TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

The General Services Administration has approved universal sign-in applications for use on government Web sites, provided by Equifax, Google and Paypal, that will allow citizens who are securely logged in to one site to instantly and safely switch to another agency site without having to log in again.

The so-called Open Identity Exchange applications are expected to expedite access to government services by giving users a single ID credential that all privacy-protected federal sites will accept.

Watch Nextgov news for more details. . .

A senator chastised the social-networking service Facebook on Tuesday for refusing to attend his subcommittee hearing on global Internet freedom, while simultaneously seeking the government's help in resolving Internet blockages overseas.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, said that in a letter declining to testify, Facebook wrote that the company has no business operations in China or most of the other countries in the world. Durbin pointed out that Facebook has more than 400 million users, about 70 percent of which are outside the United States. Facebook also has not joined the Global Network Initiative, a coalition of technology companies committed to resisting censorship.

Despite its reluctance to participate in the hearing or GNI, Facebook recently asked the State Department for assistance when its services were blocked in Vietnam, Durbin said. Michael Posner, assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, who testified at the hearing, responded, "It's fair to say that companies like Facebook and Twitter are certainly susceptible to the pressures that we've seen others face."

Durbin then observed, "If Facebook expects our government to help in resolving efforts to censor their services, it only seems reasonable that they accept some responsibility themselves for addressing human rights issues."

After the hearing, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes (and a former writer for Nextgov and Government Executive) said that, while Facebook has a large user base, its global operations are still small.

"When we come to evaluate doing business in any country, we do so thoughtfully and are mindful of the rules, regulations, and customs," he added. "As Facebook grows, we'll absolutely be considering which groups we can actively participate in."

Noyes said the company welcomes a continuing dialogue with Durbin.

Wired's Ryan Singel wrote a long post in the site's Threat Level blog arguing that much of the concern over the security of the Internet is being fueled by federal contractors, which would benefit financially from the government pursuing policies to lock it down and to track 'Net users.

He argues that recent high-profile hacks are not an indication of cyberwar, but rather overstated and inflamed rhetoric meant to generate cyber business and for the government to have a valid reason to control Web information. "This battle isn't about truth. It's about power," he wrote.

Engineers, scientists and at least one lawmaker are pushing like never before to resuscitate a legislative agency that once provided Congress with technological expertise.

In an era of supposed government transparency, with allegations that even scientists are attempting to cover up research on global warming, an objective, authoritative Office of Technology Assessment is of utmost importance, advocates say.

Several lawmakers, particularly House member and physicist Rush Holt, D-N.J., have repeatedly rallied for appropriations to revive the office that Congress dismantled to save money in 1995. The counterargument against funding has always been that other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office or Congressional Research Services, could provide the same services.

Now that belief may be changing, says Francesca Grifo, scientific integrity program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who will testify on Wednesday before the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. Holt also will testify in support of restored funding.

"We've decided to make it a priority issue," Grifo said in an interview with Nextgov on Tuesday. Her group is releasing a letter of encouragement signed by 30 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Auto Workers. "It seems a little counterintuitive but, if you look at our current fiscal situation, OTA saves money," she said, explaining that if lawmakers have sound technical advice when they make policy decisions, "you'll waste less money."

Established in the early 1970s, the office was responsible for providing Congress with early evaluations of the potential costs and benefits of new technologies and new applications of existing technologies.

Grifo's organization estimates that the office cost Congress about $20 million annually but, since its extinction, the federal government has squandered billions of dollars on failed systems, including virtual fences to guard the U.S-Mexico border and baggage screening equipment.

A sample of reports produced shortly before its demise shows that the office already was on top of many innovations at the forefront of today's legislative agenda.

One 1995 report referenced the potential for tracking the efficacy of medical treatments with electronic health data - a controversial issue in the ongoing debate over healthcare reform. "Because large amounts of electronic data now can be collected and manipulated, there has been increased emphasis on using existing data, often in the form of insurance claims databases, to evaluate health care technologies," the research stated. "Data gathered from events occurring in a wide range of practice settings have become viewed as a tool for looking at effectiveness-- average outcomes achieved by average doctors and patients."

In a report entitled "Bringing Health Care Online: The Role of Information Technologies," the office found that electronic patient records, portable computers, automated data capture and computer networks "can potentially improve the quality of health care" by "enhancing clinical decision support and by improving data for assessing the effectiveness of health services and the performance of health care providers and insurance plans."

Another 1995 report probed the ramifications of electronic surveillance, concluding, "If major problems arise in meeting the needs of law enforcement, they will likely arise as a result of institutional difficulties in dealing with a diverse, highly entrepreneurial industry made up of a large number of telecommunications companies offering many new innovations and features, with the number of players steadily increasing."

James Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and one of Washington's more respected cybersecurity experts, is on the schedule to give testimony Tuesday afternoon at the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The panel's topic: "Cybersecurity: Next Steps to Protect Our Critical Infrastructure." The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 will be a topic of conversation.

According to a copy of his testimony, Lewis will call for more government regulation of the Internet to improve cybersecurity. From his testimony:

Like other new technologies in the past - airplanes, cars, steam engines - the appeal and the benefits are so great that we have rushed to adopt the Internet despite serious safety problems. . . . For those earlier technologies, safety came about through innovation driven by government mandates, and by agreements among nations. The same process of development is necessary to secure cyberspace. The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 could play a vital role in this improvement.

This will not be an easy task. The United States does not like to deal with market failure. This has been true since the earliest days of the republic. Steam engines, although notoriously unsafe, had to wait forty years until a series of savage accidents costing hundreds of live led Congress to impose safety regulations. Automobile safety rules took more than half a century and initially faced strong opposition from manufacturers.

. . . Just as cars were not built to be safe until government pressure changed auto manufacturers' behavior, cyberspace will not be secure until government forces improvement. Twelve years of reliance on voluntary efforts and self-regulation have put us in an untenable situation. Some may argue that a move away from the market or a greater emphasis on security or a larger role for government will damage innovation in cyberspace. This argument is in part a reflection of competition among various bureaucracies, advanced to protect turf, but . . . also reflects a misunderstanding of the nature of innovation. There are grounds to be concerned about the ability of the U.S. to innovate when compared to other nations, but the real obstacles are a weak education system, poorly designed tax policies, damaging immigration rules, and mis-investment that makes it hard to develop new technologies and competitors. Removing these obstacles would be politically difficult and face strong opposition. It is easier to insist instead that keeping the Internet open and anonymous or bringing broadband to undeserving areas will somehow generate growth. Greater security is more likely to increase innovation, by reducing the loss of intellectual property and by increasing demand for more valuable internet services.

What may that regulation look like? Lewis plans to say it will be:

a broad rethinking of American law and policy, and will require adapting to the technologies we now depend on. It will need new kinds of international agreements, new standards and rules for industry, and new approaches to the professionalization of those who operate networks. This is no small task but, judging from experience, it is inevitable.

Do you know a federal manager who recently took risks to push through a bold idea, policy or program that uses technology to make government work better or improve public services? If so, we'd like to hear your story by nominating your colleague for a Nextgov Award.

The Nextgov Award program, developed in partnership with O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, will recognize government executives who stepped outside their comfortable confines to think and manage differently. They acted boldly to push through an innovative program, policy or new management practice that relied on technology to move government in a new direction, to challenge employees to think and work differently, and that ultimately improved the lives of citizens.

We know there are many managers who have done just that, and we want you to tell us about them by nominating them for a Nextgov Award. The deadline is March 12, but we suggest you don't wait. Visit the nomination page and spend just a few minutes filling out the form. We'll tell the stories of the winners later this spring on Nextgov.

A panel of respected judges will make choose the winners, who will be honored at a luncheon on May 27 at the Gov 2.0 Expo at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The expo is co-sponsored by O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, and Nextgov is the premier media sponsor.

A Washington think tank will host a simulated cyberattack on the United States on Tuesday to demonstrate how the government would respond to a large-scale attack on the nation's computer systems and networks.

The Bipartisan Policy Center announced on Wednesday its Cyber ShockWave, which will bring together a bipartisan group of former senior administration and national security officials to play Cabinet members whose mission is to advise the president and react in real time to intelligence and news reports on the cyberattack. None of the participants will know the scenario in advance.

A post-event discussion with the participants and partners will analyze ways that the U.S. government can avoid a real world cyberattack and lessons learned.

Cyber ShockWave was created by former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and the BPC's National Security Preparedness Group, which is led by co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Governor Thomas Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton.

Former senior administration officials and national security experts that will participate include:

* Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as National Security Advisor
* Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte as Secretary of State
* White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend as Secretary of Homeland Security
* Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin as Director of National Intelligence
* Senator Bennett Johnston as Secretary of Energy
* Director of the National Economic Council Stephen Friedman as Secretary of Treasury
* Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick as Attorney General
* White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart as Counselor to the President
* General Counsel of the National Security Agency Stewart Baker as Cyber Coordinator
* Deputy Commander U.S. European Command Charles F. Wald as Secretary of Defense

Nextgov has launched the Nextgov Awards, an inaugural program to recognize federal managers who have shepherded a program, policy or management practice that is not only innovative, but bold and brave.

Yes, we know, there are a lot of awards programs in government. But when we asked federal managers and industry executives what is missing, they told us unanimously: No awards recognize federal employees who took on risks -- personal, political and otherwise -- and boldly acted to see their idea to fruition. Or if their idea died, at least they took on entrenched bureaucratic interests in an attempt to make government better through the use of technology.

We invite you to visit our awards page to learn more and to nominate someone who fits the criteria. The technology isn't the reason for the award, but the bold idea must rely on it in some way. And we encourage you to tell us a story about the individuals you nominate. We want you to wow us because we know there are dozens of stories of federal employees trying to improve government and the lives of citizens, but they are up against big odds. Yet, they have acted bravely and with resolve to bring about change. We want to know about them, the drama they faced and the results they achieved. And, of course, the technology they used.

The winners of the Nextgov Awards will be honored at a luncheon at TechWeb's Gov 2.0 Expo in May. (Nextgov is a TechWeb partner for the event.) We'd love to see you there.

More to come.

The House passed the 2009 Cybersecurity Enhancement Act on Thursday 422 - 5, after lengthy deliberations and amendment votes yesterday. There is no companion bill n the Senate, yet.

NASA, already in the spotlight for a budget that scraps plans to return to the moon, received more negative publicity from federal auditors on Wednesday about ongoing information security problems.

Cristina Chaplain, Government Accountability Office director for acquisition and sourcing management, testified before a House panel that continuing weaknesses in information technology systems are a "key issue" facing the space agency, as it undergoes a dramatic change of direction. The White House proposed on Monday that NASA cancel the $3.5 billion Constellation program that was intended to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020. Instead, the fiscal 2011 budget calls for investing in the commercial space industry, international partners and new technologies to revitalize human space flight over the long-term.

During fiscal years 2007 and 2008, NASA reported 1,120 security incidents where malicious software was installed on its systems or intruders accessed sensitive information. Despite the establishment of a security operations center to prevent such episodes, "control vulnerabilities and program shortfalls" increase "the risk of unauthorized access to NASA's sensitive information, as well as inadvertent or deliberate disruption of its system operations," Chaplain's written testimony stated.

Such vulnerabilities make it possible for federal employees or contractors to disclose, alter or destroy sensitive data that could disrupt space missions, she added.

In response to the GAO findings, NASA officials said the department is undergoing a strategic effort to improve IT security that incorporates many of the auditors' recommendations, such as conducting physical risk assessments, comprehensive security testing, as well as deploying an adequate incident detection program.

"The [agency's] deputy administrator also stated that NASA will continue to mitigate the information security weaknesses identified" by GAO, Chaplain testified. "The actions identified by the deputy administrator, if effectively implemented, will improve the agency's information security program."