Caron Carlson

Voice-over-IP providers that offer Internet calling that connects to the Public Switched Telephone Network will have 18 months to make their networks available to the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency for eavesdropping. Accommodating a request from those agencies, the Federal Communications Commission is requiring VOIP providers whose services can be used as a substitute […]

As the Department of Homeland Security prepares to announce its first assistant secretary of cyber-security, lawmakers are growing increasingly vocal about the safety of the computer networks underpinning the countrys critical infrastructure. The private sector, for its part, has begun a concerted lobbying effort to ward off any new federal mandates that members of Congress […]

After talking about it since January, lawmakers who oversee telecommunications finally floated a draft bill to overhaul the nations telecom rules, primarily by preventing emerging broadband services from being saddled with legacy telephone requirements. The hands-off approach is favored by the long-entrenched service providers, such as the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies), but it is […]

Qwest Communications International Inc. plans to be the first telephone carrier to integrate Microsoft Corp.s software for enhancing voice over IP, aiming to make the combined technology available to small and midsize businesses next year. The partnership illustrates a web of combined efforts made between the traditional telephone sector and the IT sector to make […]

Comparing the potential effect of a cyber-disaster to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers have called on the Department of Homeland Security and commercial infrastructure owners to explain why more progress isnt evident in preparing for a massive cyber-attack. “I never want to sit on a special committee set up to investigate why we were […]

As the country braces for Hurricane Rita, which is expected to hit land Friday or Saturday, lawmakers in Washington continue their struggle to understand what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina earlier this month. Senators this morning questioned executives from several telephone companies to find out why the phone networks fared so poorly […]

Comparing the potential effect of a cyber-disaster to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers called on the Department of Homeland Security and commercial infrastructure owners to explain why more progress isnt evident in preparing for a massive cyber attack. “I never want to sit on a special committee set up to investigate why we were […]

NetIQ Corp. this week joins a growing roster of security compliance software makers that are expanding the tools they built for enterprises to the government market. Government agencies do not face the same bottom-line imperative to follow best practices that commercial enterprises do, and their repeated poor performance on annual information security evaluations illustrates the […]

In an effort to make inroads in the SMB market, Cisco Systems Inc. this week is launching two sets of IP networking products and services. The goal is to offer small and midsize businesses the communications capabilities that typically only larger enterprises enjoy. For small businesses, Ciscos new Business Communications Solution suite includes an SMB-class […]

To give enterprises improved ways to manage IP telephony, InfoVista S.A. this week will unveil a new version of its performance management software. Despite the gradual acceptance of VOIP (voice over IP) in the enterprise, the packet-based voice technology continues to be burdened by quality and reliability levels that fall short of traditional telephony. /zimages/3/28571.gifClick […]

Chief information security officers at federal agencies are more concerned about the quality of the software they buy than they were a year ago, and they are beginning to integrate security functions directly into their daily operations rather than rely on outside help, according to a recent study. The study, based on a survey conducted […]

Land-line and wireless carriers alike are preparing to restore phone service to the areas struck by Hurricane Katrina this week, but lack of access to the hardest-hit areas has been making actual restoration impossible for the time being. By Wednesday, Cingular Wireless had readied 500 emergency generators and 130,000 gallons of fuel, as well as […]