Administration to relax digital signature policy
Officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are gathering public comments aboutadding commercial public-key algorithms to DSS, which now prescribes the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA). The Commerce Department in 1994 issued DSS as a mandatory Federal Information Processing Standard for verifying the senders and contents of electronic messages.
GSA tips its hat to 1997's top trail bosses
GSA also honored three other trail bosses for special achievements at the agency's recent Trail Boss Roundup in Norfolk, Va. Established in 1988, Trail Boss is GSA's governmentwide education program for preparing senior information technology managers to handle major systems acquisitions. The program stresses team management concepts and open communications between government buyers and contractors.
GSA awards 3 Virtual Data Center contracts
With data center closings and consolidations slated to begin next year, the General Services Administration last week awarded a trio of contracts to provide agencies with ADP outsourcing options. Computer Sciences Corp. and two teams-Unisys Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services of Dallas, along with GTE Corp. and SunGard Data Systems Inc. of Philadelphia-each won multiyear contracts to offer data center services to agencies on a task-order basis. These indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts
New survey reveals agency e-mail flaws
Though agencies rated e-mail as their most cost-effective communications tool, most federal messaging systems do not meet the White House's business-quality standard, a new General Services Administration survey found. The Electronic Messaging Program Management Office's survey takes a sweeping view of the messaging and mail applications used throughout the government. Interestingly, small federal agencies reported a wider e-mail user base than the larger departments.
Agencies miss Jan. 1 EDI goal
The president's deadline for agencies to use electronic commerce for most buys came and went on Jan. 1. Now the administration is re-evaluating its stance and revamping its plans for online buying. Originally, President Clinton had wanted all agencies to be using a government electronic data interchange network for the bulk of their procurement activities by this year. But the deadline passed with little fanfare and with most agencies still experimenting with different online buying techniques.
FAR Council issues a year 2000 amendment
To avoid a millennium meltdown, federal buying chiefs have created a new procurement rule ordering agencies to buy only those information technology products that are guaranteed to work into the next century. The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council has approved an interim rule that requires all government agencies to be sure that any commercial hardware or software products that they buy can perform date and time processing tasks after Dec. 31, 1999.
For Inauguration, your key to the city is a smart card
As he takes his Inauguration Day trip down Pennsylvania Avenue, President Clinton will lead a parade of smart card users. The General Services Administration, which provides the technical and security support services for the Inauguration, has outfitted Presidential Inauguration Committee members and White House employees with smart cards as part of its security and inventory management system.
Task force says DOD must spend $3 billion on InfoSec
The government needs to pump $3 billion into the Defense Department budget to fortify the nation's information infrastructure against hackers, terrorists and other information warfare threats, a DOD task force has recommended. In the report issued this month, a Defense Science Board task force said these funds would cover the establishment of a central information warfare operations center, the creation of a joint office for system, network and infrastructure design, and other costs to carry out
Agencies grapple with who's in charge of IT
HERSHEY, Pa.--Although federal agencies were supposed to appoint chief information officers with full authority over systems, eight agencies with CIOs still have their systems shops reporting to other officials. For now, the Office of Management and Budget intends to leave these organizational set-ups alone, said John A. Koskinen, deputy OMB director for management.
GSBCA quietly ends reign as protest venue
There was no final information technology protest rush at the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals. Laptops Inc. filed the final protest with the board six days before GSBCA closed its doors to IT bid protests. If the case proceeds along a normal course, the protest of a Census Bureau solicitation for notebook computers as overly restrictive will be the final decision issued by the board, GSBCA staff said.
Employee claims GSA owes him a million bucks
A General Services Administration employee is trying to get the agency to pay him around $1 million that he claims he earned in an employee suggestion program. Salvatore D. Ales, a GSA contracting specialist, has filed a grievance against agency officials, saying they owe him a cash award for devising a price negotiation tactic that saved the government millions of dollars on its FTS 2000 contracts.
For better grade in final exam on 2000, study up
Don't let the House's recent tough grading of agency plans for dealing with year 2000 systems fixes get you down. Instead, seek help available from government sources. If the grades handed out last month by Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) are any indication--only four based on a survey of 24 agencies--federal organizations need a hand identifying and planning conversion work for code upgrades to handle dates when Jan. 1, 2000 rolls around.
GSA to shutter data centers; Unisys gets jobs
The General Services Administration will shut its three main data centers and turn future work over to Unisys Corp. GSA officials will use the agency's present GSA Systems (GSAS) contract with Unisys as the vehicle for outsourcing the mostly mainframe applications that support the Public Buildings Service and the Federal Supply Service.
Ready or not, agency data centers face cuts
Although most agencies failed to meet last week's deadline for submitting data center consolidation plans to the Office and Management and Budget, OMB will move forward and set systems budgets for 1997 based on fewer centers. Agencies will not receive formal penalties for tardy submissions. But OMB officials said they are ""serious about consolidation'' and will begin making decisions about fiscal 1997 data center budgets and staffs regardless of whether they have every agency plan.
IT budgets approved, agencies go shopping
After seven months in budget limbo, agencies are poised to leap into a year-end IT shopping spree--for off-the-shelf items at least, vendors and industry analysts predict. But agencies are likely to keep some of their biggest information technology acquisitions on ice until late summer, when the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals finally cedes its jurisdiction over IT bid protests to the General Accounting Office.
Veterinary Service takes waiver on DSS, embraces RSA instead
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is the first agency officially to exempt itself from the government's Digital Signature Standard to use commercial signature application. Instead of the mandatory DSS, the Veterinary Service at APHIS will rely on the digital signature program from RSA Data Security Inc. in Redwood City, Calif., already embedded in the forms application the service uses.
Don't expect to see new federal IT standards
Top officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are asking the agency's computer experts to stop devising standards and instead become experts in conformance testing. NIST officials said they will work more closely with industry and standards organizations to design tests to determine whether products comply with standards. Rather than lay down rules, agency officials said, they want to give computer users the tools to become smarter shoppers.
Two-thirds of CIO posts remain vacant
The government's new information technology management scheme takes effect in three months, but so far only five of the 15 Cabinet agencies have named chief information officers as mandated by law. President Clinton ignited the management make-over when he signed the 1996 Defense Authorization Act, which repealed the Brooks Act and eliminated the official IRM executive in each agency. The 1965 Brooks Act put GSA in charge of federal computer procurement and laid out an
IT mostly a winner in '97 budget
In the budget he proposed to Congress last month, President Clinton declared computer investments integral to ending the 1996 budget stalemate and setting priorities for fiscal 1997. Next year, Clinton wants to spend more on the IRS' Tax Systems Modernization, the National Weather Service's forecasting systems, law enforcement systems, and high-performance computing and communications. Although the budget seeks some new money, it would cut IT budgets for the Federal Aviation Administration and the Patent and
Agencies scramble to inventory their data centers by March 1
Exactly how many computers, computer operators, systems programmers and administrative staffers does a modern government data center need? Agencies are scrambling to find out. The final answer is due in June, when all agencies must submit data center consolidation strategies to the Office of Management and Budget. But clues for solving the consolidation riddle are starting to emerge as agencies wrap up work on data center inventory reports due March 1.
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