Former Microsoft contractor Ed Curry says that the company deliberately misledgovernment buyers
A Texas software engineer gave the Defense Department documents that he said prove that Microsoft Corp. is conducting a campaign to mislead the government about the security certification status of Microsoft Windows NT. Ed Curry, whose now-defunct company worked with Microsoft to obtain the National Security Agency's C2 certification for NT 3.5 during the mid-1990s, met earlier this month with Richard Schaeffer, director of information assurance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
GAO: Defense must trim $180 million from IT
The Defense Department should cut $180 million in information technology programs from its fiscal 1999 budget, the General Accounting Office said in a report to Congress. GAO wrote the report after reviewing DOD's procurement and research, development, test and evaluation programs, looking for ways to reduce Defense's budget request. It is also considering potential rescissions to appropriations in past years.
NT critic gets audience with DOD chieftains
Not every software engineer gets a meeting with Defense Department brass. But a Texas man has made it his personal crusade to warn DOD that current versions of Microsoft Windows NT are not secure enough operating systems for the department—and DOD has decided to hear him out. Ed Curry, a contract engineer for Xplore Technologies Inc. of Georgetown, Texas, will meet tomorrow with Richard Schaeffer, director of information assurance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
U.S., four nations agree on security evaluation criteria
Say goodbye to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Federal Information Processing Standard 140-1 and the National Security Agency's Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria. Five countries last week signed a new international agreement covering the evaluation of computer security products and systems that will ultimately replace NIST's FIPS 140-1 and NSA's Orange Book.
Navy app unites commanders
The Navy has developed a tool that will help the services plan and coordinate joint theater air and missile defenses against ballistic and tactical missile attacks. The Area Air Defense Commander module is designed to provide a single, integrated picture of the battlespace so that a joint commander can quickly gather data on air and missile attacks and defend against them. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is developing AADC for the
Defense wipes sensitive data from its Web sites
What DOD agencies must ditch Plans or lessons learned that reveal military operations, exercises or vulnerabilities Information on troop movements Personal data such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses and home telephone numbers Any identifying information about a DOD employee's family members A scramble is under way at Defense Department offices worldwide to remove information posted on DOD Web sites that might compromise national security or put Defense personnel at risk.
DOD directive pushes single radio system with programmable software technology
The Defense Department has put the brakes on the military services' multiple radio programs in favor of a single family of radio communications systems that will incorporate programmable software technology. Arthur Money, the senior civilian official in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence, late last month issued a directive to service acquisition executives banning the services from developing or buying tactical radio systems. Money said DOD wants to
GAO criticizes DISA's fee-for-service operations
The Defense Information Systems Agency is not adequately managing mainframe systems at Defense Department megacenters and other systems services it provides on a fee-for-service basis, according to a new General Accounting Office report. DISA provides a wide range of information technology products and services to Defense agencies and the services. But GAO auditors found that DISA sets improper prices for IT services.
Navy sets course to manage its human resource data
The Navy is developing an integrated system based on human resources software from PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., that will serve as the single point of data entry for all the service's pay and personnel records. Using PCs, clerks will access personnel and disbursing functions now performed by separate systems and offices. The Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System is designed to collect, collate and analyze data on the service's active, Reserve and retired
DOD's new paperless buying system gets first use in Army
The Army Space and Missile Defense Command contract office in Huntsville, Ala., is the first Defense Department organization to fully implement the department's paperless procurement system. The command, which spends almost $2 billion each year on R&D and services, declared the Standard Procurement System fully operational late last month after DOD's Office of Operational Test and Evaluation reviewed the installation.
As security step, DOD to limit Web postings
To reduce the chances of terrorists gaining access to information that could threaten national security, the Defense Department plans to set limits on what can be posted on DOD Web sites. Deputy Defense secretary John Hamre is expected soon to issue a memorandum to the services and Defense agencies that lays out strict guidelines on what kinds of information DOD offices can post.
AF factory develops software
IT will be key element in Air Force's deployment of expeditionary forces. MONTGOMERY, Ala.—A 9-month-old software factory at the Air Force's Standard Systems Group is helping the service cut the time and money it spends developing and maintaining software. SSG's factory at Gunter Annex has about 700 employees and develops, tests and maintains Air Force combat support applications.
Navy makes personnel moves with IT in mind
Navy secretary John Dalton this month named Dan Porter to take over as the service's chief information officer. Porter, the former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations for logistics, replaced Ann Miller and began work last week. Miller is now only the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, electronic warfare and space programs, or DASN(C4I). She had held both posts.
Air Force wants to keep most IT staffs stateside
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va.—The Air Force last week kicked off Expeditionary Force Experiment '98 with the unveiling of a $1 million command and control operations center. The rear operations support center, run by the Air and Space Command and Control Agency at Langley, is part of the service's new distributed C2 concept. Packed with more than 150 computers and with a staff of 250, the ROSC is the electronic nerve center from which a joint
Supercomputers make new aircraft simulations fly
Technicians at a state-of-the-art modeling and simulation facility at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Md., are using high-performance computers to help develop and test advanced aircraft and weapons systems. The Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility, managed by the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division, is colocated with a supercomputer center built as part of the Defense Department's $1.3 billion High-Performance Computing Modernization Program. The HPC Center processes data for ACETEF at the
GAO finds that systems glitches lead
The Defense Department is unwittingly selling to the public surplus parts containing sensitive military technology, the General Accounting Office said recently. When DOD buys spare parts for aircraft, ships, vehicles and weapons, the department assigns a code to the parts to indicate whether they contain sensitive military technology. But Defense has a history of assigning the wrong demilitarization codes to the parts and selling them anyway, a GAO report said.
IG berates Space Command
"SPACECOM may be unable to fully execute its mission." The Defense Department's growing reliance on space-based information systems could be compromised if the U.S. Space Command doesn't get a handle on its year 2000 problem, the DOD inspector general said. SPACECOM, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and its component commands haven't taken steps to minimize the impact bad date code could have on their mission-critical systems, the IG said in an audit last
Services agree on a proposal for modeling architecture
JMASS is a tool box that lets you build simulations. The Army, Navy and Air Force last month approved an operational requirements document that could result in a common simulation and modeling architecture. The document outlines the elements needed for the Joint Modeling and Simulation System and provides a framework for analyzing the engineering, design, testing and evaluation of weapons systems the Defense Department wants to buy.
Air Force installs servers for top-secret DMS mail
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—The Standard Systems Group here at Gunter Annex will host two high-performance servers to provide Defense Message System top-secret-level services to about 1,000 Air Force users servicewide. Air Force officials have decided there is not sufficient demand among the service's DMS users to warrant the installation of top-secret servers at each base, SSG officials said.
Defense rethinks Y2K strategy
The Defense Department admits it isn't fixing date code quickly enough, according to its latest quarterly report to the Office of Management and Budget. DOD systems aren't being repaired fast enough to meet the department's own deadlines, deputy Defense secretary John Hamre told OMB Director Jacob Lew in a letter Aug. 17.
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