FISMA

Bringing ‘Sexy’ Back To CyberScope

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The recent GFIRST Conference – a forum for incident response and security teams – covered the gamut of security topics with a surprisingly colorful and entertaining array of session titles. While my session title, “Continuous Monitoring 2.0” , may have lacked the bedazzle factor of “Hack the database…and other cocktail party tricks”, “Bad Karma Chameleon”, “Welcome to McSecurity, would you like fries with your scan?”, it did capture audience sentiment about the government’s CyberScope initiative and the push for continuous network monitoring.

So what’s causing the angst among federal IT security managers about CyberScope’s current state of play? Keep reading →

 /  Published October 18, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Technology Renders Privacy Laws Obsolete

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E-mail, the World Wide Web, social media, and the cloud have led to outdated privacy laws that have left federal officials perplexed about how to collect and use information about citizens, even those suspected of crimes.

The Government Accountability Office’s latest of several reports on the issue recommends Congress act to update federal law to align with modern technologies. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 21, 2012 at 9:00 AM

DHS Reports Gains In Adopting Cloud Services

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To mark the June 9, 2012, completion milestone for Federal IT reform, I am pleased to highlight several DHS initiatives. Our focus includes shifting to a cloud-first policy, establishing strong governance of the Department’s IT investments, and the implementation of TechStats.
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This article originally appeared as a blog post on the Federal CIO Council’s website. For more news and insights on innovations at work in government, please sign up for the AOL Gov newsletter. For the quickest updates, follow us on Twitter @AOLgov.
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DHS is establishing a strong foundation for cloud computing services, shifting to a cloud model that will allow Components to quickly acquire services for their business and mission needs. DHS currently has 12 cloud services available to its customers. Nine are provided in the DHS Private Cloud:

  • Authentication as a Service (AUTHaaS)
  • Business Intelligence as a Service (BIaaS)
  • Case and Relationship Management as a Service (CRMaaS)
  • Development and Test as a Service (DTaaS)
  • Email as a Service (EaaS)
  • Production as a Service (PRDaaS)
  • Project Server as a Service (PSaaS)
  • SharePoint as a Service (SPTaaS)
  • Workplace as a Service (WPaaS)

Three are provided in the DHS Public Cloud: Keep reading →

 /  Published June 19, 2012 at 9:10 AM

Microsoft Debuts Dedicated Cloud Service For Government

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Microsoft officials announced the official debut Wednesday of a new dedicated cloud computing service for government customers in the United States, called Office 365 for Government.

Office 365 for Government is a multi-tenant service that stores US government data in a segregated community cloud. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 31, 2012 at 7:51 AM

Swiss Army Knife Syndrome: The Ever-Expanding Role Of The Federal Sysadmin

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The Swiss Army Knife is a novel invention, a single pocket-sized device that includes everything from a standard knife blade and scissors to corkscrews and laser pointers. What it makes up for in versatility, however, it lacks in effectiveness – the functions themselves are never as good as actual scissors or laser pointers.

The same rule applies to federal systems administrators (sysadmins), who now serve agencies as a professional “Swiss Army Knives.” Thanks to budget cuts and decreasing staffing levels, federal sysadmins have been pushed into more and more roles, including security specialist, storage manager, virtualization manager and many more. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 8, 2012 at 11:47 AM

Intel Now Inside DC’s Metro Map

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Washington area Metro riders may be wondering who changed the names of all of their metro stops. If they work in federal IT, that’s just the reaction executives at electronics giant, Intel, are hoping for.

Intel created an altered version of Washington’s Metro subway map as part of a new advertising campaign in Washington that is catching attention with the region’s riders on the way to work. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 23, 2012 at 7:57 AM

Microsoft Plans Community Cloud For Government Agencies

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Microsoft officials revealed Thursday that the company is planning to develop a new dedicated multi-tenant, government community cloud computing environment.

The move is part of a broadening effort at Microsoft and its public sector division to meet emerging needs among federal agencies whose officials are trying to find faster, more economical and secure ways to migrate parts of their computing operations to the cloud. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 2, 2012 at 4:25 PM

Government Needs a ‘Big Data First’ Initiative

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The White House’s recently launched “Future First” initiative marks a milestone in the federal government’s effort to invigorate the implementation of new technologies. As Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel begins to roll out new initiatives like “Shared Services First,” agencies should ask themselves “What technology will help us better manage systems amidst the current data explosion?”

The answer lies in the ability to handle large volumes of machine-generated data, also known as big data. Agencies need to automate how they manage large volumes of machine data because the growth of data is outpacing human capacity to monitor and understand its relevance. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 24, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Beyond Data Center Consolidation: Reducing Government’s Digital Footprint

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The Federal government is now on track to close 1,080 data centers by 2015 among 3,133 in operation as part of a broader administration effort to reduce duplicative spending and to do more with less.

Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel, however, has signaled a new emphasis on doing “more” — by investing in technology creatively–rather than focusing primarily “on the less” that is typically associated with cuts, including data center closures. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 5, 2012 at 12:30 PM

What GAO Security Investigators Plan To Examine In 2012

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What would happen if patients with implanted, wireless-controlled, medical devices suddenly learned the technology had been hacked?

And who’s really watching out for consumer privacy as location information from their mobile devices is getting swept by up a growing number of companies? Keep reading →

 /  Published December 5, 2011 at 4:26 PM
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