<FONT SIZE=2> Throw out the crystal ball. High-tech executives will have to rely on instinct, experience and up-to-the-minute intelligence to navigate the government IT market in 2003.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Uncertainty and opportunity. The yin and yang for 2003.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>The opportunities are huge in the $ 53.3 billion federal information technology market. Whether it is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, more outsourcing or the increasing emphasis on e-government, IT will play a central role.</FONT>
A total of 450 fingerprint scanners and associated software have been ordered by the Defense Manpower Data Center from Identix Inc., Minnetoka, Minn., the company announced Dec. 26. The company did not disclose terms of the sale.
<FONT SIZE=2>Federal computer systems security got an overall failing grade for the second year in a row, according to an annual report card by Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif. The government's overall score was 55 out of 100, up from 53 a year ago. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>When a variant of the infamous Klez virus, called Klex, wormed its way through e-mailboxes last April, it didn't creep into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And when a little-known buffer overflow in the Solaris operating system came to light last June, no hacker could have exploited it to compromise a CDC system. That's because the agency's servers were already patched.</FONT>
Companies that want to help the Defense Department improve its security should bring solutions that expand its bandwidth, assure that its software is secure and have built-in redundancies, said Linton Wells, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence at the Industry Advisory Council's Executive Leadership Conference earlier this week in Hershey, Pa.
<FONT SIZE=2>AI Metrix Inc. provides network management software for some of the most complex networks in the private sector, including customers such as cable provider Comcast Corp. and telephone company Broadwing Inc.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Warfighter Information Network - Tactical</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Army Communications Electronics Command</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Value: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>$6.6 billion</FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Awarded: </FONT><FONT SIZE=2>Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. both won contracts Aug. 9 that will develop the architecture and start initial production of systems for testing. The Army will then pick between the two for full production.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>The Air Force wants information to flow seamlessly among its commanders and warfighters, whether it comes from a manned or unmanned aircraft, or even from space. To carry out this transformation, the Air Force in May formed the XI Command under Lt. Gen. Leslie Kenne. As part of her staff, Brig. Gen. Dan Goodrich is director of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance integration, or C4ISR integration.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>If integrators want to look at the future of network-centric procurement, a good starting point is the Joint Vision 2010 and Joint Vision 2020 documents, said Louis Ray, president and chief executive officer of Matcom International Corp., an IT and engineering services provider in Alexandria, Va., that does work in military tactical data links. </FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>When Dave Nelson joined NASA in 1999 as deputy chief information officer for information technology security, he knew the agency needed to improve its network security. But rather than take a scattershot approach to fixing the space agency's Internet vulnerabilities, Nelson's staff developed a list of about 50 top vulnerabilities to target first.</FONT>
Whatever the White House's new draft cybersecurity plan lacked in specific requirements for the private sector, it more than made up for in proposed spending to improve security at federal agencies.
<font SIZE="2">Even though Congress has failed to agree as of this writing on any of the 13 spendingbills for fiscal 2003, lawmakers are expected to approve the president's $52 billionspending request for information technology products and services.</font>
<font SIZE="2">Cybersecurity strategy</font><font SIZE="2">The White House Sept. 18 released a draftwith a 60-day comment period. The plan sets out security recommendations for home computerusers, businesses, industries and government agencies. The plan pushes the philosophy thatthe federal government cannot act alone in protecting against cyberattacks. </font>
A group of private-sector information technology security service vendors and experts joined federal officials Oct. 2 to announce the latest list of Top 20 Internet security vulnerabilities, along with new tools to test for and remedy those vulnerabilities. The Top 20 are the vulnerabilities most often exploited by hackers and other cyber criminals.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Steve Cooper, then chief information officer for Corning Inc., was speaking at a CIO forum aboard a ship sailing under a British flag in New York harbor. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Coast Guard asked the ship, because it was under a foreign flag, to go out to open sea. One day and 200 hundred miles later, Cooper and the passengers disembarked in Boston. Angry, Cooper -- who had served in the Navy during the Vietnam era -- tried to figure out what he could do personally to make a difference in the new national situation.
<FONT SIZE=2>On May 16, South Carolina Chief Information Security Officer Jim MacDougall discovered that the state's servers were being scanned for vulnerabilities by a hacker in Beijing. After informing Matt DeZee, the state chief information officer, MacDougall blocked out a range of Internet protocol addresses, including the ones scanning the system.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Both houses of Congress are working on legislation that would tighten security loopholes in the way states issue driver's licenses, but the bills may have a hard time passing this year because of concerns about privacy.</FONT>
