Communications

Perils of The Open Mike – Bill Connor’s April 5 Column From Fortune.com

Just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow in the east, politicians and business types will continue to forget the presence of a live microphone at precisely the wrong times. Consider President Obama talking sotto voce with Dmitry Medvedev after a joint appearance a couple of weeks ago, confiding to the Russian President thatRead… Read more »

FOIA, I hardly know ya! (Yearly Report Card on Federal Government’s efforts to track and manage Freedom of Information Act requests)

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are a critical element of business development and capture. This is how you learn about a pursuit’s history and your competition. The problem is – FOIA requests are tricky: They take forever to obtain – so someone needs to carefully track them and follow up relentlessly to getRead… Read more »

CTO Security Report

600,000+ Mac Computers Infected While this kind of activity wouldn’t rouse much attention from those esconced in WinTel (Windows and Intel) architechures, it is much less common for Mac users to be impacted by infections on this scale so quickly. The infection, called Flashback, is installed via a Java vulnerability (CVE 2012-0507) which was patchedRead… Read more »

Outraged by the GSA spending scandal? Insights from a former GSA Commissioner

The DorobekINSIDER Issue of the Week: The Washington Post has declared that GSA clearly had the worst week in Washington. This week, GSA administrator Martha Johnson resigned amid allegations of excessive spending at a conference. GSA Inspector General Brian Miller issued a report detailing contracting irregularities and excessive spending after a Las Vegas conference. TheRead… Read more »

Navy Launches Public Wargame About U.S. Energy Crisis

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — In May 2012, the U.S. Navy will launch a week-long multiplayer online wargame in order to tackle America’s energy crisis as a national security issue. This effort is being spearheaded by the Department of Innovation of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), an academic-oriented applied research facility based on theRead… Read more »

Social Media Privacy is a Hot Topic

By Eric Rabe, Fels Senior Advisor In an announcement on Friday, Facebook said it is taking steps to prevent employers from getting access to the FB accounts of employees. It’s the right call. The surprising thing is that it was even a question. What is the implication for governments and agencies? Of course, Facebook isRead… Read more »