Rep. Adam Putnam has formed a Corporate Information Security Working Group, comprised of representatives from industry and academia to work for improved information security in U.S. businesses.
There's an old saying that if you torture the numbers long enough, they'll tell you whatever you want to hear. But the numbers coming out of the Federal Procurement Data System have long been known to have problems that can interfere with their ability to tell anything, such as lack of timeliness, inconsistency and reporting errors.
Rebuilding Iraq is under way. The most ambitious nation-building program since the Marshall Plan in 1945, this effort will involve about $75 billion in expenditures. Much of the effort will focus on updating the country's technology infrastructure, and most of this money will be spent on contracts issued to the private sector.
	The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants proposals to investigate, prototype and demonstrate an air-to-air-to-surface hybrid link and networking concept. It will involve combined and simultaneous free-space optical and radio frequencies. Proposals are sought in range and flight demonstration systems integration and technology maturation.
	The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking proposals from small businesses to participate in the NIST Small Business Innovation Research program. Phase 1 is for feasibility research in several areas, including high-accuracy, high-stability, high-pressure transducers; software development on high-speed impact of multilayered materials; safety and privacy in managing credentials; device-independent interaction framework for immersive scientific visualization; applying software test generation methods to large programs; and computational tools to support intelligent and distributed computer-aided design.
The Army Space and Missile Defense Command will recompete the multiple award contract for Space and Missile Defense Initiatives Support. Task areas include vision statements and doctrine, developing architectures and providing program support, such as modeling and simulation, system analysis and integration, prototype development and analyzing emerging technologies analysis.
Systems integrators and their government customers are finding that fulfilling Section 508 requirements isn't as troublesome ? or as costly ? as they once feared. In fact, executives say it's becoming a routine part of doing business.
Two years ago, few agencies required contractors to describe in their bids how people with disabilities would access the technology in the bid. But accessibility features now are part of the federal landscape with the enactment of regulations broadly referred to as "Section 508." Washington Technology explores the new business terrain created by the expanded requirements.
While federal employee unions and industry associations argue about new job-competition language in the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill, agency officials are taking little notice.
A lack of money and coordination at the state and local levels is delaying implementation of Enhanced 911 emergency service for cellular phones, according to a new report.
In response to Enron and other corporate debacles, and to increased federal regulation, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, companies are again examining their in-house compliance and ethics programs.
