Newsbriefs

Office of Management and Budget privacyguidance on agencies' use of commercial databrokers is ambiguous, several witnesses testifiedat House hearings this month.Lawmakers are concerned that agenciesoften aren't as stringent about privacy whendealing with reseller data as with data theycollect themselves. Therefore, they are consideringa law to regulate agencies' use ofcommercial data brokers.State and local law enforcement agencies arestrengthening their links with Online Secret,the National Counter Terrorism Center's classifiedonline information repository, accordingto the center's director.To increase the site's usefulness, theInteragency Threat Assessment CoordinationGroup is preparing an outreach effort toexplain to users what intelligence they canfind on Online Secret and how to access it.Prominent contractors could be barred fromgovernment work as a result of a recentlypassed House measure, Rep. Tom Davis(R-Va.) said.The Contractors and Federal SpendingAccountability Act would create a centralizeddatabase to monitor contractor performance.Intended for reference use by federal contractingofficers, Davis said, it also wouldallow the creation of a blacklist to intimidatevendors and impose a virtually automatic banon some contractors under a controversialtwo-strikes-and-you're-out provision.A proposed rule aims to clarify for contractingofficers several procurement rules forsmall-business set-asides.For example, for contracts greater than$100,000, federal contracting officers mustlook at 8(a), Historically UnderutilizedBusiness Zone or veteran-owned small businessesbefore letting all small businesses bid.The comment period for the proposed ruleruns through May 9.Johns Hopkins University's Applied PhysicsLaboratory will do independent testing of thenext-generation technology system that theHomeland Security Department plans todeploy later this year to secure the borderwith Mexico.DHS hired Boeing in December to developthe new command and control center andcommon operating picture system, whichofficials say will replace much of the systemBoeing created under Project 28 in Arizona.While the Homeland Security Departmentprepares a prototype for protecting the country'snorthern border, new technologiesalready are being tested in the field, aCustoms and Border Protection reportstates.The federal government is adding borderpatrol agents and improving infrastructureand technologies to protect the border, thereport states.A federal judge ordered the General ServicesAdministration to stop all work on the$50 billion Alliant contract, ruling that theagency failed to consistently apply its awardcriteria when assessing the bids of the 62vendors.The judge, however, left the door open forthe contract to go forward.The contracting team must determine howto proceed, but scrapping the contract is notone of the options they will consider.The Maryland information technology communityis fighting hard against a sales taxpassed by the state legislature in Novemberand set to take effect July 1.Although it's a state tax, any governmentcontractor doing business with a federalagency in the state will feel its impact: Itrequires companies to pay a 6 percent tax onthe sale of computer services.The new Air Force Cyber Command issued astrategic vision statement outlining its goal ofstrengthening cyberspace capabilities todefend national interests.The Cyber Command's vision is to developcapabilities to defend against cyberattacks,respond to hostile attackers in cyberspaceand integrate those abilities with the military'sother systems.The Business Software Alliance wantsCongress to fully fund high-tech initiatives inPresident Bush's fiscal 2009 budget.Those initiatives include cybercrimeefforts, technology used by the FBI and internationaltrade. BSA also wants Congress toimprove the nation's patent system andincrease data security.Online gaming and virtual worlds are targetsfor federal data-mining research as a possiblesource of intelligence about terrorist activity,a report by the Office of the Director ofNational Intelligence said.The goal of the project, called Reynard,which is French for fox, is to "determine thefeasibility of automatically detecting suspiciousbehavior and actions in the virtualworld," according to ODNI.The Defense Department is workingwith contractors to shore up data security ontheir internal networks one company at atime.DOD is negotiating agreements with individualcompanies ? starting with large integrators? to protect sensitive or controlledbut unclassified information on their internalnetworks, a DOD official said.The Canada Border Services Agency willrelease a draft this month of its updatedsecurity measures for Canadian transportationand trade companies that want preferentialtreatment in trade with the UnitedStates.The new measures will go into effect June30 if the agency approves the draft provisionsafter the comment period.