State

State not following NIST cloud guidelines, IG report says

State's Systems and Integration Office has made a strong effort to promulgate a mission statement and a set of goals, but lacks adequate controls and procedures to monitor its multi-year contracts, IG report says.

  • By GCN Staff

Should technology let us violate Titanic's gravesite?

We need to respect the human remains at Titanic's wreckage and support the efforts of NOAA and others to protect the site.

  • By John Breeden II

MIT team nabs 3 suspects in State's TAG Challenge, 2 go free

The contest to test social media's ability to work quickly across international borders produces a partial, but still pretty impressive, result.

  • By Kevin McCaney

Light at the end of the continuous-monitoring tunnel

Moving to a risk-management model of cybersecurity with continuous monitoring of systems can be difficult on a tight budget, but the savings can make it all worth the work.

  • By William Jackson

5 thieves, 5 cities, 12 hours: Can Twitter catch them?

A State Department-sponsored contest will test social media's intelligence-gathering power, asking contestants to find a ring of international jewel thieves.

  • By Kathleen Hickey

State Dept., Coast Guard to lash health record systems together

The State Department and Coast Guard will set up an interagency disaster recovery network through which State health care providers can access records of Defense and Veterans Affairs departments' personnel under their care.

  • By Rutrell Yasin

How open-source can improve cloud security

Using open-source software can let organizations draw on a wide range of expertise, which can come in handy after a cyberattack, a State Department official says.

  • By Rutrell Yasin

State Department looks to biometrics for border security

Biometrics could provide a way to automate visitor exits from the United States and identify with more certainty who remains in the country.

  • By Brian Robinson

With an IT overhaul, State beefed up the first line of border defense

Revamping its consular affairs systems gave the State Department the IT prowess to manage a surge of 2 million visa and passport requests a month.

  • By Brian Robinson

OMB's 25-point plan changing the way agencies manage IT

Three federal agency IT leaders offer a snapshot of how they are implementing aspects of the government's 25-point IT plan.

  • By Henry Kenyon

Which agencies rank as the most innovative? The least?

A Partnership for Public Service study asked feds to rate their agencies on whether innovation is encouraged, and whether it's rewarded.

  • By Kevin McCaney

State at odds with GAO over its pioneering security system

The department has been at the forefront in developing a continuous monitoring system for its global network, but officials differ with GAO on what to improve.

  • By William Jackson

US calls out China on cyberattacks as human rights issue

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  • By GCN Staff

Internet-in-a-suitcase would give voice to censored protesters

A U.S. project would give protesters the ability to set up a mobile network when their country’s officials try to restrict free speech by shutting down Internet connections.

  • By Michael Protos
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DOD aims to make classified networks WikiLeaks-proof

Defense Department officials are implementing new procedures to protect the secret-level classified network from the kind of breaches that lead to WikiLeaks exposing diplomatic cables last year.

  • By GCN Staff

State employees' social networking site just around the Corridor

The State Department's eDiplomacy office is testing its new Corridor social network for department employees, according to several online reports.

  • By Alice Lipowicz

Is China out-gunning U.S. in cyber war?

The pace of cyber espionage between China and the United States has accelerated in recent years, and China, with a campaign investigators call 'Byzantine Hades,' may have taken the upper hand, according to a Reuters report citing State Department cables and security experts.

  • By Kevin McCaney

After data center consolidation, beware legacy apps

Federal IT managers detail progress on consolidating data centers and discuss the problems of moving applications to the cloud.

  • By Rutrell Yasin

Report: WikiLeaks source exploited security flaw

A State Department program lacked a feature that might have alerted officials to the unauthorized download of diplomatic cables.

  • By John Stein Monroe

State's Diplopedia could help it avoid a WikiLeaks breach

In the office of eDiplomacy, cables such as the ones leaked to WikiLeaks have been replaced by Diplopedia, a highly secure system by which ambassadors and their staffs can compare notes, pass tips and even offer candid observations on world leaders.

  • By GCN Staff

WikiLeaks impels White House to order classified data security review

The White House is ordering a governmentwide review of information security for classified data after WikiLeaks' release of diplomatic cables.

  • By Alice Lipowicz