Technology

• McAfee: Cyber attacks on Apple products to increase

  SC Magazine reports that Macs and other Apple products will be targets of malware in 2011.

  Technology

  January 04, 2011
• Archive’s online portal increases accessibility

  WFED\'s Jason Miller discusses the new online collection at the National Archives.

  Technology

  January 04, 2011
• Report measures open gov benchmarks

  Socrata\'s report measures government, public and developer activities and perceptions about open government.

  Open Data/Transparency

  January 04, 2011
• Cyber crooks using Microsoft patch to spread malware

  Naked Security reports that a fake Microsoft security upgrade is actually a virus.

  Technology

  January 04, 2011
• OMB wants classified systems assessed

  Agencies must evaluate their security systems to ensure classified information remains secret. OMB, with guidance from ISOO and ODNI, has a battery of questions for agency heads in their second memo after the release of documents on WikiLeaks.

  Budget

  January 04, 2011
• National Film Registry works to honor, preserve American films

  Housed at the Library of Congress, the National Film Registry added 25 movies this year. Registry coordinator Steve Leggett explains how movies can make the cut

  Federal Drive

  January 04, 2011
• Superfund to clean up space junk

  Bill Welser, co-author of \"Confronting Space Debris\" from RAND Corporation joins the Federal Drive with information on how DARPA and RAND are trying to clean the solar system

  Federal Drive

  January 04, 2011
• DHS cracks down on identity theft ring

  Two Vietnamese students in Minnesota were part of a larger Vietnam-based ring

  Federal Drive

  January 04, 2011
• Ecard from “White House” actually malware

  Did you receive an e-holiday card from the White House? Well, it wasn\'t from the White House, and it wasn\'t just an ecard

  Federal Drive

  January 04, 2011
• IRS expands number of awards under TIPSS-4

  The IRS awarded 33 companies, including eight small businesses, a spot on their TIPSS-4 contract.

  Technology

  January 03, 2011
• DoD still working to tighten SSN controls

  The Defense Department continues to scrub service members\' social security numbers from public DoD websites. The armed services plan to transition to an alternative ID number system by 2012.

  Defense

  January 03, 2011
• Pentagon’s WARCAP Upgrades To New Multipoint VTC Capability in 2011

  The Pentagon\'s Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center (WARCAP) is making a big move in 2011 to implement more nimble, flexibly-configurable video teleconferencing solutions. In an average month, WARCAP\'s VTC team supports one major exercise and two or three demonstrations of emerging technology. End users and subject matter experts join in classified and unclassified briefings and conversations with top military leaders. \"Warfighters themselves can talk to the leadership. Guys on the floor of an Air Operations Center brief capability of the technology and its value -- or lack thereof.\" Anna Santos de Dios, Director of the Air Force\'s Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center (WarCap) told us more. \"Using VTC for exercises lets us bring the field experience right into the Pentagon. Senior decision-makers based here, who often lack the time or budget travel to event, can get in one room or on the same call, and bounce ideas around about what they\'ve just seen.\" WARCAP offers its clients three VTC options. DISN VIDEO SERVICES GLOBAL (DVSG) uses Tandberg systems to link multiple sites but each participating site is a fixed conference room and must be equipped with DSVG-specific hardware. AT&T schedules the VTC and allocates bandwidth. Internet-Protocol (IP)-Based VTC is about to get a lot more popular. This approach is used between two points that each connects their Tandberg MXP-IP coder/decoder (Codec) or similar gear (like the Polycom VSE-7000 IP-based Codec) to connect to the network used to conduct the military exercises and demos. \"Even some guy in the field with a webcam and internet access can be on the call,\" said Santos de Dios. \"We\'ve had guys doing VTC\'s standing next to their HUMVEE\'s talking about how systems perform, and that\'s much more powerful and memorable than someone briefing from a PowerPoint.\" But WARCAP wanted the flexibility to arrange those calls itself, to multiple points, and do it more quickly. So, WARCAP\'s NCO\'s collaborated with team from SAIC to come up with the solution. By April of 2011, General Dynamics IT and its subcontractor, PPI, will have installed a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), the Tandberg MCU-4150 to improve service by bridging multiple locations. Finally, WARCAP uses Defense Connect Online (DCO), a software-based VTC system, for informal meetings and document sharing that doesn\'t require high bandwidth or ultra-high resolution video that the military exercises do. Once a computer has the software installed, plug in a USB web cam, and they\'re good to go. \"The people we support -- those running exercises, and those advocating more resources for work in the field -- feel that VTC helps them reach audiences they wouldn\'t have access to any other way,\" said Santos de Dios. \"The senior leaderships appreciates the opportunity to see exercises or evaluate technologies without disrupting their schedules with additional travel. \"The big challenge is that, with constant turnover in personnel that simply part of military life, we always have to keep educating people that this resource is available, so we\'re always doing outreach about WARCAP\'s VTC capabilities.\"

  Defense

  January 03, 2011
• State database flaws possibly linked to WikiLeaksd

  The Washington Post reports on the vast amount of data contained in Net-Centric, whether it belonged there or not.

  Technology

  January 03, 2011
• Pentagon, industry swap cyber experts

  Infosecurity.com reports on a pilot program to give public and private cybersecurity experts temporary assignments.

  Defense

  January 03, 2011