Government

Ambitious plans to improve federal information technology systems could easily founder on the shoals of deficient networks. Government agencies currently are striving to meet the challenges associated with initiatives in five major areas: cloud technology; Big Data management; cybersecurity requirem...

Protection of intellectual property is a major element in the highly competitive world of information technology. The scope of protection affects not only providers such as software developers but also the users of software products. Software patent litigation has increased significantly, according ...

Any time the U.S. government signals it is embarking on a program to invest tens of billions of dollars, potential vendors take notice -- especially during a time of spending restraint. The federal government, through the General Services Administration, has launched a new program for the procuremen...

Federal spending for information technology has peaked. It will decline at a gradual annual pace for at least the next several years, but cumulatively it will amount to a significant amount of money. However, vendors that can provide the IT services that are moving to the top of the government's req...

The U.S. Interior Department has embarked on a major transition to cloud technology that could result in its spending $10 billion on the program over nine years. DOI selected 10 vendors to participate in the program last May, and since then the vendors have been announcing definitive contracts with...

The continuing flood of news about the NSA's surveillance of Americans' communications, which has already forced secure email providers Lavabit and Silent Circle to shut down, has now claimed yet another victim. Specifically, award-winning tech legal news site Groklaw, which served the free and open...

Following the voluntary shutdown of two secure email services to prevent the NSA from obtaining information about their subscribers, Internet bad boy Kim Dotcom's cloud-based file hosting service Mega is stepping up. The company is working on a secure, encrypted email service that will extend the en...

The White House this week released a set of incentives designed to encourage private companies to join the administration in its efforts to cut down on cyberattacks. The initiatives are a follow-up to the cybersecurity executive order President Obama signed in February, following Congress' failure t...

Mobile device users' privacy will be safeguarded under a new transparency code of conduct created in an effort involving 40 groups ranging from businesses to advocacy groups and led by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling hailed ...

Both the White House and Congress have asserted that protecting the nation's resources from cyberattacks is a top priority. Yet enacting legislation designed to enhance security for critical infrastructure components such as water, power, telecom and transport facilities that is acceptable to both p...

The Business Software Alliance reportedly is pushing to overturn the U.S. International Trade Commission's ban against older iPhones and iPads, maintaining that it would set a dangerous precedent. When the ITC makes a decision to ban a particular product for import into the U.S., it is fast and usua...

American cloud service providers seeking to do business abroad are feeling the fallout from the NSA's PRISM surveillance program, suggests a month-long online survey by the Cloud Security Alliance. Fifty-six percent of more than 200 overseas respondents said they were less likely to use U.S.-based c...

Product integrity is a key element in business and increasingly important in the information technology sector, where products and services are highly vulnerable to the creation of copies and counterfeits. Both IT vendors and their customers are equally at risk when phony and faulty products enter ...

The U.S. Department of Commerce is planning a major upgrade of its customer relationship management capabilities, which is likely to include a multiyear contract opportunity for a cloud-based CRM system. The project underscores the increasing awareness of federal agencies of the potential use of clo...

The White House and eight companies including Google and Microsoft announced a joint effort to mobilize against online piracy and counterfeiting Monday with the help of a set of best practices developed in conjunction with the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The effort is designed to limit the reve...