.

Expect a Rocky Road for Mobile Data Security, Experts Say
NetworkWorld
A panel of security experts at this week’s Mobile Internet World conference discussed reasons mobile broadband devices are not yet secure, and steps corporations can take to avoid data loss in the near future.

Ohio Anti-Terror Project Uses Virtual Reality
Government Computer News
The Columbus, Ohio, police plan to field virtual technology to combat terrorism as early as 2009. The department is working with Athens-based Ohio University to build accurate, interactive models of 30 high-profile city buildings and sites that are likely targets for terrorist attacks or other violent incidents.

Better Information Sharing Between Law Agencies on the Horizon
Federal Computer Week
Through the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group, agencies will work with state and local officials to develop a common vocabulary and a standard process for what types of information need to flow to and from state fusion centers.

Report: TSA Programs Still Not Well Integrated
Washington Technology
The Transportation Security Administration is pursuing several information technology programs that have not been integrated into an effective infrastructure, concludes a new report from Homeland Security Department Inspector General Richard Skinner.

Arizona Stations Photo Radar Vans on its Roads
The Arizona Daily Star
The state's first two mobile photo-radar vans hit the pavement Thursday and started issuing tickets for the Department of Public Safety. Eventually the DPS hopes to have 20 of the vans scattered around Arizona.

Missouri Governor will Start Saving E-Mails
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Gov. Matt Blunt, dogged for weeks about his office's handling of e-mails, promised to start permanently saving them. His political rival, Attorney General Jay Nixon, promised to investigate whether Blunt staffers broke any laws by deleting them.

States' Green Building Laws Lead by Example
Stateline
Nevada, like many states, has enacted legislation that encourages developers to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or other standards designed to be more energy efficient and less harmful to the environment. Many states also are requiring that government building meets LEED standards.

Clinton Defends Net Neutrality Position
eWeek
Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign said Nov. 15 her long silence on network neutrality should not be interpreted as waning support for the idea of mandating that broadband providers treat all network use in a nondiscriminatory manner.

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 and Budget’s mandate, issued in March, that much more important. (Ever since Microsoft released Vista, security experts have questioned the company's security claims. Also, here.)

Actually, cyberattacks on Vista is one of 10 security threats identified by McAfee as the most significant in the coming year. The prediction makes sense: adoption of the latest iteration of Windows is expected to increase dramatically, and with more licenses comes more opportunity for attacks. Other threats that made the list (none terribly surprisingly) include:

• Continued distribution of malicious software and data mining of personal information through popular online applications (think MySpace and Monster.com) and lesser-known Web sites that people are not as apt to lock down properly (think online banking applications for regional financial institutions);

• Increasing proliferation of Storm Worm, a malicious program that began infecting computers in January 2007, giving hackers complete control over personal computers;

• Viruses spread through Instant Messaging programs;

• “Parasitic” viruses that modify existing files on a computer;

• Attacks on Voice over IP;

• Adware, though high-profile lawsuits and bad publicity drove a decline in the arguably intrusive form of advertising.

“[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. last night. "We’re making as many problems as we are solving,” as vulnerabilities proliferate and hackers reverse-engineer patches released by vendors like Microsoft to enable access to the network. That leaves government vulnerable and to some degree unaware of the impending danger, until an attack serves as a wakeup call, he said, not unlike the infamous bombing during World War II. What should the government be doing? Nunn didn’t claim to know. He was just as elusive on another subject: a potential run for the White House in 2008, saying only that if it did happen, he’d run as an Independent candidate.

Headlines from around the Web for Thursday, Nov. 15
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Philadelphia Region Transit System Launching Long-Awaited Smart Cards
Philadelphia Inquirer
The region's first transit "smart card" will make its appearance late this month as the Port Authority Transit Corporation finally inaugurates its Freedom Card service, similar to systems in Atlanta, Boston, Washington, D.C., and other cities. The launch comes after more than a year of conducting tests and wrangling with the maker of the $13 million system.

Boston Area Transportation Authority OKs Installation of Information System
The Boston Globe
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's board of directors has approved the purchase of a $2.4 million public information system that will include 256 public address screens in 21 MBTA stations systemwide. The screens will broadcast messages showing the waiting time for arriving trains, as well as station announcements.

Experts Seek to Improve Public's Understanding of RFID
Government Technology
Participants at a recent conference of privacy professionals noted that many people do not realize they are using RFID every day, and that for most, it remains a vague and formless technology that could easily be abused. Experts addressed ways the public might become better educated and more aware of the daily uses of RFID.

Senate Committee Passes IG, Telework, e-Gov Bills
Federal Computer Week
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today approved its version of the Inspector General Reform Act along with three other bills that will affect agency policies on e-government, telework and real property disposal.

Nevada Tightens Payroll Security After Security Breach
Government Computer News
Under new procedures, disks must be signed for and returned to the personnel department after each pay period. Passwords will be required to read data stored on CDs. And state employee information will be correlated to unique employee identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers.

DHS Completes Implementation of Electronic Shipment Processing
Government Computer News
The Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection agency is requiring truckers to submit cargo information in advance via its Automated Commercial Environment technology in Alaska, the last state where use of the system has become mandatory.

With Web 2.0 Comes the Evolution of a New Breed of Malware
InfoWorld
Google Mashups, RSS feeds, search, all of these can be misused by hackers to distribute malware, attack Web surfers and communicate with botnets, said Petko Petkov, a security researcher speaking at the Open Web Application Security Project U.S. 2007 conference.

IT Heavy Hitters form Certification Council
InformationWeek
Representatives from HP, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Novell, the Linux Professional Institutes, and the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) have joined to form an IT certification group.

Obama Unveils Tech Policy Plans
InformationWeek
In his comprehensive technology and innovation plan, the Democratic candidate strongly supports network neutrality. The plan says that Obama supports diverse media ownership, patent reform, safeguards for privacy rights, protecting children while preserving the First Amendment, and using technology for a more open and effective government, as well as a more competitive nation.

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 the American people,” uses the Google Earth application to plot the locations for almost 1,500 earmarks in the House Defense Appropriations bill.

By downloading Google Earth and a House Defense file, users can locate earmarks on a U.S. map, according to where the funds would be allocated. Click on the pushpin that marks an earmark location and you can find detailed information from Sunlight Foundation’s searchable database, EarmarkWatch.org.

Will the software application play any role in the fate of the House Defense Appropriations bill, which contains an estimated $5 billion in earmarks? Probably not. Congress passed it last week, and President Bush has stated no plans for a veto. Still, Senate Republican leaders that have made earmarks a soapbox issue no doubt cheer the application – along with other Internet efforts to garner support for their cause.

Headlines from around the Web for Tuesday, Nov. 13
Compiled by Melanie Bender

IT Training Program Helps Veterans with Skills, Jobs
InformationWeek
The Computing Technology Industry Association on Monday announced a program designed to help veterans and others gain new job skills and opportunities through training.

Pandemic Planning and Response for State IT: "Where's My Staff?"
Government Technology
NASCIO today announced the release of its publication, Pandemic Planning and Response for State IT: Where's My Staff? This issue brief is designed to assist state CIOs and their staffs in preparing for and protecting their state IT infrastructure in the event of a pandemic crisis.

Court Orders White House to Preserve E-mail Backups
Federal Computer Week
A federal district court judge issued a temporary restraining order today requiring the Bush administration to safeguard backup media files that may contain copies of millions of White House e-mail messages — the subject of ongoing litigation.

TSA Set to Test TWIC Card Reader Technology
Federal Computer Week
The Transportation Security Administration will hold a vendor day Nov. 19 to discuss card reader specifications and the tests in more detail, said Maurine Fanguy, TWIC program manager.

Companies Outsourcing Security to Telecommunications Carriers
InfoWorld
Massive telecommunications carriers, including AT&T, BT, and Verizon, are promoting their ability to take over a significant portion of customers' IT security operations, and some enterprises are already buying into the model.

Missouri Governor's Use of Private E-mail Raises Eyebrows
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Gov. Matt Blunt's administration has come under fire after acknowledging that it often deletes e-mails on government accounts. In addition to their government accounts, Blunt and several top aides have accounts on his campaign server, MattBlunt.com. They acknowledge that they use the campaign accounts or other private e-mail servers to conduct state business.

Bill Would Create Statewide 'Next-of-Kin' Database
The Columbus Dispatch
The law would create a database at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles where adults could leave names of relatives or friends to be contacted if the person dies or is needed in an emergency.

Lawsuit Calls for Hand-Counting Votes in 2008
Rutland Herald
A federal lawsuit calls on states on to hand-count all ballots in the 2008 presidential election out of the concern that electronic vote-counting machines are unreliable.

Attackers Snatch Member Data from 92 Nonprofits
eWeek
Attackers have stolen passwords and accounts from 92 nonprofits by infiltrating systems at Convio, the leading online marketing company for nonprofits. Affected nonprofit organizations include the American Museum of Natural History, Working Assets, CARE and Free Press.

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 firm used by Sun: "Perhaps, the criticism of Sun will wane some now as others are running into the same roadblocks."

Indeed, the auditors in the IG’s office might want to ask themselves: Are the results from their actions running counter to their intentions? It’s difficult to criticize an agency for being meticulous about the rules, but when those rules push out some of the biggest suppliers of IT in the federal market, one has to wonder whether it’s time to re-evaluate. Bob Laclede, vice president and general manager of government and education at IT distributor Ingram Micro (and the subject of a blog item posted yesterday) might have said it best in an email correspondence earlier this week:

[These] are major vendors who have dropped their GSA schedule. Will this drive other vendors to do the same? Will it discourage other new vendors from entering the federal market? And then, will this just discourage usage of GSA contracts and move the business to the other IDIQ vehicles? We obviously do not want any abuses or irregularities on GSA Schedules. But I have to wonder if GSA will just end up driving more business away.

Rumors of a pending “cyber-jihad” led by Al Qaeda that was set to take place yesterday seemed to have been overblown.

Information security expert Paul Henry, vice president of Technology Evangelism at Secure Computing, told us last week, “The bottom line is that this is nothing to panic over. The Internet is not going to come crashing down on Nov. 11.”

The Israeli online military intelligence magazine DEBKAfile was the first to report rumors that followers of Osama Bin Laden were planning to launch a large-scale attack on Western networks and servers on Sunday, Nov. 11, using an “Electronic Jihad” program. The report was met with a good bit of skepticism across the web. DEBKAfile also reported in 2003 that Saddam Hussein would be using weapons of mass destruction against U.S. troops. Still, Henry cautioned that while the threat isn’t serious, he said organizations should still exercise caution.

“The program is real, we have seen screenshots,” he said. “They are now using centralized targeting. When you log on, it automatically contacts one of three command servers and downloads a target list. We are still talking about an incredibly rudimentary attack. The program uses ping packets with a payload to overwhelm the host. It also has the ability to place enough HTTP requests to overload a web server.”

According to Henry, indications are that the organization behind the program is attempting to recruit students in the United States and Canada. He said the program’s attacks usually focus on Israeli targets and Web sites and are largely originated from countries with no cybercrime laws and that are home to Al Qaeda sympathizers, including Malaysia, Indonesia and much of Southeast Asia. Henry also added that it has been years since he had seen attacks using similar DDOS technology.

Henry called the possible attack “a good exercise to see how well they are recruiting and how the defenses react.” He also added that all three command control servers are categorized as nefarious by security software, and that most universities and institutional networks have defenses in place and anti-malware software to prevent downloads of the e-Jihad program. Henry added that blocking traffic from the three domains in question: Al-jinan.org, Jo-uf.net, and jofpmnytrvcf.com would be “viable risk mitigation.”

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 sells directly to the federal government, recently had GSA come knocking.

Ingram Micro is an IT distributor with corporate offices in Santa Ana, Calif., and Williamsville, N.Y. The way the company’s federal business works goes something like this: Ingram partners with IT hardware and software vendors; IT resellers (typically small to medium sized) sign on as Ingram customers; those solution providers bid federal IT contracts based on product pricing provided by Ingram and, when they win, place orders for the required products through Ingram, which sources the products from vendor partners. Ingram doesn’t hold federal contracts. Solution providers sell to federal agencies using their own contracts or those held by the IT vendor. In essence, Ingram acts as a middle man.

Until recently, that business model has kept Ingram off GSA’s radar. No longer, said Bob Laclede, vice president and general manager of government and education at Ingram. GSA recently requested the distributor’s pricing data, including discounts. That’s information that Laclede did not think GSA had the authority to ask for. Not true, said GSA spokesperson Brian Filpot. “If an offeror or current contract holder proposal states that [pricing] is based upon [commercial sales of a company] other than its own, then commercial sales practices data must be provided for the manufacturer or distributor or both so that the contracting officer can determine price reasonableness,” he said.

That fact was reinforced Nov. 7 – the same day we asked GSA about the inquiries with Ingram – in a Defense Department memo sent to Defense agency directors by Shay Assad, director of Defense procurement and acquisition policy (DPAP). The purpose of the memo was to “ensure that contracting officers are successful in obtaining the necessary information and data for determining fair and reasonable prices for purchases made from exclusive distributors/dealers” and require notification to the DPAP office when a distributor or dealer refuses to provide required cost data. Chances are Ingram got targeted first because it’s the largest among the IT distributors.

Fair enough, Laclede said, which is why Ingram has been working to provide the data. But when contracting officers start badmouthing his business – that’s another story. Apparently, GSA contracting officers have told resellers that “Ingram is not an authorized GSA distributor and that they [resellers] should take their business elsewhere,” Laclede said. The company’s legal counsel has been alerted of the claims. Explanations for why GSA needs the pricing information make sense, Laclede said, but “what a few of the COs are telling our customers does not.”

Let’s hope GSA finds common ground with distributors, for agencies’ sake. A total of 2,454 Ingram resellers sold into the federal space in 2007, driving $690 million in revenue for Ingram. Take away Ingram and other distributors’ right to supply, you take away many of their contractors’ ability to sell products and services.

Tucked into the Defense Appropriations Bill passed by the House last Friday is an almost 100 percent increase in 2008 funding for the mammoth Enterprise Resource Planning-based logistics system, called the Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-A).

The House version of the Defense bill provides $94.7 million in finding next year for GCSS-A, an increase over the budget line of $59.7 million proposed by the Senate. This looks like an almost sure deal, as the funding was approved in a conference with the Senate, which needs to pass its version of the bill, and who knows when that will happen.

GCSS-A, according to the Enterprise Transition Plan released by the Defense Business Transformation Office in September, will serve as a data warehouse to track all the beans and bullets as well as gadgets and gizmos used by the Army worldwide. The system is based on an SAP ERP system.

It will take a while to fill up that data warehouse, according to the Army Enterprise Solutions Competency Center, which projects full operational capability for GCSS-A in 2014, which means at least seven years more of work for systems integrator Northrop Grumman.

Headlines from around the web for Monday, Nov. 12, 2007
Compiled by Melanie Bender

CDs with State Employees' Info Missing in Nevada
Reno Gazette-Journal
Hundreds of CDs containing payroll information about state employees, including Social Security numbers, have either been lost or stolen over the past three years.

Senators Introduce E-Government Act Extension
Federal Computer Week
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), author of the E-Government Act of 2002, introduced the bill’s reauthorization act Nov. 7. Along with co-sponsors Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.), Lieberman wants to extend nine provisions.

Rhode Island Web Site on the Mend After Hacker Hits
Rhode Island Providence Journal
A spokesman for the Rhode Island secretary of state’s office says no personal information was compromised in a hacker's attack that damaged parts of the agency's Web site.

Senators Urge H-1B Visa Program Expansion
Washington Technology
Nineteen senators are urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to expand a program offering temporary work authorizations allowing foreign students to be employed by information technology companies in the United States.

Camden County Voting Machines Ordered Opened
Philadelphia Inquirer
A Superior Court judge yesterday ordered eight Camden County voting machines whose totals were not counted on Election Day to be opened and the computer cartridges that record votes to be removed. County elections officials said the votes would be counted next week, with revised totals expected on Tuesday.

Report: 90 Percent of Web Apps Still Vulnerable
InfoWorld
It may not be surprising that Web applications security software provider Cenzic contends that a large number of online programs could use some overall improvement -- but, according the company's latest research, a whopping 90 percent of all Web apps it has studied are vulnerable to some form of attack.

States Vow to Buy Green Computers
NewsFactor
The governors of Kansas and Minnesota have signed on to a Google green-computing initiative, committing to spending an extra $30 per PC to make the states' PCs more environmentally friendly.

Spain Implements Digital Grid for Water Management
The Los Angeles Times
Although computer-assisted irrigation is not new, Spanish officials believe that no other country is organizing it at a national level. So far, 200,000 farmers have signed up for the project. By 2010, the government hopes that number rises to 500,000, representing the vast majority of the farmers who utilize irrigation in Spain.

Our pals over at the innovation department in the Defense Intelligence Agency asked us to let the world know they are looking for some good ideas and technologies to power the next generation of the Defense Intelligence Information System.

Vendors can submit their ideas to DIA on Web and when products or technologies meet requirements, vendors are invited to present them in a one-hour pitch at a DIA facility in beautiful New Carrollton, Md.

DIA said it’s looking for IT innovation in a number of areas to help intelligence collectors and analysts in such areas as document and content management, knowledge and records management as well as new software, gadgets or gizmos that can improve systems and security management.

While Congress plays political games with the 12 appropriations bills, the Veterans Affairs Department groans under a backlog of 400,000 veterans benefits claims, according to the Senate report on the fiscal 2008 VA-Military Construction spending bill.

The backlog on each of those claims is 177 days, the report noted, while the complexity of adjudicating claims grows as combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan need to be evaluated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and multiple battle injuries to collect their benefits.

The Senate version of the fiscal 2008 VA bill attempts to resolve this backlog by providing $60.7 million to hire new claims processing personnel and another $39.7 million for computers and information technology systems to speed up the processing of the claims, which have increased 39 percent from 2000 to 2006.

The funding is held hostage until at least December (even though there is a war on, Congress needs a Thanksgiving break) when maybe the folks on the Hill will get around to passing the appropriations bills they should have passed two months ago.

One would think that Congress could have at least passed the VA bill before Veterans Day (Nov. 12) in honor of those the nation sends into harms way.

But, hey, the House did honor veterans yesterday with the passage of a bill that called for the creation of National Veterans History Project Week, to be observed next November.

Maybe someone can do a veteran history project on why the Senate and House could not pass a VA spending bill in 2007 before Veterans Day.

Headlines from around the Web for Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Municipal Wi-Fi: A Promise Unfulfilled?
InformationWeek
Cities around the country seem to be backing away from their promises of widespread, free municipal Wi-Fi services. Are they abandoning the idea of public Wi-Fi, or just retrenching?

Technology, Funding Gap Slow Boston's WiFi Effort
The Boston Globe
Boston's push for citywide wireless Internet access, delayed by technical challenges and slower than anticipated fund-raising, is no longer expected to meet the city's original goal of blanket coverage by the end of next year, project leaders conceded.

Atlanta City Council Approves $41.6M Digital Radio System
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta City Council voted Monday to spend $41.6 million on a digital radio system city officials say will help police officers and firefighters better communicate with each other and law enforcement agencies in surrounding areas.

Fenty Drops Plan to Purge City E-Mails After 6 Months
The Washington Post
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) withdrew his executive order to purge the majority of city e-mails yesterday, hours after two D.C. Council members announced they would introduce legislation to delay the policy from being instituted in January.

Is Business Displacing IT in Deciding What to Buy?
CIO Insight
CIOs aren't the only ones buying IT for their companies anymore, new research from Forrester shows. And how IT executives respond to the shift could have a major impact on their standing in the front office. The yet-to-be-published findings reveal that 25 percent of executives outside of IT are directly selecting vendor tools entirely on their own or more than IT executives. Also, 25 percent of executives are negotiating directly with vendors or managing relationships with those providers.

Handhelds, Laptops Increase IT Security Worries, Survey Finds
Federal Computer Week
The increasing mobility of workers is creating big security headaches for information technology staffers, according to a new report. Portable devices, especially personal digital assistants and laptop PCs, are the leading concern, the Computing Technology Industry Association found in its study.

FBI to Bolster Employee Internet Access
Federal Computer Week
The FBI will begin issuing BlackBerry smart phones to an additional 18,000 employees this week, kicking off a series of initiatives that during the next two years will bolster the number of agents and analysts with Internet access at their desks.

Former Staffer Says Governor's Office Monitored Personal E-mails
Missouri News-Tribune
A former staff attorney for Gov. Matt Blunt claims Blunt officials monitored his personal e-mail account without his knowledge or permission after he was fired - an accusation Blunt officials strongly deny.

Experts Say West Can't Stop Web Radicalization
Reuters
A number of examples illustrate what Western authorities believe is the dangerous and growing role the Internet plays in spreading extremist propaganda and recruiting sympathizers to Islamist militant causes.

Feds Fight Ruling on Security Letters
The Associated Press
The U.S. government on Monday appealed a ruling that it shouldn't be able to get personal phone, e-mail and financial records without a judge's approval, as now allowed under the USA Patriot Act.

In this month’s cover article, CIO Magazine details how Wal-Mart lost its IT edge. The story is applicable to the federal government. The article catalogues how after years of being an IT leader (being among the first to adopt bar-code scanning, satellite communications, electronic data interchange, and a supply chain management system that automatically triggered orders to suppliers when stocks dropped) Wal-Mart’s legendary IT department has fallen on hard times, including some failures in the social networking realm. The IT problems have indirectly contributed to failed ventures in international markets and missed profit projections.

The failed ventures and lower profits may not be specifically applicable to government, but the reasons for Wal-Mart falling off its IT game may be. According to the article, Wal-Mart “has relied too much on centralized decision making” and “analysts say that Wal-Mart's reliance on homegrown IT systems -- and its conviction of their superiority -- needs to change.” Wal-Mart’s chief information officer, Rollin Ford, “must bring in best-of-breed commercial applications,” such as Business Intelligence and other IT tools to improve operations. “We cannot overestimate how much packaged software can help them right now,” says Paula Rosenblum, an analyst and managing partner with Retail Systems Research, according to the article.

Sound familiar? Also, what Wal-Mart is trying to do to recover its "IT mojo," as CIO calls it, holds some lessons for the federal government.

As an aside, it wouldn’t be too surprising if some government IT managers are now feeling redeemed after Wal-Mart was held up as a better relief provider than FEMA after Hurricane Katrina – mostly because of the company’s superior IT operations.

Headlines from around the Web for Monday, Nov. 5, 2007
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Homeland Security Retreats From Facets of 'Real ID'
The Washington Post
The Bush administration is easing its demand for tough national standards for driver's licenses, acting at the behest of state officials who say the "Real ID" plan is unworkable and too costly, officials familiar with the new policy said.

Security Architecture Emerges for First Responders
Network World
Princeton University researchers say they have come up with a new way to securely transmit crucial rescue information to first responders to situations such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

San Francisco Quake Raises Question 'Can Cell Phone Network Overload be Prevented?'
Computer World
Within minutes of Tuesday's 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the San Francisco Bay Area, the number of cell phone calls on the Verizon Wireless network skyrocketed. Twenty minutes after the 8:04 p.m. quake, instead of the normal 300,000 calls made between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in one area of Santa Clara County, the call volume soared to 2.3 million.

Reports Show PCs, Monitors Contribute to 40 Percent of IT Carbon Emissions
InformationWeek
When most IT professionals think about reducing energy consumption they pay attention to the data center, which after all is filled with power-hungry heat-generating servers. According to a Gartner report released in September, however, the real culprit when it comes to IT's carbon-emission footprint resides not in the data center but on every employee's desk: the PC.

The Second Decade of Offshore Outsourcing: Where We're Headed
InformationWeek
As companies head into this second decade of offshore IT outsourcing, globalization is starting to be more than a polite way to say "dirt cheap foreign coding." But businesses in North America and Western Europe, at least those with any track record of success with their offshore providers, are getting closer than ever to those vendors--for example, trying to help them deal with employee retention, treating those problems as their own.

NYC Announces Comprehensive Technology Strategy: PlanIT
Government Technology
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Thursday the release of PlanIT: Better Government through Customer Service, New York City's first-ever comprehensive technology strategy for coordinated, effective and efficient citywide IT implementation. With an overarching theme of customer service, PlanIT outlines 32 technology initiatives, either planned or underway.

Panel Must Narrow Cybersecurity Scope
Federal Computer Week
A new blue-ribbon panel that will develop cybersecurity recommendations for the next president faces a compressed schedule and the challenge of agreeing on a cybersecurity agenda that it wants the next administration to address.

States Find IT Consolidation is Key to Staying Creative Amid Budget Shortfalls
Government Computer News
As an example, by consolidating the state government’s 25 data centers into three, Michigan has saved $9.5 million with an expected return on investment of $19.1 million.

Online Searches May Pose Security Threats
Washington Technology
Government agencies may be risking disclosure of sensitive data through desktop and Internet search functions, according to a report from the Civitas Group consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Headlines from around the Web for Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007
Compiled by Melanie Bender

Health Care for Bridges: A Search for Diagnostic Tools
The New York Times
The bridge that carries Route 56 over the Raquette River is so ordinary that it has no name, only a number, 1027260. But for now it is a bridge like no other, studded with instruments like a cardiac patient, giving up secrets that may explain how to keep others from falling.

E-Vote: Delaware Provides Polling Place Information Using Google Maps
Government Technology
The Delaware Commissioner of Elections and the Government Information Center have recently launched a new Internet tool aimed at helping voters find their polling places. Using the popular interactive mapping interface Google Maps, voters can now see the location of their polling place and obtain directions to and from that location.

Customers Give Florida Purchasing System High Marks
Federal Computer Week
Customer satisfaction with Florida’s online purchasing system, MyFloridaMarketPlace, topped 90 percent in a recent survey and has saved the state $71 million through strategic sourcing.

Setting a Cybersecurity Agenda for the 110th Congress
Government Computer News
Cyberspace is becoming an increasingly dangerous neighborhood, and members of the Congressional High Tech Caucus are looking for ways to help clean it up. The caucus is a group of more than four dozen representatives and senators working to set an IT legislative agenda for the 110th Congress.

Al Qaeda Hacker Attack Scheduled To Begin November 11
InformationWeek
An Israeli Web site is warning that al Qaeda hackers will attack Western, Jewish, Israeli, Muslim apostate, and Shiite Web sites starting on Sunday, Nov. 11. A U.S. Secret Service agent who forwarded the report to a security mailing list cautioned that the news did not constitute an official USSS advisory.

Glitches Delay Virtual Fence on Border
Federal Times
Bugs in the Homeland Security Department’s border surveillance system, SBInet, have been frustrating for Customs and Border Protection agents, congressional auditors say. The border surveillance system’s high-tech eye for movement is so refined it has misinterpreted shrubs swaying in the breeze and raindrops as border breaches, the GAO found.

States Step in to Close Broadband Gap
The Wall Street Journal
Tired of waiting for the federal government to act on President Bush's promise to make high-speed Internet connections available to every home, a number of states have taken on the task themselves. Kentucky has been so successful -- the state says 95 percent of its households can now buy broadband service if they want -- that federal lawmakers and regulators want to replicate its program nationwide.