Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
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Infrastructure And Resilience --- The New Pride And Prejudice
I was going about my normal business the other day when an article from the Associated Press written by Matthew Daly And Hope Yen, and titled "Lawmakers: Ida damage shows need for infrastructure upgrades" landed in my inbox. I’m one of those weird people that sees “lawmakers” and “infrastructure” in a sentence, and am drawn to it with amused interest. Usually, I am interested academically…a lot of other times as a pure masochist…and still more often than not, like this time, with snarky anticipation. “Oh, what joyous, twisted misinformation do we have here?” The article summarizes quite aptly (kudos to Mr. Daly and Ms. Yen) the rationale applied for the monstrous, record-smashing infrastructure bills being batted about the House and Senate.
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Is There Any Part of Government That Hasn't Been Hacked Yet?
Cybersecurity has been touted by the Obama administration as one of its top technology priorities over the past several years, but heightened visibility alone has done little to deter adversaries that include state-sponsored hackers, hackers for hire, cyber syndicates and terrorists...
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IT Projects May Not Be Getting Enough Oversight
The White House should do a better job of tracking whether agencies’ major technology projects are at risk of going off the rails and agencies should perform more oversight on their operations and maintenance spending, according to two recent watchdog reports. Read More »
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Judge Orders U.S. To Release Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Friday ordered the government to promptly start releasing thousands of pages of Secret Service documents about the late activist and coder Aaron Swartz, following months of roadblocks and delays. Read More »
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Judge Tells Homeland Security To Shut Up And Release Aaron Swartz's File
After Aaron Swartz's suicide, Kevin Poulsen filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Homeland Security, asking for the Secret Service's file on Aaron Swartz, since it was the Secret Service that handled the bulk of the investigation. Read More »
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Lapse In Chemical Security Effort Cited As Another Reason To End Shutdown
The Obama administration is adding the closure of the Homeland Security Department's chemical security program to its list of reasons why Congress should end the partial government shutdown that began last week. Read More »
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Lawmakers Reaffirm Demand For Biowatch Data
The Homeland Security Department has turned over "substantial" documentation in response to a congressional panel's request for records on a controversial biological agent sensor network, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not been similarly forthcoming in providing related information, two Republican lawmakers said... Read More »
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Maryland and Estonian Civilians Take Up Arms Against Hackers
Maryland has started a volunteer netwarfare squad that the Estonian ambassador likens to her country's groundbreaking civilian cyber reserve, which was assembled after neighboring Russia allegedly shut down the former Soviet state's Internet access in 2007. Read More »
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MIT Delays The Release Of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File
A couple of weeks ago, it looked like the federal government would (finally) start releasing what amounts to thousands of pages of documents pertaining to the Secret Service's investigation into Aaron Swartz. [...] Read More »
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Obama Administration Cites 'National Security' More Than Ever To Censor, Deny Records
The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
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Open Source Community Gathers For Red Hat Government Symposium
Open source continues to be used in new and innovative ways as federal agencies become more comfortable with the software development philosophy that helps solve common problems with common solutions, said Red Hat Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Public Sector Paul Smith. Read More »
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Open Source Software Is Common At DHS
Open source is present across much of Homeland Security’s technology portfolio, [Department Chief Information Officer Richard] Spires said, and the agency expects to use more open source in the future. Much of the software is secure enough to be integrated into major systems, he said. Read More »
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OSEHRA 2018 - Most Diverse Open Source EHR Summit to Date
This year's three-day OSEHRA Open Source Summit promises to be the most diverse ever, highlighting open source initiatives across a dozen Federal and State agencies, and showcasing industry progress in key areas such as emerging hybrid proprietary/open source interoperability solutions and synthetic patient data generation...This year's agenda includes a combination of engaging track sessions, town-hall discussion, and plenary events. The content will be exceptionally diverse, including: An interoperability platform demonstration drawing healthcare data from multiple health record systems; A demonstration of synthetic patient data generation, including the first public demonstration of tailored synthetic data being loaded into the open source VistA Electronic Health Record (EHR) via a new open source data loader...
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Providing Electronic Access To Public Records Is 'Expensive' And Other Government Excuses For PACER Fees
Steve Schultze at Freedom to Tinker wants to know why the general public is still being asked to pay for access to public records. Since these records are generated using tax dollars, a person would reasonably expect they would be free to access, especially since they're the ones footing the bill... Read More »
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Securing Health Data Means Going Well Beyond HIPAA
A two-decade-old law designed to protect patients’ privacy may be preventing health care organizations from doing more to protect vulnerable health care data from theft or abuse. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established strict rules for how health data can be stored and shared. But in making health care providers vigilant about privacy protection, HIPAA may inadvertently distract providers from focusing on something just as important: overall information security...
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