Archived Industry Notes: Government
Published in 2012

White House says one of its unclassified networks was cyberattacked

The White House acknowledged an attempt to infiltrate its computer system, but said it thwarted the effort and that no classified networks were threatened, the Associated Press reported October 1. The White House Press Secretary told reporters in Henderson, Nevada, that the White House is equipped with mitigation measures that identified the attack, isolated it, and prevented its spread. He said there was no indication that any data was removed. “There are distinctions between those networks that contain classified information and those that don't, and the attack was against an unclassified network,” he said. He described the attack as “spear-phishing” and said such efforts against government computer systems are “not infrequent.” ... and our embassy was attacked by angry movie-goers!

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first published week of: 10/08/2012

Who are the most powerful women in the government market?
by Nick Wakeman

Fortune magazine’s latest list of the 50 most powerful women in business includes several names that are sure to be familiar to Washington Technology readers.

Phebe Novakovic, currently president and chief operating officer of General Dynamics, and slated to become CEO on Jan. 1, is ranked No. 16. She’s the highest ranked executive from the government contractors represented on the list.

Not far behind, at No. 19, is Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin. Currently, she is executive vice president of electronic systems, but will become president and COO of Lockheed on Jan. 1.

Lockheed is very well represented with Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of space systems, at No. 31, and Linda Gooden, executive vice president of information systems and global solutions, at No. 33.

Lockheed Martin joins Comcast/NBC as the only companies on the list with three entries.

Also making the list from the contracting world is Linda Hudson, president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., at No. 38.

It’s an impressive and diverse list with companies such as Campbell Soup and Frontier Communications. I mention them because Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell (ranked No. 18), and Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Frontier (ranked No. 35) are sisters.

That’s quite a family accomplishment.

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first published week of: 09/24/2012

Why You Can’t Vote Online
by David Talbot

A decade and a half into the Web revolution, we do much of our banking and shopping online. So why can’t we vote over the Internet? The answer is that voting presents specific kinds of very hard problems.

Even though some countries do it and there have been trial runs in some precincts in the United States, computer security experts at a Princeton symposium last week made clear that online voting cannot be verifiably secure, and invites disaster in a close, contentious race.

“Vendors may come and they may say they’ve solved the Internet voting problem for you, but I think that, by and large, they are misleading you, and misleading themselves as well,” Ron Rivest, the MIT computer scientist and cryptography pioneer, said at the symposium. “If they’ve really solved the Internet security and cybersecurity problem, what are they doing implementing voting systems? They should be working with the Department of Defense or financial industry. These are not solved problems there.”

The unsolved problems include the ability of malicious actors to intercept Internet communications, log in as someone else, and hack into servers to rewrite or corrupt code. While these are also big problems in e-commerce, if a hacker steals money, the theft can soon be discovered. A bank or store can decide whether any losses are an acceptable cost of doing business.

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first published week of: 11/12/2012

Will federal IT budgets ever see growth periods again?

The $80 billion federal IT market will continue to experience intermittent periods of headwinds and calm during the next 12 to 18 months, said Bill Loomis, managing director of Stifel Nicolaus, as he opened a federal IT outlook discussion on March 28 organized by TechAmerica.

“There is going to be a lot of uncertainty and that creates delays” in contract award activity due primarily to current and expected fiscal constraints and the November election, he said.

“Everybody is seeing their bid pipelines continue to pile up,” he said.

Loomis predicted “a little relief toward the end of the fiscal year. But then we’ll be back again with delays,” which he attributed to federal budget uncertainties, pricing pressures and the demand for great efficiencies.

“All this is slowing organic growth,” Loomis said.

But there is some reason for optimism looking to 2014 and beyond primarily because of demand for improving cybersecurity applications, he added.

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first published week of: 04/02/2012

Winning Team, Runner Up Announced in Summer 2012 NASA DEVELOP Virtual Poster Session

A team from John C. Stennis Space Center has emerged as the top entry in Earthzine’s 2012 Summer Virtual Poster Session.

The five-person team, part of the NASA DEVELOP National Program, takes the top prize for a presentation titled “Where Have All the Cypress Gone? Mapping Restoration Sites in Louisiana.”

Runner-up honors go to an eight-person team from the NASA Langley Research Center for a presentation titled “The Peat Burns On: Making Sense of North Carolina Wildfires.”

The two teams will receive items from Esri, a California company that makes ArcGIS software and other applications.

Members of the winning team will receive “GIS Tutorial for Humanitarian Assistance,” by Firoz Verjee, which includes a trial version of ArcGIS 9, and maps and data for the tutorial.

The runner-up team will receive copies of the “Esri Map Book,” Volumes 23 and 24.

The Stennis and Langley teams were selected by a panel of judges after two rounds of evaluation and discussion on 30 projects from the program’s summer term, with abstracts and related videos highlighting NASA Earth observation capabilities relative to environmental issues and concerns for enhanced policy-and decision-making.

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first published week of: 09/17/2012