Department of Homeland Security

DHS Pushes For Mobility Solutions; Budgets Threaten Future Innovation

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More than a dozen CIOs and senior IT managers from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday told a gathering of industry executives that mobile computing and communications technologies are among the agency’s top strategic IT imperatives.

Speaking at the DHS Information Technology Industry Day, members of the DHS CIO Council and other senior IT program managers underscored the urgent need to modernize outdated systems for new mobile applications while maintaining the agency’s need for security and reliability. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 29, 2012 at 7:49 AM

Obama Gives First Responders More Broadband Spectrum

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President Barack Obama signed into law today a tax cut extension bill that includes long-awaited provisions for setting aside wireless communications spectrum to help build a nationwide public safety network for first responder organizations.

The allocation to public safety organizations of the much-needed wireless spectrum, known as the 700 MHz D-Block, comes exactly 10 years, 23 weeks and 4 days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – the event that highlighted in agonizing detail the inability of firemen, police and emergency responders to communicate in a timely, effective manner. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 24, 2012 at 3:58 PM

DHS Building Common View For Multiple Common Operating Pictures

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Common Operating Picture (COP) systems are critical for supporting the situational awareness needs of the homeland security mission.

Through our portfolio review process at the Department of Homeland Security, we identified more than 20 different COP investments, most of which were largely uncoordinated, stand-alone investments. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 23, 2012 at 10:02 AM

How DHS Plan Has Potential To Transform Federal HR Systems

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Recently, the Department of Homeland Security reached a milestone in the effort to implement functionally-oriented information technology portfolios that support the department’s mission and business functions: The completion of an architecture to manage our human resources systems, called the Human Capital Segment Architecture (HCSA).

It will be our model for conducting segment enterprise architectures for other mission and business functions going forward. HCSA promises to guide real and lasting transformation in our human capital organization. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 22, 2012 at 10:01 AM

How To Reverse Duplicative IT Spending In Large Organizations

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As the Government Accountability Office detailed in their public report this month on potentially duplicative investments at the Departments of Defense and Energy, duplicative IT systems exist throughout the federal government.

By their nature, duplicative IT systems are inefficient; they increase costs, prevent standardization, limit collaboration, and inhibit information sharing among and across the federal enterprise. Reducing duplicative IT systems is critical for the efficient operation of our government. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 21, 2012 at 3:10 PM

Cybersecurity Act Of 2012 Challenged on Capitol Hill; McCain To Draft Alternative

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Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) on Thursday ripped into the authors and supporters of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 for what he called “legislative bullying,” suggesting that democrats are attempting to push a flawed bill through the Senate without input from those that oppose the bill.

During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, McCain sent an unexpected shot across the bow of committee chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), stating that a lack of transparency in the legislative process that led to the drafting of the bill has now forced him and at least seven other Republicans to begin work on “an alternative” cybersecurity bill that they plan to introduce before the end of the month. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 16, 2012 at 5:54 PM

Technology To Boost Illegal Immigrant Investigations

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Proposed increases in federal technology spending aren’t just for back office operations; they’re also expected to help the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency track down illegal immigrants, weed out illegal job applicants and intercept would be terrorists.

Those are just some of the places where hikes in information technology spending in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget would be directed, if approved by Congress. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 16, 2012 at 9:19 AM

Battle Lines Being Drawn Over Cybersecurity Legislation

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Just two days after introducing the controversial Cybersecurity Act of 2012, Senate lawmakers on Thursday plan to hold a hearing on the legislation, raising concerns that what some are calling a flawed piece of legislation may be on the fast-track for approval by the end of March.

The bill would grant the Department of Homeland Security vast new regulatory authorities over select portions of the nation’s critical infrastructure – everything from the national electric grid to transportation, water and financial services, among others. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 15, 2012 at 4:41 PM

Senate Cybersecurity Bill Could Revive Kill Switch, Crush Innovation

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COMMENTARY – Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are hell bent on implementing the recommendations of President Barack Obama’s Cyberspace Policy Review, in which the administration argued for a greater role for the Department of Homeland Security in securing the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber attack.

And to prove how serious and misguided they are, some of these lawmakers like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are about to introduce legislation that arguably will hurt innovation and jobs, and which may actually grant the DHS extraordinary regulatory powers that extend to the Internet. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 9, 2012 at 10:35 AM

Defense CIO Teri Takai Pushes For Balanced Mobility Strategy

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For Teri Takai, the key to overseeing cybersecurity for the world’s largest defense organization is striking a delicate balance between enabling mobility and safe-guarding information that is often crucial to national security. In her role as the Department of Defense’s chief information officer, she must also convince a widely diverse group of constituents that a shared approach is best.

DOD has always had a highly mobile workforce, but the proliferation of mobile devices is radically altering the department’s already challenging security environment.
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This article originally appeared in the latest edition of CGI Initiative for Collaborative Government‘s Leadership journal. 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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 /  Published February 7, 2012 at 10:45 AM
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