According to this piece in Federal Computer Week, the National Security Agency plans to create a government-funded research center devoted to “improving the security of commercial software.” The effort would include researchers at NSA and NIST, and researchers funded by DARPA, and the Department of Homeland Security. From the article: The quality and trustworthiness of […]
Herb Lin sends word that the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) is seeking comments and white papers “relevant to the use of electronic voting systems.” Serious comments and white papers need to be received by November 22, 2004. CALL FOR INPUT — NRC Project on Electronic Voting A large number of American voters will […]
As expected, the Senate yesterday passed HR 4516, the High End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004, which would authorize the creation of a “leadership class” supercomputer at DOE and a “High-end Software Development Center.” The bill is expected to be re-passed in the House during a lame-duck session and signed by the President. The bill […]
Wired reports that the Senate could enable, as part of it’s National Intelligence Reform Act, work on a system “that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans.” The proposed network is based on the Markle Foundation Task Force’s December […]
According to the Washington Post, IBM will announce today that its Blue Gene/L supercomputer has moved ahead of Japan’s Earth Simulator in speed, posting a working speed of 36.01 teraflops (versus the Earth Simulator’s 35.86 teraflops). As we’ve covered a few times here on the blog, the spectre of having the Japanese in the top […]
The San Jose Mercury News’ Dan Gillmor has an interesting piece on DARPA’s “Strong Angel II“, a program aimed at developing techniques for “critical information management within austere environments.” From the article: KONA, HAWAII – They were soldiers and sailors, doctors and relief workers, technologists and managers. Over the course of a few days, they […]
Thanks to Jeff Grove of ACM for pointing out this story (subscription req’d), by William New, in National Journal’s Tech Daily (sub req’d) covering remarks by Department of Homeland Security Chief Security Officer Jack Johnson, DHS Chief Information Officer Steve Cooper, and FAA Deputy Director Thomas O’Keefe suggesting the great need for information security professionals […]
On Tuesday, National Science Foundation Director Arden Bement met with the Coalition for National Science Funding (of which CRA is a member) and warned the science community CNSF represents to lower expectations of increased funding for the agency in the near-term, saying the expectation of budget-doubling, as authorized by Congress and the President in 2002, […]
Researchers from Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina released a study today that suggests that illegal downloading of songs via P2P networks is not having a significant effect on legitimate music sales and in many cases may help album sales. The Washington Post has the story. A few choice paragraphs: Songs that […]
The folks at UCSD Computer Science and Engineering and the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) put their “Network Telescope” to good work in analyzing the spread of the Witty Worm. From their analysis: Witty was the first widely propagated Internet worm to carry a destructive payload. Witty was started in an organized manner […]
