Faxes are low on Army's priorities list
Congress wants the Army to replace thousands of fax machines with new fax technology, but the Army envisions the digital battlefield of the future as one without fax machines. The Senate Armed Services Committee requested a report from the Army on the future of secure fax machines, including the cost of replacing legacy systems in the fiscal 1998 Defense Authorization Act. The Army, however, told the committee that fax technology doesn't play a big part in
White House sets up systems protection plan
The Clinton administration by year's end will complete its plan for protecting the nation's infrastructures from cyberattack, administration officials said. Clinton last month issued Presidential Decision Directive 63, which called for a national plan for infrastructure protection. The directive established the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, which calls for interim security capability by 2000 and full infrastructure security in five years.
IG confirms: DMS will need AUTODIN for backup
The Defense Department inspector general this month confirmed what DOD officials have been saying for months: The Defense Message System will not fully replace AUTODIN by 2000. In a report, Readiness of the Defense Message System to Replace the Automatic Digital Network, the office of the IG concluded that DMS won't be ready on time to replace some critical AUTODIN messaging functions, including classified message processing and emergency action messages. The AUTODIN contract expires December of
DOD brass expect some date code systems failures
Senior Defense Department officials have acknowledged that the department will not have all its systems year 2000-ready on time. Even systems that DOD has renovated and tested might fail come Jan. 1, 2000, Hamre said, and the failure of one system could affect others. "I will be the first to say that we are in for some nasty surprises," he said.
DISN leads to series of additional Defense telecommunications buys
The Defense Information Systems Network program has spawned smaller telecommunications projects for Defense Department users. Besides a large DOD-wide support contract—DISN Network Management Support Services-Global—that the Defense Information Systems Agency expects to award later this year, DISA also wants to build a metropolitan area network to support users in the Washington area.
Cohen calls for better NATO communications
Better interoperability between U.S. and NATO military systems must be achieved to prepare for the next century, Defense Secretary William Cohen told U.S. allies last month. Cohen spoke to his counterparts at the North Atlantic Council Defense Ministerial in Brussels, Belgium, where he laid out his plans for meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
GAO: Army needs to improve its 2000 program
Inaccurate data, incomplete interface agreements and poorly defined testing requirements are hampering the Army's year 2000 date code repair program, a General Accounting Office report said. Last month's GAO report, Defense Computers: Army Needs to Greatly Strengthen Its Year 2000 Program, warns that the service's mission-critical systems could become disabled if the Army doesn't better manage its year 2000 efforts.
It's curtains for the Ada Joint Program Office
The Defense Information Systems Agency is closing its Ada Joint Program Office, leaving the future of the Defense Department software language in doubt. The office, which employs about 10 vendors and has an annual operating budget of approximately $4 million, will close in late September. The decision comes a little more than a year after Emmett Paige Jr., then-assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, killed a long-standing mandate that DOD programmers use Ada
Broad DMS requirements set
Specifications for the Defense Message System medium-assurance requirements will be inclusive enough to attract competitive vendors, a program official said last month. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Defense Information Systems Agency came up with the requirements. DISA has yet to approve the task force specifications, but Dawn Hartley, DISA's chief engineer, said the specs will be open and broad enough to attract commercial vendors.
NIMA: We need more money
Congressional budget cuts are hampering efforts to digitize data, officials of the national Imagery and Mapping Agency officials said recently. NIMA has been controversial since Congress created the agency in October 1996, and Congress is apparently not convinced NIMA is necessary, the officials said. NIMA, managed by the Defense Department, failed to get full funding for this fiscal year. NIMA's budget is classified, but agency officials said Congress slashed about $100 million from its programs--most
Unisys and whistle-blower face off in PC fraud lawsuit
A 2-year-old whistle-blower lawsuit, which alleges Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. bilked the Navy on sales of custom PCs to the service, is poised for its day in court--even though the government has never acknowledged that fraud occurred. The U.S. District Court in Minneapolis recently agreed to hear the case, which a former Unisys employee filed in January 1996.
DOD halts ATM buys, pending standards OKs
The Defense Department earlier this month banned the buying of asynchronous transfer mode systems and services until DOD drafts ATM standards. But DOD might approve the standards and lift the ban within a matter of days, a DOD official said last week. Arthur Money, the department's designee for the assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence post, has halted all ATM buys until the Defense Information Systems Agency produces specifications, certification requirements
IT helps Navy manage bases - Pilot ATM intranet links security, administrativesystems and cuts costs
The Navy hopes a pilot called Smart Base will help it run its bases less expensively and more efficiently. Smart Base, which uses an asynchronous transfer mode intranet to consolidate base-level operations, would incorporate smart cards, bar codes and cameras at security gates and other automated systems to reduce staff and manage administrative tasks.
Justice aims to block merger
The Justice Department is suing to block an $11.6 billion merger between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. on the grounds that it would stifle competition for military contracts and raise the price tags on critical Defense Department systems. Justice filed the anti-trust lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington late last month after negotiations broke down between the government and Lockheed Martin. If the merger is successful, the defense industry will be left
DOD: IT spending rolls along
The Defense Department will spend $12.3 billion on information technology this year. That's 40 percent of what the department will spend on its command, control, communications and computers programs. DOD officials said that they expect IT projects will continue to dominate C4 spending next year as well. DOD estimates it will spend $12.4 billion--roughly $10 billion for its basic systems budget and additional funds for selected command and control systems--in fiscal 1999.
Navy seeks servicewide deals to cut software license costs
The Navy is working to negotiate as many servicewide license agreements as possible with its existing software vendors to get the lowest possible prices on software, maintenance and support. Navy and Novell Inc. in late January signed the Navy's first-ever enterprisewide licensing agreement, which covers all Novell products on the General Services Administration schedule. The multiyear agreement includes maintenance and telephone support for the Navy and Marine Corps.
Army opens up and says aah
To unify its eclectic mix of servers and client systems, the Army is adopting a standard, open systems architecture. "We have to embrace open systems standards that allow the entire computer industry to compete for our business," said Lt. Gen. William Campbell, the Army's director of information systems for command, control, communications and computers.
Air Force bolsters net security
Despite recent hacker attacks, Air Force officials said they are confident that commercial security products can create a highly secure network and protect it from attacks over the Internet. The $1 billion Combat Information Transport System, which will be used at 108 air bases around the world, is undergoing modernization. The security products will protect the external connections to the redesigned CITS network.
Navy urges use of the Net for most data comm
Though security concerns recently led the Air Force to limit Internet use, the Navy is encouraging online data exchange for most communications. A joint message issued late last month by the Pacific and Atlantic fleets established an Internet policy promoting the widest permissible use of systems to access the Internet, surf the World Wide Web and communicate through Internet e-mail.
FBI suspects two teens in DOD systems attack
The FBI is investigating whether two California youths are the culprits behind a hack attack that breached 11 Defense Department systems last month, an FBI official said. "We did two searches on [Feb. 25], and we seized hardware, software, printers and other peripherals," said George Grotz, an FBI spokesman in the agency's San Francisco office.
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