Roy Mark

Attorney General John Ashcroft wants to expand the government’s domestic surveillance powers under the controversial USA Patriot Act to include reading individual e-mails and monitoring a person’s Web surfing activities. The Patriot Act, which is already under legal attack by privacy groups, was passed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and gives the Justice Department […]

Modernizing the myriad, frequently outdated and often vulnerable federal IT systems is a daunting task no matter the administration. There is, for instance, a problem known as “paving cow paths,” where agencies decide to automate what amounts to management problems instead of applying modern e-business tactics. Even then, the projects are rarely delivered on time […]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) officially filed its opposition Friday to Verizon’s motion for a stay of last month’s court order that the phone giant comply with a subpoena by the RIAA demanding the name of a Verizon subscriber who allegedly downloaded more than 600 copyrighted music files. Verizon, which is appealing the […]

Responding to a Senate effort to block all funding for its controversial Total Information Awareness Program (TIA), the Pentagon now says it will establish two oversight boards to ensure that the program doesn’t violate the privacy rights of Americans. The TIA program is a project of the Information Awareness Office (IAO), which is under the […]

The Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCIRC) is seeking private industry participation to develop standards for exchanging information about network security breeches. FedCIRC is the central coordination and analysis facility dealing with computer security related issues affecting the civilian agencies and departments of the federal government. FedCIRC’s incident response and advisory activities bring together elements […]

President Bush secretly signed an order last July directing administration officials to develop the parameters for possible cyber-attacks against enemy computer networks, according to a report in Friday’s Washington Post. The report also says the Pentagon is actively developing “cyber-weapons,” to disable enemy radar, electrical grids and telephone systems. The U.S. has never used cyber […]

WASHINGTON — A panel of telecommunications analysts agreed with key members of a House committee Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should eliminate regulations that require the regional Bell companies to lease their lines and switching equipment to competitors. Without a revision of the rules, they said, capital investment in the ailing telecom sector […]

American workers who have Internet access both at home and at the office spend more of their personal time using the Internet to do office work at home than they do using the Web for personal purposes on the job, according to a new survey. Conducted by the Center for e-Service at the University of […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a three-day “Spam Forum” April 30-May 2 to address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal, and financial issues associated with it. A Federal Register notice to be issued shortly says, “To explore the impact that spam has on consumers’ use of e-mail, […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded 17 contracts to provide telecommunications equipment, support services, and solutions to federal agencies. The contracts were granted under the Federal Technology Service’s (FTS) Connections Program, which allows agencies to order equipment or services for one-time purchases or complex telecommunications integration services. The new contracts replace multiple expiring, regional […]

Complaints over a lack of open bidding has prompted the Department of Education to pull a contract with Affiliated Computer Services and put the deal for the service and support of the agency’s Internet-based student loan processing system up for bid. ACS’ contract with Education was its largest with the federal government and represents approximately […]

The Pentagon announced over the weekend it reached a compromise with the wireless industry that clears the way for increasing the amount of spectrum for Wi-Fi-related products. In exchange for getting the Pentagon to drop its objections to sharing space with unlicensed products, the wireless industry agreed to install technology in future devices that will […]