<FONT SIZE=2>When L&E Associates learned about the Coast Guard's Rescue 21 modernization effort to upgrade its 30-year-old search and rescue communications system, the company was determined to find a way to be a part of it.</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>
<FONT SIZE=2>Once signed into law, the Electronic Government Act will reinforce the importance of information technology-enabled government services and ensure e-gov programs will continue from year to year, according to government and industry officials.</FONT>
The beta version of a new security command center software that Computer Associates International released Dec. 9 will give integrators an early glimpse of how it can be used in the government market.
General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd., a unit of General Dynamics Corp., won a contract as the preferred supplier to support a digital battle management system for the U.K. Ministry of Defence. The system, which could cost $450 million, will be used by British ground forces. Through this program, called the Digitization Battlespace Land-Combat, Infrastructure and Platform Battlefield Information Systems application, General Dynamics will integrate hardware and software into a common digital communications and situational-awareness system.
<FONT SIZE=2>Jack Battersby recently experienced an e-learning contract bidding process unlike any other. The State Department put his company, mGen Inc., and several others through three days of onsite product demonstrations, essentially allowing the agency's user community to test drive the software before making a buying decision.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>SCORM, or Sharable Content Object Reference Model, was developed by public- and private-sector organizations under the auspices of the Defense Department's Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. The initiative began in 1997 to promote cooperation among government agencies, industry and academia to develop e-learning standardization.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>Many IT contracts include training elements. The following procurements specifically request electronic training elements such as computer-based training, distance learning and teleconferencing.</FONT>
Federal spending on enterprise resource planning will almost double in the next five years. ERP is currently growing at a compound annual growth rate of 13 percent and is expected to increase from $3.5 billion in fiscal 2002 to more than $6 billion in fiscal 2007, according to a study by Input Inc., a market research firm.
<FONT SIZE=2>Kentucky state officials are sticking with an innovative contracting approach, despite apparent difficulties getting widespread use of the program since it was established three years ago.</FONT>
<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>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>"Decision makers aren't paid to be data collectors," said Douglas Barton, director of technology for the missions systems division of Lockheed Martin Corp. "If they have 10 minutes to make a decision, they shouldn't spend nine and a half minutes gathering data."</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">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>
