Caron Carlson

If consistency were the goal, the federal government would score high in complying with computer security requirements—year after year Washington performs consistently poorly. On the 2005 report card issued March 16, the government earned a D+, with agencies responsible for keeping the nation safe receiving some of the lowest grades: The Department of Homeland Security […]

Concerned that the United States may lose its competitive edge in innovation to countries like China and India, captains of American industry are turning to Washington for help. At a March 15 hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, and John Kelly, senior vice president for technology […]

Investment analysts who were called to Capitol Hill to testify on the telecommunications market lent their support to the incumbent telephone companies lobbying agenda for reduced regulation. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, said that he plans to introduce a bill on telecom reform toward […]

Even after being forced to scrap its $170 million case management initiative one year ago, and replacing it with the proposed “Sentinel” system, the FBI has already fallen behind in crafting required security and validation plans for the new system. Nonetheless, a contract for Sentinel, estimated to cost between $400 million and $500 million, is […]

Voice over IP is still stumbling over business continuity, reliability and ease of use, so thats where telecommunications equipment vendors plan to shine during the week of March 6 at VoiceCon, in Orlando, Fla. Avaya is upgrading its MultiVantage Communications Applications line to help companies improve failover potential. Version 3.1 of Avayas Communication Manager will […]

WASHINGTON—Thumping the open-source bible before an audience of government IT professionals on March 8, Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy warned that ongoing adherence to a hodgepodge of proprietary architectures will leave the IT environment inefficient and insecure. Delivering a keynote address at the annual FOSE Conference and Exhibition in Washington, McNealy spelled out […]

WASHINGTON—Shes sleek and dazzling, with sparkling lights on top, luring passersby to her spot on the bustling floor of the FOSE Conference and Exhibition. Shes not the scantily clad “spokesmodel” who occupies the typical technology trade show, however. This siren is a bright, black, shining Hummer. The exhibition floor at this years FOSE, the annual […]

The Federal Election Commission, the publics window into campaign finance, is gradually shifting its IT infrastructure to a virtualized system of services managed remotely. In a five-year contract just signed with Savvis Federal Systems, the FEC will begin the migration with some of its server functions. Until now, the FEC owned an FTP server and […]

To help large enterprises and government agencies simplify the process of conforming to federal data-handling mandates, Brabeion Software released new compliance management software the week of March 6 at the VoiceCon conference in Orlando, Fla. The Brabeion Compliance Center 6.0 was designed to help reduce the cost of meeting the terms of regulations by implementing […]

AT&T is framing its planned acquisition of BellSouth as a way to become more innovative, nimble and efficient, but not all business customers may see direct benefits from the changes. For companies in BellSouths territory, the loss of one of the two major network suppliers would mean a significant reduction in choices, but the competitive […]

Do contemporary advances in technology entitle the president to ignore federal laws if he believes they might get in the governments way in time of war? That is the underlying question that lawmakers and legal scholars are grappling with as they attempt to address President Bushs stated justification for authorizing the National Security Agency to […]

The chief technology officers of 11 of the countrys largest software companies were on Capitol Hill March 2 to let legislators and administration officials know what theyre looking for out of Washington this year: More funding for research and development, more funding for patent reform and intellectual property protection, and more funding for math and […]