NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy launched a new public challenge contest Wednesday to generate novel approaches to using “big data” information sets from various U.S. government agencies.
Dr. Suzanne Iacono, senior science advisor for the National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science directorate, made the announcement during an industry forum at the Capitol surrounding the release of a new report on big data in government. Keep reading →
Randy Siegel,a mobile computing executive who has worked with the federal government’s civilian, defense and intelligence agencies on mobile strategies and applications for more than a dozen years, has joined Breaking Gov’s Board of Contributors.
Siegel, who until last month, served as the director of mission critical mobility initiatives at Motorola Solutions, was just named Senior Vice President of U.S. Federal Government sales and strategy for Fixmo, a startup backed by Kleiner Perkins, Motorola Ventures, and other venture capital firms. Fixmo’s mobile risk management technology has been developed as part of a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Security Agency. Keep reading →
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, which collects, analyzes, and disseminates much of the nation’s independent energy information, is making its data available to the public through a new online service for the first time that will allow developers to capture and present electricity data on the web and through mobile applications.
The new application programming interface (API), will give developers access to data on electricity generation, retail sales, and average prices, and the types of fuel that are used to generate electricity at the state and national levels, according to EIA’s Mark Elbert. Electricity generation and fuel consumption data for individual power plants with more than 1 megawatt of capacity also are available. Keep reading →
White House officials brought together dozens of senior government leaders and private sector entrepreneurs Monday, including Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu, to demonstrate how energy data is fueling new products and services aimed at promoting greater energy efficiency in America.
The “Energy Datapalooza“was the latest in a series of White House-sponsored events designed to showcase innovative applications using government data – this one focused on the energy sector – hosted by Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. Keep reading →
As cyber security experts continue to look for more effective ways to deter threats, many see the battle over defending network perimeters has become a lost cause, and that new and more creative approaches are becoming essential.
What’s emerging, according to cyber system specialists in government, academia and industry, is a combination of strategies – some involving game theory, fuzzy logic, big data analytics as well as imposing the risk of costly consequences on attackers. Keep reading →
What began as a simple way to help veterans view their personal health information over the Internet is continuing to snowball into an electronic health record phenomena known as the Blue Button, now used by more than a million patients nationally and gaining wider adoption by certain health care providers.
The Blue Button is a simple piece of software code that the Department of Veteran Affairs developed two years ago, that lets veterans obtain a copy of their medical information electronically.
VA and health industry officials are now exploring ways to expand its adoption, as well as the types of information patients can access.
At a recently concluded consumer health IT summit, Peter Levin, chief technology officer for the VA described how the Blue Button got started and the impact it has had since in serving veterans.
But he and Dr. Farzad Mostashari, who leads the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, also highlighted their vision to grow Blue Button’s user base from “from one million to 10 million to 100 million to the entire country.”
“We want to turn the Blue Button from a noun, to a verb,” said Levin, to a “thing that you do…when you see the Blue Button, you know…you’re going to get your health information.”
Mostashari said he expects immunization records to be accessible via Blue Button in the coming weeks.
But he and Levin said they hope to avoid having distinct types of records added individually.
“You don’t want to do this one at a time,” said Levin. “You’d like to have a methodical way, of not just (adding information) inside government, but most important of all, is doing it outside of government.”Looking ahead, Mostashari said that it is also important to ensure two things happen:
“First, making the information more usable. But not only making sure that its always human readable, for the patient and the family to have immediate access to the information, but also making it machine readable so developers can develop new tools and services.”
U.S. Treasury Department officials doled out $25,000 in cash prizes and announced the winners of the department’s MyMoneyAppUp challenge contest.
The winners were selected from among eight finalists in a final judging session taking place at the Treasury Department and available for viewing live via webcast at 9:00 A.M. EDT Friday. Keep reading →
A top National Security Agency executive argued today that if the nation is to defend against escalating cyber threats, it will be increasingly important for individuals, corporations and institutions, including government, to be held more accountable for their contributions to, and their actions within, cyber space.
At the same time, there are limits to what actions private enterprises can take in protecting their networks, said NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis, speaking at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance forum in Washington. Keep reading →
Citing a near tripling in the number of malicious software programs aimed at mobile devices in less than a year, a Congressional report is recommending the FCC and other federal agencies take a greater role urging private industry to develop stronger mobile security safeguards.
Cyber criminals are taking increasing advantage of inherent weaknesses in mobile devices and the applications that run on them, said Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues for the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress.
Wilshusen, who oversaw the just-released report, said that in less than a year, the number of variants of malware programs has risen from about 14,000 to 40,000, or about 185%, according to figures supplied by Juniper Networks. These threats and attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the design and configuration of mobile devices, as well as the ways consumers use them.
Borrowing insights gleaned from the FBI and the National Science Foundation, six U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation today that would revamp the leadership structure within NASA and U.S. space program.
The Space Leadership Preservation Act, introducedby Reps. John Culberson (TX), Frank Wolf (VA), Bill Posey (FL), Pete Olson (TX), James Sensenbrenner (WI) and Lamar Smith (TX), would create a 10-year term for the NASA Administrator. Keep reading →