Defense Department

DoD Strategy Document Highlights Mobile Adoption Challenges

By

The Defense Department’s release of a new mobile device strategy late last week provides a revealing snapshot of how much work lies ahead for Defense officials in rationalizing the rapid adoption of smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices across the Department. It also highlights the urgent challenge to secure the use of those devices on Defense networks – even if it fell short of describing how and when DoD planned to tackle ongoing security concerns.

While the new strategy is seen as “a huge step forward,” as Jeff Sorenson, former U.S. Army/G-6 CIO and now partner at AT Kearney, sees it, it also also reflects the continuing gap that exists between DoD’s ability to integrate commercial mobile technology compared to other, faster-moving organizations. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 19, 2012 at 5:45 PM

DOD Moves Collaboration Tool From Desktop To Mobile Devices

By

A popular Web-based collaboration application developed for the Defense Department is now being made available for mobile devices, according to a report from Government Computer News.

Defense Connect Online, an application developed by the Defense Information Systems Agency, currently allows users to host and attend Web meetings, and provides unified communications tools that lets individuals know who among their peers is available on the network. It also supports online chats. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 25, 2012 at 11:10 AM

Strides In Virtual Worlds Point To Real World Benefits For Agencies

By

The future of virtual worlds–and how they are providing military, health, and government agencies new and more effective ways to train employees–attracted a crowd of more than 1,700 at the National Defense University’s iCollege last week. And nearly 1,500 of them showed up virtually. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 21, 2012 at 11:45 AM

Paying More For Less In Defense Budgets

By

Little doubt remains that the Pentagon budget will flatten or contract in coming years. Scaling back on performance and adopting a more austere approach to meeting the country’s evolving defense needs are viewed as a necessary consequence.

It is less understood that defense spending has experienced price inflation that dwarfs other industries and the economy as a whole. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 21, 2012 at 8:49 AM

Hackers Pose Costly Future For Military Jets Warns Cartwright

By


The Pentagon’s most expensive program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, might prove to be as vulnerable to enemy hackers as inadequately armored Humvees were to roadside bombs, and could prove even more costly to remedy, warned former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, USMC (Ret.)

“We built the F-35 with absolutely no protection for it from a cyber standpoint,” he said, speaking at the annual Joint Warfighting Conference hosted by the US Naval Institute and the industry group AFCEA, according to a report on Breaking Defense, an affiliate of Breaking Gov. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 16, 2012 at 11:28 AM

Securing the Mobile Frontier

By

Barbara Fast was among those on a CGI mobile securty panel at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. on February 16, 2012.

COMMENTARY: Cybersecurity in the mobile age is everyone’s responsibility, requiring strong partnership among businesses, governments and citizens. We are living in an information age that has changed the way we conduct business and share information. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM

When Government Gets Things Right

By

The past three weeks worth of news reports about GSA‘s lavish convention spending and indiscretions by Secret Service agents–and the inquisitions on Capitol Hill in response–could already fill a few hard drives.

So it always a bit baffling to see how little attention the media–and Congress–give federal agencies and government executives when they do get things right. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 27, 2012 at 11:46 AM

Partnerships Key In Race Against Cyber ‘Bad Guys’

By


Greg Garcia is not one to sit and spin his wheels. He thrives on speed, a little danger and the overall chase. So it’s little surprise that the bicycling enthusiast gravitates toward the intersection of information technology security and government policy.

“It’s speed, it’s endurance, it’s tactics, it’s strategy, and then there’s the adrenaline,” Garcia said of IT security. He was referring to the race to stay ahead of what he called the “bad guys” by anticipating their next move, a race that’s ultimately about safety and protection. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 26, 2012 at 2:00 PM

DARPA To Offer $2 Million Prize For Next Generation Robot

By

Robots are coming closer and closer to performing life saving duties. But the Defense Department’s Advance Research Project Agency is now putting up a $2 million prize to whomever can help push the state-of-the-art in robotics.

As part of DARPA‘s upcoming Robotics Challenge, which will launch in October 2012, DARPA is seeking teams that will be able to compete with robots that will have to successfully navigate a series of physical tasks that replicate real-world disaster-response requirements. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 24, 2012 at 1:06 PM

Defense Department Bets Big On Big Data

By

First Todd Park, former Department of Health and Human Services chief technology officer, bet on health data in a big way; got his upcoming Health Data Palloza, and then became our new Federal CTO.

Then Gus Hunt, CIA CTO, bet on big data for the Intelligence Community and got its budget increased by Congress, reflecting a governmental shift in IT priorities, from a Defense Department style network-centric focus toward the IC’s big data-centric focus.

Now the Defense Department is in the big data game with their big bet to the tune of $250 million announced Thursday at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative.

The assistant secretary of Defense, in a letter released yesterday, said “We intend to change the game and plan to be the fist to leverage big data across the full scope of military operations in new and unconventional ways.”

There are five other agencies who were present at the AAAS Auditorium event which are contributing much smaller (or non-disclosed amounts) as follows:

  • National Science Foundation: $10 million, plus several smaller grants
  • DARPA: $25 million annually for four years
  • National Institutes of Health: No money, but the world’s largest set of data on human genetic variation freely available
  • Department of Energy: $25 million
  • USGS: New grants for unspecified amounts
But where does this new initiative leave us?

I think it leaves us with a disconnected federal big data program between the science and intelligence communities with the former considerably behind the latter.

The report, “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology,” prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), said: “Every federal agency needs to have a “big data” strategy.

I did not hear that today either from every agency or across all the agencies. The recent 2012 Big Data Government Forum provided a much more comprehensive view of best practices around Big Data technology, trends, and issues from senior government executives, data scientists, and vendors.

As Professor Jim Hendler, RPI Computer Scientist, commented during the meeting: “Computer scientists like us have to move to the social science side of things to really do big data.”

This new White House Initiative needs Todd Park’s entrepreneurial spirit, Gus Hunt’s experience, and DoD’s new money, spent in a coordinated way with the IC and civilian agencies to make big data across the federal government a reality.

 /  Published March 30, 2012 at 3:58 PM
Page 3 of 71234567