communications Archives

Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller has postponed a computer security hearing to attend the funeral of Judge M. Blane Michael, a proponent of digital privacy who served as Rockefeller's special counsel during his first term as governor of West Virginia, aides for the senator said on Monday.

Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has not yet announced a new date for the hearing, previously scheduled for Wednesday, which was to examine the economic ramifications of cyber threats in the private sector.

Last year, Michael, who sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, lectured to students at his alma mater New York University School of Law that the Internet may undermine the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure protections: "The digital age is placing our privacy in jeopardy. Technological advances in the way we communicate and store information make us increasingly vulnerable to intrusive searches and seizures."

The disconnect between analogue-era privacy and communications laws and the evolving, online nature of criminal activity has been the subject of several congressional hearings during the past year. Lawmakers are considering updating civil liberties legislation, such as the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, as well as establishing new computer crime rules as part of comprehensive cyber legislation.

During his speech, Michael noted that people store their digital files, including love letters, diaries and financial records, on an Internet service provider's remote server, so that they can access their documents from any computer.

"But online storage also raises questions about whether we retain any Fourth Amendment privacy interest in files once we store them remotely because they are then technically accessible to the Internet service provider," he said.

Michael cited a case that involved the government's seizure of Google's email servers, which house millions of people's personal data, just to look for just a few incriminating messages.

"In evaluating whether there is a privacy interest in personal files stored online, the current framework leaves room for considering other sources of interpretation, including the Fourth Amendment's formative history and contemporary norms and circumstances," he said.

On Friday, Rockefeller said in a statement that Michael was unvarnished in his honesty, uncanny in his humor and unequaled in his humility. He called him "a brilliant judge who never took for granted the power and the responsibility of deciding the cases that impacted people's lives or righted serious wrongs.

"I will be forever fortunate to call him my dearest friend and confidant - the kind you just trust to his very core and whose deep, easy companionship abides with you for a lifetime," he said.

The need for public safety agencies to have interoperable radios is well-documented. In January the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved an order that would establish interoperability standards for a nationwide public safety communications network.

First responders rely heavily on scarce and shrinking VHF spectrum as well as complex radios, said John Santo, executive director of Customs and Border Protection's wireless systems program office. One of the biggest challenges, he said, is that his agents cannot see what they are responding to.

New technologies necessary for interoperable systems are sometimes called "bleeding edge," since there is a risk in using them. But for public safety, that includes real blood, because first responders usually respond to life-threatening situations, said John Powell, interoperability chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, during an all-day FCC forum on Friday that addressed various interoperability issues.

The need for public safety agencies to have interoperable radios is well-documented. But for Customs and Border Protection, their legacy communications infrastructure is so antiquated that in some cases they are buying parts through the online auction site eBay.

That's according to John Santo, executive director of the CBP's wireless systems program office, part of the Homeland Security Department. Santo was discussing interoperability at a forum sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission Friday.

Nonetheless, he said having been in law enforcement for more than 30 years, he is "really encouraged by the momentum that's growing around" have interoperability standards.

The White House and Office of Management and Budget's unclassified e-mail systems went down shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday and as of 1 p.m. were still down.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that Verizon is working to solve the issue.

The White House normally sends out numerous daily e-mails to the media, such as travel pool reports for the president's trip to State College, Pa., today. Pfeiffer said in his tweet that paper copies are available in the White House's press office.

The Washington Post reported that in addition to e-mail problems, some officials experienced trouble using printers as well.

There was no mention of the outages on the White House's official Twitter feed.

By mid-afternoon, service was restored and e-mails began moving again. Just after 4 p.m., Nextgov received an e-mail about the prayer breakfast Obama attended this morning.

White House officials on Wednesday circulated a memo, obtained by Nextgov, that encourages procurement officers to communicate with contractors before finalizing solicitations, in an effort to dispel misperceptions about conflicts of interest.

The idea is that companies know the costs and features of current technology better than the government so potential bidders should be consulted early in the process of drawing up system requirements for contracts.

"Although industry may have had their best technical representatives engaged with the program manager, the contracting officer should communicate to vendors as much information as possible about the government's needs as early as possible," states a copy of the guidance, signed by Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Daniel Gordon. "As a result of early communication, the contracting officer may learn some things that suggest that an approach somewhat different than planned may cause increased competition, more small business participation, lower prices, or even a better definition of the government's technical requirements."

Fears of contract protests or signing unauthorized deals have prevented some acquisition officers from talking to vendors, according to the memo. At the same time, industry may stay away -- out of concern that stepping over boundaries may bar them from future government business.

The document requires agencies by June 30 to develop plans for communicating with contractors. After the plans are reviewed by the White House, they must be made publicly available within a month.

Wednesday's memo takes pains to stress that nothing within the guidelines should be interpreted to "alter, or authorize violations of, applicable ethics rules, procurement integrity requirements, or other statutes or regulations that govern communication and information sharing."

After discussions with company representatives and agency staff, the White House identified the 10 most frequently-mentioned misconceptions about contractor-government fraternization:

1. "We can't meet one-on-one with a potential offeror." Fact: Government officials can generally meet one-on-one with potential offerors as long as no vendor receives preferential treatment.
2. "Since communication with contractors is like communication with registered lobbyists, and since contact with lobbyists must be disclosed, additional communication with contractors will involve a substantial additional disclosure burden, so we should avoid these meetings." Fact: Disclosure is required only in certain circumstances, such as for meetings with registered lobbyists. Many contractors do not fall into this category, and even when disclosure is required, it is normally a minimal burden that should not prevent a useful meeting from taking place.
3. "A protest is something to be avoided at all costs -- even if it means the government limits conversations with industry." Fact: Restricting communication won't prevent a protest, and limiting communication might actually increase the chance of a protest, in addition to depriving the government of potentially useful information.
4. "Conducting discussions or negotiations after receipt of proposals will add too much time to the schedule." Fact: Whether discussions should be conducted is a key decision for contracting officers to make. Avoiding discussions solely because of schedule concerns may be counter-productive, and may cause delays and other problems during contract performance.
5. "If the government meets with vendors, that may cause them to submit an unsolicited proposal and that will delay the procurement process." Fact: Submission of an unsolicited proposal should not affect the schedule. Generally, the unsolicited proposal process is separate from the process for a known agency requirement that can be acquired using competitive methods.
6. "When the government awards a task or delivery order using the Federal Supply Schedules, debriefing the offerors isn't required so it shouldn't be done." Fact: Providing feedback is important, both for offerors and the government, so agencies should generally provide feedback whenever possible.
7. "Industry days and similar events attended by multiple vendors are of low value to industry and the government because industry won't provide useful information in front of competitors, and the government doesn't release new information." Fact: Well-organized industry days, as well as pre-solicitation and pre-proposal conferences, are valuable opportunities for the government and for potential vendors -- both prime contractors and subcontractors, many of whom are small businesses.
8. "The program manager already talked to industry to develop the technical requirements, so the contracting officer doesn't need to do anything else before issuing the RFP." Fact: The technical requirements are only part of the acquisition; getting feedback on terms and conditions, pricing structure, performance metrics, evaluation criteria, and contract administration matters will improve the award and implementation process.
9. "Giving industry only a few days to respond to an RFP is OK since the government has been talking to industry about this procurement for over a year." Fact: Providing only short response times may result in the government receiving fewer proposals and the ones received may not be as well-developed -- which can lead to a flawed contract. This approach signals that the government isn't really interested in competition.
10. "Getting broad participation by many different vendors is too difficult; we're better off dealing with the established companies we know." Fact: The government loses when we limit ourselves to the companies we already work with. Instead, we need to look for opportunities to increase competition and ensure that all vendors, including small businesses, get fair consideration.

Egypt has gone dark. According to Renesys, a Manchester, N.H.-based company that monitors Internet routing data, the Egyptian government appears to have taken the unprecedented step of ordering service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet.

"Every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world," Renesys said in a blog post. "The Egyptian government's actions . . . have essentially wiped their country from the global map."

At 12:34 a.m. Friday in Egypt, Renesys said they observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table. The company said this is different from what happened previously in Tunisia, where specific routes were blocked, or in Iran, where the Internet connections were rendered painfully slow.

The blackout also appeared to extend to mobile phones. British Telecom provider Vodafone confirmed on their website that all mobile operators in Egypt were instructend to suspend services in selected areas of the country. "Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it," the company said.

And the fact that those in Egypt might not see reaction from the US government, which condemned the moves, was not lost on State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowely: "We are concerned that communication services, including the Internet, social media and even this #tweet, are being blocked in #Egypt," he wrote on the micro-blogging site late Thursday.

The Homeland Security Department has begun the process of contracting to replace the border security network it scrapped last week, by issuing a request for information on interconnected surveillance towers, department officials said on Wednesday.

The market research is part of the department's new plan to acquire proven, ready-made technology tailored to the terrain of each border region, as opposed to the now-defunct $1 billion Secure Border Initiative network. The SBInet program ran into cost, schedule and performance problems in an unsuccessful attempt to install a one-size-fits-all virtual fence composed of monitoring devices, intelligence databases and communication links.

Depending on budget decisions, a formal request for bids on the project might be issued late this fiscal year, with contracts awarded several months after that, DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler said.

The RFI for so-called integrated fixed towers, which was posted Tuesday on the contracting bulletin board FedBizOpps, asks vendors for comments on market conditions and scientific advances to help shape "an acquisition strategy for technology solutions that detect, track, identify and classify illegal incursions." The technology is intended to provide border agents with a full view of activity between ports of entry to stop drug smuggling, illegal immigration and terrorist-related activities. Comments are due Feb. 8.

"The RFI approach is one tool available to us to involve industry at an early stage in our process," Chandler said.

Department officials will start procuring stand-alone tower parts this fiscal year, Chandler added. He said the decision to move ahead with the non-integrated tower elements was based on the priorities of DHS' Customs and Border Protection bureau.

DHS is looking for tools that will offer automatic, continuous wide-area surveillance that are largely open, or not tied to any one brand's proprietary technology, according to Tuesday's notice. Contracting officers envision a system consisting of several towers, where each one is equipped with a suite of sensors for constant surveillance; supporting power; and communications.

The applications will instantly identify humans, animals, vehicles and other suspicious items, as well as provide agents with video to inspect the scene manually for backpackers or people carrying certain weapons. The video will enable border personnel "to classify the threat in terms of group size, whether they are migrant workers, smugglers, etc, and whether they are armed," the RFI states.

The system will display the precise location, speed and direction of suspicious activity, according to the notice. The technology also will draw from pre-existing data feeds that were launched during the SBInet program. The tower equipment and network connectivity must withstand extreme weather conditions and harsh environments, such as the Arizona deserts and mountains where DHS initially had begun deploying SBInet.

There's a great little piece in National Journal today on NASA astronaut Mark Kelly interrupting an interview with a reporter to take a phone call from his twin brother, Scott, who is serving as a commander aboard the International Space Station.

It included this nugget from Mark Kelly about additional forms of communication with astronauts in mid-mission:

"Sometimes [astronauts on the space station] have Internet access, though it's very slow. Normally, when you send them an e-mail, it just sits over at Mission Control for a couple hours before they sync up the Outlook mailbox on the Station."

On Election Night, California Republican Darrell Issa, the presumptive chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he intends to release more data about government operations and authorize federal inspectors general to do the same.

"I'm going to make sure that the 74 primary inspectors general are able to do their job -- and support them," Issa said, adding that he would "absolutely" advocate for granting IGs subpoena power. Only the Defense IG has that authority today.

Current Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., is expected to relinquish the committee gavel to Issa next year, when Republicans take control of the House of Representatives. And Issa is expected to raise the profile of a watchdog panel that quieted down in the presence of a president from the same side of the aisle.

The anti-bailout, anti-stimulus lawmaker is known for holding the Obama White House to account for claims of being the most transparent administration in history.

Almost daily, he points out apparent secretive acts, such as the alleged use of personal webmail accounts to sidestep federal recordkeeping.

But Issa also chastises the legislative branch and federal agencies for not disclosing enough information to taxpayers.

In March, he co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Transparency Caucus to champion the principles of free, online access to the government's information; publication of the government's information in raw, searchable formats that the masses can scrutinize; providing the public with federal spending data that can be linked to agency performance data; and tracking lawmaker pet projects - so-called earmarks - in the federal budget.

Around midnight, during a call with reporters, Issa said he would make sure that all on the phone line can get the data they need.

Federal officials are preparing to release a new online dashboard to highlight how agencies score on customer service as they adopt social networking tools to engage the public, Federal Computer Week reported on Thursday.

The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies is developing the dashboard to display and compare agencies' customer service standards and levels of customer satisfaction, the website reported.

The dashboard will include information such as waiting times, processing times and the percentage of problems resolved with a single phone call or online interaction. OMB expects the dashboard to launch in late 2010, Federal Computer Week said, citing a GAO report.