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The months that historically see the beginnings of spring in bloom are clouded by tax deadlines, deadline extensions and, sometimes, big payouts to Uncle Sam. This year's start of spring [...]

FISMA COMPLIANCE: A STEADY MARCH PERCENTAGE OF SYSTEMS WITH: 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Certification and accreditation 47% 62% 77% 85% 88% Tested contingency plan 35% 48% 57% 61% 88% […]

The Office of Management and Budget's 2006 fiscal report says U.S. federal agencies are making 'modest' progress in meeting standards set by the Federal Information Security Management Act. Agencies spent […]

IMPACT IN 2007: Agencies can expect more support this year from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to help assess the effectiveness of IT security controls. NIST will publish […]

The Office of Management and Budget and Congress are increasing the pressure on agencies to tighten IT security. Executive branch officials and lawmakers are working on separate but parallel paths […]

AS THE GENERAL Services Administration nears its award of the two-part Networx contract, agencies must begin preparing now for the transition from the existing Federal Telecommunications Services 2001 contract. Agencies […]

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) promised earlier this year to determine whether the Federal Information Security Management Act needs updating. Last week, he proposed the first of what likely will be […]

Abe Kleinfield thinks the Federal Information Security Management Act could be a solution to the rash of security breaches that have exposed the personal data of millions of individuals in […]

Elemental Security Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., just added a policy framework to its Elemental Security Platform that the company says will help agencies comply with the Federal Information Security […]

The Veterans Affairs Department's recent loss of veterans' personal data highlights a broader question that has rattled around Washington for 10 years: the need to update the Privacy Act of […]

TECHNOLOGY management will be a different game at the Homeland Security Department now that CIO Scott Charbo has been promoted to the additional position of acting assistant secretary for management. […]

During the past decade, Congress has enacted significant acquisition reform legislation. Yet, in order to achieve the full degree of cost savings and comprehensive reform envisioned, NDIA believes that additional [...]

ONCE AGAIN, Tom Davis is getting tough with the Treasury Department. The Virginia Republican and chairman of the House Government Reform Committee told a packed crowd in Washington last week […]

WILLIAMSBURG, VA. -- Federal privacy officers want to move beyond the policy enforcement role they gained under the 2002 E-Government Act and other laws to position themselves as promoters of […]

IT IS HARD TO AVOID the conclusion that the Federal Information Security Management Act is not working. I am not a big fan of the A-through-F report cards handed out […]

FEDERAL SECURITY TEAMS might need some Alka-Seltzer before 2006 is over. This year promises a full plate of challenges for federal chief information security officers. Federal Information Security Management Act […]

HAS SEARCH TECHNOLOGY advanced far enough to overcome the compulsion to categorize and catalog each piece of data? The Office of Management and Budget thinks so--at least in most cases. […]

An interim rule published at the end of September by two federal government councils specifies new steps that IT procurement workers at federal agencies must take to ensure that information […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued a final rule to implement certain provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002, P.L. 107-347 that authorizes the Federal Information Technology Exchange [...]

There is evidence that agencies are making progress in their struggle to secure federal IT systems. Forget the congressional report cards. They are too coarse-grained to give an accurate picture […]

'This was the first time IT came in to help without taking time away from the mechanics.' --Warner Robins Air Logistics Center's Margaret Padgett, IT division business and resources development […]

Amid all the recent coverage of government failings, it was easy to miss one piece of promising news where federal IT officials out-managed many of their commercial-world counterparts. Their success […]

Nearly three years after the E-Government Act of 2002 established a program for senior federal IT employees to gain experience in the private sector for up to two years, the […]

Nearly three years after the E-Government Act of 2002 established a program for senior federal employees to gain up to two years' experience in the private sector, the Office of […]

The Office of Management and Budget is following its own collect-once-and-use-many mantra for the fiscal 2005 report to Congress on the E-Government Act of 2002. OMB is asking agencies for […]

More than two years after enactment of the E-Government Act of 2002, implementing regulations and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance for using share-in-savings contracts for information technology have [...]

Faced with the task of complying with the Federal Information Security Management Act, the Environmental Protection Agency developed a tool to automate the evaluation and reporting processes. And that's good […]

Under a new cooperative purchasing contract, state and local governments soon will be able to buy homeland security goods and services faster and for less money. The U.S. Communities Government […]

Two years ago, Congress gave a new IT contracting vehicle a boost by including it in the E-Government Act of 2002. Share-in-savings contracts were supposed to revolutionize government IT procurements […]

The Office of Management and Budget is studying how to effectively use technology to enhance crisis management. In a report due Sept. 30, OMB will look at R&D opportunities and […]

Intelligence agencies traditionally operate in high-risk environments, but despite that fact, according to former National Security Agency employee-turned-consultant Ira Winkler, they experience few information losses. The reason, he says, is […]

Seven agencies, including the Homeland Security Department, have received failing grades for their IT security efforts. Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, last week issued the […]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The message is clear to vendors: It's not enough to secure your network and data when working for the government; you must be able to document security […]

The Office of Personnel Management will use its Human Capital Scorecard to start tracking agencies' success in training IT employees. 'IT training plays a significant role in creating and maintaining […]

Finally, e-government initiatives are producing measurable results. But there's still a lot of work to do. Three years ago, e-government was a buzzword that meant different things to different people. […]

The government's chief information security officers spend most of their time shuffling papers and putting out fires instead of improving the overall security of their systems, according to a recent […]

McAfee Inc.'s agreement to buy Foundstone Inc. for $86 million in cash will give the Santa Clara, Calif., security firm a toehold in the growing vulnerability management market. Foundstone of […]

Increasingly, IT is being bought or deployed as a service. Applications software yields most value when shared as a service across an organization. Similarly, hardware is most productive when shared […]

(This article continues my exploration of new procurement rules.) One of the goals of the E-Government Act is to encourage the use of share-in-savings contracts. These are performance-based contracts where […]

State and local government spending on information technology is finally starting to rebound, according to a new report. Spending will increase from $40.7 billion in 2004 to $43 billion in […]

Agencies guilty of snoozing through the Federal Information Security Management Act requirements will get a rude, if predictable, awakening when the compliance alarm sounds this Dee. 17. Federal agencies must […]

The E-Government Act of 2002 has privacy provisions that affect agency Web sites. Let's take a closer look. There are two basic site requirements. First, agencies have to post privacy […]

Most of your customers are online often now, so when Charles Curtis said growers often visited government web sites, it was a fact that I couldn't ignore. (It didn't much [...]

The House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy last week approved the E-Government Act of 2002, but stripped out a requirement for a governmentwide CIO. The full committee […]