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Anonymous Taunts North Korea April 04, 2013 The hactivist group Anonymous has taken on North Korea, hacking into the country's official Twitter and Flickr accounts on Wednesday. It reportedly sent out tweets ridiculing the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, and used its Flickr account to portray him in an unflattering light, to put it mildly. It appears that North Korea has regained control of its social media channels since the hack.

SEC Lets Companies Go Social With Market-Moving News April 03, 2013 The Securities and Exchange Commission released a new set of disclosure rules Tuesday that allow executives to use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to update investors about significant corporate announcements that fall under Regulation Fair Disclosure mandates. As long as executives alert their investors about which blog or social networking sites will be used to post announcements, CEOs can fill those online venues with news about their companies.

Feds Crown Winners of Robocall Whacking Contest April 03, 2013 Nothing steams consumers like robocalls, which is why the Federal Trade Commission launched a contest last year calling for ideas to tackle the nuisance. The winners of that challenge were announced Tuesday. Each of two winners will receive $25,000 to bring their robocall solutions to market.

Feds to Spend Big on Big Data April 03, 2013 The mushrooming growth of data generated by government agencies will drive federal IT investment in the necessary tools for managing colossal amounts of bits and bytes. As a result of the explosion in information, the government will be spending increasing amounts of its funds on Big Data capabilities.

Finance Companies Bristle at Public Airing of Consumer Complaints April 02, 2013 The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau announced last week that it has expanded the Consumer Complaint Database it launched last summer, increasing the number of complaints about credit card companies from 19,000 or so to 90,000. The added data comes from additional players such as mortgage companies, banks, private student loan providers and other consumer lenders.

Fed IT Funds Circle Drain Due to Poor Procurement Policies March 27, 2013 Federal agencies routinely pass up opportunities to improve information technology performance, and save money at the same time, by failing to seek vendor competition in the procurement process, according to a recent survey. Federal IT professionals revealed that their agencies could save as much as $15.8 billion per year.

Pentagon Shoots Down Dump-BlackBerry Rumor March 23, 2013 BlackBerry has denied a report that the U.S. Department of Defense has dropped BlackBerry 10 devices from its purchase list. However, the BlackBerry used to be the exclusive mobile device at the Pentagon, and defense officials are sticking with plans to include other commercial devices.

FCC Chair Genachowski Calls It Quits March 22, 2013 Julius Genachowski said Friday that he is stepping down as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a post he has held since 2009. During his tenure, Genachowski faced a number of important issues, including media consolidation, cable and telecom industry competition and cooperation -- and, most notably, a sharp debate over broadband spectrum.

Feds Probe Microsoft Whistleblower's Bribery Accusations March 20, 2013 Two federal agencies are reportedly probing the relationship between Microsoft and business partners in China, Italy and Romania that allegedly bribed foreign officials to land software contracts. Lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating accusations made by a whistleblower who formerly worked for Microsoft in China.

Feds Stoke IT Vendor Competition March 20, 2013 The continuing debates in Washington over federal government spending may be tiring to most Americans. The discussions have ranged from the political primaries a year ago, through the federal elections last fall, and now well into 2013. On the other hand, constant attention to better management of taxpayer funds may yield some better ideas -- and better actions -- for eliminating inefficiencies.

Florida Hack 1st Election Cyberattack to Hit US, Say Pros March 19, 2013 Florida has again made election-related headlines -- this time for an attempted hacking of online election systems during voting last August in Miami-Dade County. It is the first certified case of an online election attack in the U.S. Fraudulent requests for about 2,500 absentee ballots were sent to the election system from various IP addresses, but they were detected by system software and rejected by election workers.

Cyberthreats No. 1 on US Threat Matrix March 13, 2013 A busy week on the U.S. cybersecurity front is pointing toward a renewed emphasis on the nation's digital defenses, a shift underscored by Tuesday's Senate testimony from a top security official that ranked hackers and cyberattacks as greater threats to the country than Al Qaeda and terrorism.

Feds Tiptoe Into Telecommuting Territory March 12, 2013 Yahoo's recently adopted ban on telecommuting is designed to boost creativity and cooperation by having employees work on-site. That may work for the search company, but elsewhere employers regard telework as a useful and productive option. That includes the single largest U.S. employer -- the federal government.

China Suggests Setting Rules for Cyberwar Games March 11, 2013 As it continues to deny accusations that its army is involved in serial computer hacking, China is now also asking for worldwide rules and cooperation on Web-based espionage. China cited the lack of international definitions and regulations on cyberespionage as part of its first round of denials against the landmark report by security firm Mandiant.

Reports: US Cybersecurity Firewalls Built on Shaky Foundations March 08, 2013 A pair of new reports suggest that despite repeated attempts by the Obama administration to beef up U.S. cybersecurity, the nation is not ready to handle a major attack, and government agencies lag far behind deadlines for showing security improvements. Those conclusions are reached by the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Science Board Task Force.

White House Support for Unlocked Phones May Dial Up Pressure on Congress March 05, 2013 The White House agreed Monday with consumers who want to be able to legally unlock their mobile phones and tablets and move them to the carrier of their choice. The Obama administration's statement was in response to a petition on the White House's We The People forum.

German Lawmakers Get Weak on Google March 04, 2013 Google and other aggregators won a partial victory Friday in the lower house of the German parliament, where lawmakers approved legislation that would allow publishers to protect their digital copyrights by charging to fully reproduce their content. Questions remains about whether other countries -- particularly the U.S. -- could follow Germany's example.

US Wants Private Sector to Secure Government Cloud February 27, 2013 The U.S. government has some unique -- and exacting -- security requirements related to the adoption of cloud technology. These internal government security hurdles have resulted in significant outreach to expertise from commercial information technology companies. The latest example is an invitation from the General Services Administration to the private sector to take over a critical element in the security certification of federal cloud deployments.

Federal Cloud Initiatives Starting to Take Shape February 26, 2013 Three to five years in the information technology business may seem like a long time, so it may appear that U.S. government agencies have been pursuing cloud technology for ages; incipient projects began as far back as 2008. It was also more than two years ago that the White House initiated a program to pick up the pace of federal cloud adoption by mandating agencies to deploy cloud solutions for at least two components of their IT operations.

Vendors Sound Off on Legislation Changing Federal IT Purchases February 22, 2013 Information technology vendors who sell hardware and software to the federal market are keenly aware of significant flaws in the way government agencies purchase IT. An effort to reform IT procurement has been conducted by the Obama administration for the last two years -- with some improvement.