CSC


“The unthinkable has become thinkable,” a senior federal procurement official declared today as agencies consider new technology solutions in the face of increasingly stark budget choices.

“Five years ago, decisions we would not touch,” such as giving up control over agency IT systems,” today are on the plate and (we are) seriously considering,”said Mark Day (pictured at left above), director for Strategic Solutions the General Service Administration‘s Integrated Technology Services, a part of the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. Keep reading →

Is the FBI trying to kill the use of cloud email services by local law enforcement agencies? Los Angeles, the first big city customer to adopt Google Apps for Government, now says the service cannot meet FBI security requirements. But is the FBI really at fault?

Google and the City of Los Angeles agreed to pull the plug on their very public, two-year struggle to deploy Google Apps for Government (GAFG) at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In a document dated Dec. 9, 2011, city officials blamed the failed deployment on FBI information security rules which, they allege, make it impossible to deploy cloud email services like Gmail to law enforcement agencies.
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This article was reprinted by permission of SafeGov.org.
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If this assessment is correct, local police and sheriff departments across the country who are considering Google Apps or comparable cloud services may be in for a rude awakening similar to the one that Los Angeles faces today. Keep reading →

Former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden, in an open question to the nation, wonders: “The government warns Americans about health, pollution, weather and other threats. Why not cyber threats?”

In an opinion column published by Federal Computer Week Dec. 9, Hayden, and co-authors Samuel Visner and David Zolet, executives at CSC, suggest: “Washington should begin sharing cyber warnings with those responsible for America’s critical infrastructure, from hospitals to water systems to banks.” Keep reading →

Back in the 1830s, most Americans lived on farms. Many probably secured their life savings in their trusty mattress. Then a new local bank opens in town promising more security, but has no track record to prove it. People didn’t trust the bank at first; it was new to the area and skeptical farmers felt it was not intrinsically secure.

“Now fast forward to the cloud,” cloud expert and blogger Kevin Jackson said last week as a panelist at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cloud Computing Forum IV. Keep reading →

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is no stranger to the government technology community. As founder and managing director of Columbia Capital, a venture capital firm, he helped found or invest in a number of technology companies, including Nextel.

So it was a logical leap when Warner reached out to the Northern Virginia Technology Council in 2010, asking for recommendations for remedying the major record-keeping deficiencies discovered at Arlington National Cemetery. Keep reading →