government technology and u.s. department of homeland security

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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

DHS locates advanced forensics lab in AL

The Department of Homeland Security is opening a forensic crime lab in Alabama, Information Week reports. The new National Computer Forensic Institute will emphasize digital evidence analysis, according to a Department of Homeland Security release. The Secret Service - an investigator into financial and cyber crime - will...

Tags: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, training

Blog posts 2007-03-13

Datamining program violated privacy laws

The Department of Homeland Security has violated privacy laws in the testing of an aggressive data-mining program, a forthcoming Government Accountability Office reports says. The Washington Post reports that the GAO found that DHS researchers used citizens real information instead of fake data in testing the ADVISE program. ADVISE...

Tags: Privacy, Government technology, Homeland security

Blog posts 2007-02-28

Report: DHS must complete privacy assessments

The Homeland Security Department is not doing enough to protect personal information within its computer systems, Government Computer News reports on DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinners report. The department has performed draft assessments of most of its computer systems, but only 23 percent of those assessments of...

Tags: Government technology, Homeland security, Privacy

Blog posts 2007-02-23

DHS' Garcia: Network security is everyone's business

On Between the Lines, Dan Farber reports back from the RSA 2007 Conference, where Greg Garcia, the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications, described the security problems inherent in a totally IP-connected world. "The next ten years there will be a single integrated IP network...

Tags: Government technology, Homeland security, Network security, Greg Garcia

Blog posts 2007-02-08

EU is now fine with DHS risk assessment profile program

After balking over the Department of Homeland Securitys Automated Targeting System - a computerized screening program that creates risk assessment profiles of some 90 million passengers who enter the US - the European Union yesterday said its concerns were mollified by US officials, The Washington Post reports. An...

Tags: SECURITY, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, risk assessment, agreement

Blog posts 2007-01-12

EFF sues DHS over risk assessment data collection

The Department of Homeland Securitys Automated Targeting System ATS has come under fire after a notice in the Federal Register revealed that the agency was creating "risk assessments" of air travelers. The latest fuel on that fire is a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the...

Tags: Privacy, Homeland security, Government technology, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Blog posts 2006-12-19

EU concerned over traveler profiling

The European Commission raised concerns about DHS screening program that creates risk profiles for every air traveler. Commissioners requested confirmation from the US that data shared is handled in accordance with a pact the EU and US signed in October, The Washington Post reports. Vice President Franco Frattini...

Tags: DHS, Government technology

Blog posts 2006-12-14

DHS Secure Border cost could hit $30 billion

The Dept. of Homeland Security inspector general says that the high-tech "virtual fence" on the Mexican border is likely to cost not $2 billion but as much as $30 billion, The Washington Post reports. The problem with the plan to deploy sensors, cameras and drones is likely...

Tags: Government technology, DHS, Contracting, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Blog posts 2006-11-17

IG launches in-depth review of DHS Advise program

The Department of Homeland Security is rolling out a $40 million plan to datamine to find terrorist threat information. Called Advise - which of course stands for Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement - the program is now facing intense scrutiny from the departments inspector general, Government Computer News...

Tags: Business intelligence, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, data mining

Blog posts 2006-11-15

Additional Resources

NSA will monitor private-sector networks

The Bushization of Obama continues with a plan to involve the NSA in screening private-sector networks, The Washington Post reports. The plan not only uses the NSA to monitor private networks but it does so in a way that makes it unclear who exactly is in charge...

Tags: Monitor, Network, AT&T Corp., U.S. Department Of Homeland Security, NSA, Post Story, Privacy Advocate, Networking, Telecom & Utilities, Telecommunications, Security, Richard Koman

Blog posts 2009-07-06

Review: Feds provide a handy window into their IT spending

The Federal IT Dashboard, a tool that puts the government's technology spending on display, is a handy overview of agency spending that provides a few "did you know" moments. The IT Dashboard is an effort by the U.S. government to be more transparent about spending. And when...

Tags: Agency, Information Technology, Window, IT-spending, IT Dashboard, Advertising & Promotion, Government, Marketing, Larry Dignan

Blog posts 2009-06-30

General: NSA doesn't want to control cybersecurity

As the 60-day cybersecurity review draws to a close, NSA director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander told the RSA conference that the agency has no desire to strip responsibility from the Department of Homeland Security, Cnet's Declan McCullagh reports. Although NSA "has tremendous technical abilities" and...

Tags: Cybersecurity, NSA, Security, Richard Koman

Blog posts 2009-04-22

Can the U.S. CTO avoid being steamrolled by bureaucracy?

There has been a lot of chatter about President Elect Barack Obama's plan to name a U.S. chief technology officer and the biggest challenge for anyone who takes the job is this: How do you avoid being consumed by a bulky bureaucratic machine known as the government? ...

Tags: Eric Schmidt, CTO, Bureaucracy, Government, Vertical Industries, Hardware Upgrade, Advertising & Promotion, Enterprise Software, Software, Hardware, Marketing, Larry Dignan

Blog posts 2008-11-09

Foreign governments attack White House, Obama, McCain campaign systems

Hmm, anyone want to place bets on what "foreign entity" has been hacking into Obama and McCain campaign computers, as Newsweek reports? Could it be the same country China that penetrated the White House's email archive system and lifted email conversation between top officials, as the Financial Times reports? ...

Tags: Network, White House, Attack, Obama, Government, Phishing, E-mail, Hacking, Federal Government, Vertical Industries, Security, Cyberthreats, Spam And Phishing, Online Communications, Enterprise Software, Software, Richard Koman

Blog posts 2008-11-07

DHS still doesn't quite get this cybersecurity thing

The Department of Homeland Security is still lacking in the cybersecurity department, according to a bevy of critics. What's galling is that the DHS' inadequacies are barely news anymore. Here's what would be a real news flash: "DHS locks down cybersecurity. Hackers locked out!" Perhaps I'm cynical...

Tags: U.S. Department Of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity, Intelligence Community, Security, Larry Dignan

Blog posts 2008-09-17

Hacking SCADA for terrorism and destruction

SCADA scares me, and I've seen enough things on the Internet to be desensitized to many things, but attacks against SCADA threaten our national security in a very real and topical way by attacking power grids, water treatment plants, nuclear plants, etc.  Hacking networks that SCADA devices reside on and...

Tags: Device, Hacking, Internet, Network, SCADA, Terrorism, Attack, Enterprise Software, Software, Nathan McFeters

Blog posts 2008-06-12

Microsoft acquires rootkit specialist Komoku; DoD now a customer

Microsoft on Thursday acquired Komoku, which provides rootkit detection software, for an undisclosed sum. Komoku's technology will be added to Microsoft's enterprise-focused Forefront and Windows Live OneCare security software. Komoku counts the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense as customers and gives Microsoft's anti-malware...

Tags: Microsoft Corp., U.S. Department Of Defense, Komoku, Rootkits, Security, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Larry Dignan

Blog posts 2008-03-20

Surveillance society needs privacy safeguards

Writing in the Washington Post, Frank Baitman, of the British-based Petards Group, which develops advanced surveillance systems, says that the time has come for some federal legislation on how surveillance images are captured, stored and shared. As an increasingly sophisticated surveillance blanket covers more of the United...

Tags: Baitman, Britain, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Richard Koman, U.S., Video, Video Surveillance

Blog posts 2008-02-12

Silicon Valley, green tech and the mystery of it all

There's another attempt by an observer to capture the essence, the source, of Silicon Valley's success at chruning out new, and sometimes successful ideas. his one happens to be from an East Coast newspaper. Bemused but impressed is the usual attitude of those who live outside the halo...

Tags: Silicon Valley, Facebook, Apple iPod, Green Technology, Article, Apple Inc., Story, Microsoft Corp., Lucasfilms, Harry Fuller

Blog posts 2007-10-26