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Two controversial bills aim to rein in identity theft: In the war on identity theft, two new bills were recently approved by the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, but despite Congresss overwhelming support, some industry insiders still have reservations, reports CNET News. The proposals would create new regulations on spyware and set greater limits on the use...; Tags: Congress, Government technology, Privacy; Blog posts 2007-05-14
Proposed federal shield for reporters now includes bloggers: A bill to create a federal reporters shield was amended recently to include coverage for bloggers, Ars Technica reports. Instead of requiring journalists to be tied to a news organization, the bill now defines "journalism" to focus more on the function of the job: "the gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing,...; Tags: Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-05-08
Senate subpoenas Gonzales' emails with Rove: Senators subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales emails today, demanding all email correspondence between him and Karl Rove related to the firings of eight federal prosecutors, The Washington Post reports. "It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committees inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick...; Tags: Justice, Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-05-02
Anti spyware bill faces controversy over limiting citizens' ability to sue: Stupid congressional acronyms reached a new level with the introduction in the House of the SPY ACT, standing for Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act. This may be the first use of the second person in federal law. In any case, the bill is controversial for reasons other...; Tags: Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-04-27
Malicious email opened doors to State computers for hackers: Testifying at a House hearing today, a security coordinator for the State Departments Bureau of Diplomatic Security, revealed that hackers obtained entry to State Dept. systems after an employee opened a mysterious email, AP reports. In the first public account revealing details about the intrusion and the governments hurried...; Tags: Government technology, Congress, Security; Blog posts 2007-04-19

House looks into 'bad' Chinese attacks on State, Commerce systems: A House subcommittee is holding a hearing tomorrow to try to understand "how deeply" US government computers have been penetrated by foreign forces and whether the governments IT response so far is adequate, ComputerWorld reports. "The purpose of this hearing is to afford [House members] the opportunity...; Tags: Security, International, Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-04-18
Who believes White House emails were lost?: Writing in ComputerWorld, Steve Duplessie attacks the "lost" White House emails surrounding the US Attorneys flap. He says the claims that the emails were lost is just a "smokescreen." If the White House is telling Congress it lost those questionable e-mails, that means the mail client that authored the...; Tags: Justice, Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-04-16
White House accused of using private email accounts to escape scrutiny: If, say, Intel was unable to come with critical emails to meet the discovery demands of a lawsuit brought by, say, AMD, for the reason that some executives sent emails about company business over Hotmail or Yahoo instead of Intels mail servers ... wouldnt you find that suspicious? "It just...; Tags: Congress, Government technology; Blog posts 2007-04-12
Feds get C- security grade but Defense fails, DHS gets a D: The conventional wisdom is that the federal government deserves failing grades for computer security. After all, the big VA breach of a year ago has been followed by many more stories of agencies losing computers, suffering data breaches and failing to encrypt sensitive data. Today a House committee handed out...; Tags: Congress, Security, IT Management, Government technology; Blog posts 2007-04-12
Frank calls for repeal of net gambling law, coordinated US-EU regs: Calling an online gambling ban "one of the stupidest things I ever saw," Rep. Barney Frank called today for a lift on the ban, but said it was too early for concrete steps, The Associated Press reports. "I want to get it undone. I plan to file legislation," Barney...; Tags: Government technology, Congress, International; Blog posts 2007-04-12
Push for full 911 access for VoIP providers: Emergency dispatchers and Vonage urged senators this week to pass a bill that would ensure that all VoIP customers can dial 911, InfoWorld reports. The IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act was introduced in January by Sen. Bill Nelson to fix those problems. The bill would...; Tags: State &, Local Govt, Government technology, Emergency, Congress; Blog posts 2007-04-11
FTC moving slowly on spyware and spam: As part of the FTCs budgetary request, the agency trumpeted its pursuit of spyware and spam. But, writes Ars Technica, the FTCs prosecution of online abuses has been anemic. Testimony from FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras revealed that in the last two years, the Commission has taken action...; Tags: Law enforcement, Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-04-11
Congressional hearings now safe for the Web: Following a report in the New York Times ZD Government post here that video of US House and Senate hearings are actually the intellectual property of C-Span, which uses its own equipment to record the sessions by agreement with the government, programmer Carl Malamud hacked up a way to capture...; Tags: Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-02-27
GAO rips US-VISIT program, lawmakers are seething: According to a GAO report PDF released in February, the Department of Homeland Securitys US-VISIT programs costs are spiraling out of control "without any accompanying explanation of the reasons," Wired News reports. Randy Hite, the author of the GAO report, described US-VISIT as a plane flying aimlessly. "Were asking...; Tags: Government technology, Homeland security, Congress; Blog posts 2007-02-27
Who owns Congressional video - public or C-Span?: Who owns video footage of Congress? The public or C-Span? It turns out, both. But this copyright question was clarified in typical Washington sniping. The issue exploded when Nancy Pelosi launched a blog, The Gavel, featuring video of House floor debate. As The New York Times reports, Republicans rushed...; Tags: Congress, Government technology; Blog posts 2007-02-26
Another politician comes out against child predators: Its somewhat ironic that Illinois state Sen. Matt Murphy is using an online chat to promote his bill to ban MySpace, Facebook and personal blogs from computers in public libraries and schools, the IL Daily Herald reports. Murphy is hosting an online chat tomorrow at 5:30 CST on his...; Tags: Congress, Government technology, State &, Local Govt; Blog posts 2007-02-21
Townhall technology lets lawmakers talk to masses from DC: Technology that can connect thousands of people on a single phone call is letting US representatives like Kansas Jerry Moran reach out and touch their constituents without having to leave Washington, the AP reports. A “tele-town hall meeting” lets lawmakers call up to 35,000 households in their district at...; Tags: Congress, Government technology, State &, Local Govt; Blog posts 2007-02-14
Bill wants online, sat broadcasters to deploy DRM: Democrats and Republicans are cosponoring yet another bill that requires technology companies to deploy DRM technology that would hamstring their users legal uses of copyright material in order to prop up the Hollywoods business models. Under the Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music PERFORMAct, reintroduced today...; Tags: Government technology, Congress; Blog posts 2007-01-11
H-1B debate: Immigrants key to tech startups: Indian and Chinese immigrants are a huge part of the technology startup story. Everybody knows this intuitively. Now a study from UC Berkeley and Duke researchers finds that fully 25 percent of tech and engineering companies launched since 1995 had at least one foreign-born founder. According to the study, immigrant-founded...; Tags: immigrant, H-1B, Congress, Government technology; Blog posts 2007-01-04
Jennings brings e-voting claim to Congress: Christine Jennings, the presumptive loser in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, is officially contesting the race results in Congress, alleging widespread voting machine irregularities, Congressional Quarterly reports. The House Administration Committee will decide whether to proceed with an investigation of the complaint. Since the 109th Congress is over, the...; Tags: Jennings&rsquo, Christine Jennings, Elections, Congress, Government technology; Blog posts 2006-12-22