With sole responsibility for moving the U.S. military through the air, the Air Force Mobility Command isn't exactly known for skimping on security. So the command's decision in early October to deploy wireless local area networks, or WLANs, may seem to be at odds with earlier news about the multiple security holes riddling the WLAN standard, known as 802.11.
The federal government may increase its information technology budget by $4 billion in fiscal 2003 to improve security and counter terrorist attacks, said Mark Forman, Office of Management and Budget's associate director for information technology and e-government.
A broad agency announcement calling for new techniques in fighting terrorism was jointly released Oct. 23 by the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics and the Combating Terrorism Technology Support Office Technical Support Working Group. The solicitation is aimed primarily at research and other profit or nonprofit organizations meeting federal eligibility for contract work.
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America has formed a Homeland Security Task Force to assess how advanced technologies may protect the country's roads and highways.
Seagate Technology Inc. has won a grant from National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a new storage technology called heat-assisted magnetic recording.
Trust, secure communications and consistent leadership are a few attributes agencies need to successfully share critical security information with the private sector, according to a General Accounting Office study.
The government's new program to squeeze more channels from its allotment of radio spectrum will generate up to $1 billion worth of opportunities for five companies.
In a splash of publicity, Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., unveiled its Sun Fire 15K Starcat server, which the company proclaimed as the world's largest single-cabinet Unix server system.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles, has won a contract worth up to $650 million to provide information technology products and services to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Compaq Computer Corp. was awarded a contract worth up to $2 billion to supply the U.S. Postal Service with information technology products and services.
Science Applications International Corp.and SETA Corp. have each been awarded contracts, cumulatively valued at $3 billion, to integrate military and agency telecommunications systems.
