Sigh-ber
It’s been a while since I opined on matters I know little about…so I thought I would continue that tradition by putting out a few thoughts about all things cyber. No doubt you have all heard about cyber-xxxxx until you are becoming immune to the cries of “Danger Will Robinson.” And that is a real problem because cyber crime, cyber snooping, cyber intrusion, cyber war, and all manner of other things is perhaps the most significant challenge to the well-being of the good ole US of A in this century, IMHO. I’ve attended a series of meetings and had a couple of...
Read MoreWhoa Nellie!
So I guess you have to be an old guy like me to remember Keith Jackson, long-time ABC Sportscaster, shouting “Whoa Nellie” but that’s what came to mind as I read the latest on the US Marine Corps audit saga. Apparently GAO has forced the DoD Inspector General to retract the Marine Corp’s clean audit opinion because of problems in the suspense accounts. Here’s a link to an article in Defense News with the details. I have opined on DoD audits on several occasions….first shouting with joy at the accomplishment, then wondering if it really mattered and...
Read MoreGetting Into Preschool
My oldest grandson, Colin, got into preschool because he played well with others and shared his toys. The federal government is in the early stages of testing its ability to share. Several agencies are working hard to use shared services while others seem less than enthusiastic. Whether the government will measure up to Colin’s preschool standards is uncertain. Certainly each federal agency has specific—and unique—program responsibilities. Handling those core and unique programs well is essential for each agency. It is also clear that there are numerous administrative support...
Read MoreCyber: Too Big Not To Fail
I admit that I am not much of a cyber-techie. I do know a little about computers though. When Microsoft announced they were not supporting Windows XT a while back, I had a bit of a cyber-rebellion because I refuse to spend anymore money on Mircrosoft Operating Systems, which I assume, much like the NSA, report your every keystroke and video back to some central repository for “troubleshooting.” Right….But I instead elected to move to linux. I’ve not noticed a degradation in what I can do, don’t have to worry about virus checkers and internet security programs that...
Read MoreGovernment Transformation Initiative
Here’s a statistic I read in Federal Computer Week that will open your eyes: “Last year, the GAO documented close to $10 billion in failed IT projects and continues to identify hundreds of millions of dollars in duplicative and ineffective IT systems.” The problem is although we have plenty of watchdog organizations to discover these sorts of facts, agencies seem to be powerless to fix them. The Government Transformation Initiative is designed to provide the President and Congress with specific courses of action to fix the problems uncovered by our various watchdog...
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