Defense Department

New Web2go App Makes Listening To The Web Easy

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A new app for Android devices called, will read your favorite Websites and blogs to you, freeing your hands (via Bluetooth) while driving. But it also holds out a promising solution to those who have difficulty seeing or reading small text on a smartphone or tablet screen.

Available free of charge through the Google Play store, Web2go, developed by Tel Aviv-based Volacent Inc., introduces what the company calls Artificial Reading Intelligence (ARI). ARI allows the application to streamline the reading process so that the app reads only the relevant text in an article, skipping over superfluous information such as long lists of menu items, photo captions on advertisements and other data points that are not part of the story or blog entry. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 11, 2013 at 1:30 PM

DOD, Microsoft Agree To Landmark Enterprise Licensing Deal

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The Defense Department has awarded a first of its kind joint enterprise licensing agreement for Microsoft collaboration, mobility, productivity and security tools. Valued at $617 million, the three-year agreement will allow the Army, Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency to begin using the latest versions of the company’s products.

The agreement creates a single framework providing all three organizations with a single, standardized way to access new Microsoft technologies. The contract also supports top DOD IT goals for data center consolidation, collaboration, cybersecurity, mobility, cloud computing and big data, company officials said in a statement. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 4, 2013 at 4:33 PM

Intelligence Agencies Move Towards Single Super-Cloud

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The intelligence community is developing a single cloud computing network to allow all its analysts to access and rapidly sift through massive volumes of data. When fully complete, this effort will create a pan-agency cloud, with organizations sharing many of the same computing resources and information. More importantly, the hope is the system will break down existing boundaries between agencies and change their insular cultures.

As in the rest of the federal government, lower costs and higher efficiency are the primary reasons for the intelligence world’s shift to cloud computing, said Charles Allen, formerly Under Secretary of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, currently a principal with the Chertoff Group, in an interview with Breaking Defense, an affiliate of Breaking Gov. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM

DoD To Adopt Dutch Public Key System To Support Foreign Military Sales

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The Defense Department is planning to accept a European-developed identification standard that will allow allied military personnel and contractors to access secure military networks under specific circumstances.

Multinational access considerations are part of a draft memo from DOD chief information officer Teresa Takai, said Paul Grant, director of cybersecurity policy in the DOD CIO’s office. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 13, 2012 at 8:00 AM

How In-Q-Tel Helps CIA Scout For Innovative Technology – A Model For Other Agencies?

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US Government agencies often face a Catch-22 trying to adopt innovative technologies: Procurement rules designed to promote fairness can effectively preclude federal buyers from seeing – or influencing – developments that could eventually help agencies work more effectively.

The Defense Department and intelligence agencies, of course, have been fueling innovative technologies on their own for decades. But as commercial markets have exploded with new ideas, and learned to bring those ideas to market with greater speed, government agencies increasingly find themselves racing to keep up with innovations in the commercial sector. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 29, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Government Agencies Balance Mobile Device Management, BYOD

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Mobile device management software is helping federal, state and local governments to keep track of employee handheld devices. But as agency programs grow in size, new challenges such as technology life cycle and migration are beginning to surface. To address these issues, organizations are taking a number of approaches designed to meet their specific needs.

NASA straddles the line between device and data management policies. Unlike defense and intelligence agencies, NASA is an “open organization” founded to share its data with the public, said Adrian Gardner, chief information officer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at the Symantec Government Symposium. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 16, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Cyber Chief Alexander Issues Call For Action; Outlines Who Does What

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The nation’s top military cyber commander offered his version of how government and military agencies are likely to work together when America suffers cyber attacks, and warned that industry needs to take a greater role.

“We have laid out lanes of the road,” Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency said, sketching them out in broad terms for an audience of security professionals yesterday at a symposium in Washington sponsored by Symantec. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 8, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Air Force Information Assurance Team Recognized For Fast-Track Efforts

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This is the last in a series of profiles featuring 2012 U.S. Government Information Security Leadership Award (GISLA) winners. The winners received the awards in October from (ISC)2 a nonprofit serving certified information security professionals and administrators.

As the systems that support space missions continue to grow in scale and complexity, so does the need to keep improving the processes used to assess system vulnerabilities. At the same time, those processes have to remain flexible, reliable and still meet a host of complex continuous monitoring guidelines. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 8, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Army Test Program Equips Top Leaders With Tablets, Smart Phones

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Top military officials are finally getting a chance to see first hand how tablet computers and smartphones other than their trusted BlackBerrys might work in the line of duty.

As part of previously undisclosed program, 200 mobile devices – including iPads, iPhones, Samsung Galaxy tablets and smartphones – have been issued to senior military personnel: 100 to top leadership in the Pentagon and another 100 to key staff at major commands such as Army Cyber Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 1, 2012 at 10:00 AM

How The Defense Department Defends The Use Of Open Source Software

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The use of open source software might seem paradoxical inside the Defense Department or at best, a relatively recent development.

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the government has only recently discovered open source software, said Dan Risacher, associate director for information enterprise strategy and policy in the DOD Chief Information Officer’s office. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 29, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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