Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Feds Update IT Plan Following Obama's 'Horrible' Comment
Feds Update IT Plan Following Obama's 'Horrible' Comment
Computerworld — WASHINGTON - Last week, President Barack Obama described federal IT as " horrible ," and on Wednesday, Jeff Zients, the federal chief performance officer, explained why this is the case.
At a gathering of federal IT officials, Zients said the federal government is behind the private sector in realizing productivity gains from its IT investments.
With slides on a screen, Zients pointed to towering private sector productivity gains, in contrast to the government, over a roughly 25-year period. The private sector has seen on average 1.5% gain each year in productivity. "The federal government hasn't kept up," Zients said.
Zients said that at least until the mid-1990s the federal government's productivity gains were only one-third of the private sector. The government then cut the funding used to track productivity gains (a point that drew audience chuckles), but private sector studies show that the government continues to lag behind, he said.
Zients put the best face on the government's problem. "I think there is a hidden opportunity here -- I like to think of it as the federal government's late mover-advantage," he said.
A late mover-advantage, he said, is an opportunity to learn what has and what hasn't worked in other sectors. "Because the government is behind, the potential for the upside is substantial," Zients said.
Federal IT officials have already embarked on number of efforts to improve federal IT, including data center consolidations and a shift to cloud services, particularly for services such as email and collaboration.
At this meeting, federal officials also sketched out plans to consolidate some of the government's 20,000 Web sites, and to shift to self-service to create more IRS-like results in electronic government.
It cost the IRS, for instance, 17 cents to process a tax return filed electronically, which is 5% of the cost of paper processing, said Zients. About 70% of the returns are now filed electronically.
In terms of data center consolidations, the U.S. plans to close 137 data centers this year, representing 325,000 square-feet in space, said Vivek Kundra , the federal CIO.
The U.S. has more than 2,000 data centers now, and he wants to reduce the number to about 800.
Kundra said the government has identified 950,000 email boxes across 100 email systems that can be moved to the cloud.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now moving 120,000 users' cloud-based email, including Web conferencing, document collaboration, and instant messaging, under an agreement it announced in December withMicrosoft and Dell .
Kathleen Merrigan, the deputy secretary of agriculture, said that 17,000 employees are already on the cloud-based system, and the department is adding 1,600 people a night to it. The migration is expected to be completed by year-end.
Kundra said he isn't worried about the security issues raised by the cloud. "The risks are being overly hyped," said Kundra, pointing to the government's outsourcing of 4,700 systems to private vendors.
He said the risks with cloud are made case by case, as they are with any deployment.
Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov or subscribe toPatrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com .
Read more about it in government in Computerworld's IT in Government Topic Center.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Congressman: A hacker placed lewd photo on Twitter account
A weekend controversy involving a lewd photo posted on the Twitter account of Rep. Anthony Weiner is a "prank" caused by a hacker, Weiner told CNN on Monday.Weiner, a New York Democrat who is one of the leading liberal voices in the House, blamed the photo on a hacker who got control of his social networking accounts.
"Look, this is a prank and not a terribly creative one," Weiner told CNN in an exclusive interview Monday, adding: "I was hacked. It happens to people. You move on."
However, Weiner's spokesman, Dave Arnold, said the congressman has retained an attorney to look into the situation.
"We've retained counsel to explore the proper next steps and to advise us on what civil or criminal actions should be taken," Arnold said in a statement. "This was a prank. We are loath to treat it as more, but we are relying on professional advice."
The Capitol Police and FBI told CNN they're not currently investigating.
The website biggovernment.com, run by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, first reported the photo of a man's lower body in underwear being posted on Weiner's Twitter account in connection with a tweet to a Seattle woman.
The woman, identified as a 21-year-old college student, subsequently issued a statement to the New York Daily News in which she said she never had met Weiner though she followed him on Twitter and had once jokingly referred to him as her "boyfriend" in a tweet.
She indicated that the post had come from someone other than Weiner, and added that "this person had harassed me many times."
"I am not sure whether or not this letter will alleviate any future harassment," said the statement by Gennette Nicole Cordova, published Sunday by the Daily News. "I also do not have a clear understanding as to how or why exactly I am involved in this fiasco. I do know that my life has been seriously impacted by speculation and faulty allegations. My reputation has been called into question by those who lack the character to report the facts."
Breitbart, who has been involved in questionable tactics against Democrats and liberals in the past, said in a statement that the case warrants further investigation.
"What we know is that a link to a lewd photo was published from a sitting congressman's Twitter account, directed at a female recipient, whom he was 'following,' but visible to everyone," Breitbart's statement said. "Two broad possibilities exist: (1) the congressman's Twitter account (and perhaps other accounts) were hacked, or (2) the congressman or someone with authorized access to his Twitter account sent the photo."
Breitbart called for "forensic analysis to determine the veracity of Congressman Weiner's hacking allegation, which certainly bears criminal implications," as well as further investigation of other women linked to Weiner through Twitter.
Weiner called the story a "distraction" and insinuated political opponents were trying to use it to deflect attention from their own troubles.
"Look, you've got the Republicans who are playing games with the debt limit, you've got a Supreme Court justice who's refusing to recuse himself despite conflicts of interest, you have a health care act that's under siege. You know this is a distraction," he told CNN. "I get it."
After the photo was posted and then taken down, Weiner tweeted about it over the weekend, including one that said his Facebook account had been hacked.
"Is my blender gonna attack me next?" the tweet said.
The photo and others posted on Weiner's account have been taken down, and Cordova also has removed her Facebook and Twitter accounts. In her letter to the Daily News, she said she recognized the Twitter account of the tweet that sent her the photo.
"Friday evening I logged onto Twitter to find that I had about a dozen new mentions in less than an hour, which is a rare occurrence," Cordova's letter said. "When I checked one of the posts that I had been tagged in, I saw that it was a picture that had supposedly been tweeted to me by Congressman Anthony Weiner. The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the congressman and harassing his supporters."
Last year, Breitbart posted online a heavily edited and incomplete video of a speech by U.S. Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod that suggested she refused to offer her full help to a white farmer. Sherrod was forced to resign, but a full version of the speech showed that Sherrod had assisted the farmer, who later came forward and credited Sherrod with helping save his farm.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack later apologized to Sherrod, and President Barack Obama called her.
Sherrod has filed a civil suit accusing Breitbart of defamation, false light and infliction of emotional distress, according to a statement issued by the law firm representing her.
CNN's Dana Bash and Kiran Khalid contributed to this story.
Week 1: As Casey Anthony murder trial begins, mysteries remain
Orlando On the fourth day of jury selection for the Florida v. Casey Anthony murder trial, potential juror No. 1 may have captured public sentiment best. He said he wanted to serve on the case to "try and solve the mystery ... the mystery to me is fascinating."The sentiment may be shared by multitudes of people who have followed the case since the mystery began in summer 2008.
As week one of the trial comes to a close, capped off Saturday by the compelling testimony of Casey's mother, Cindy Anthony, an outsider to the case can only speculate if the jurors feel the truth is coming into focus.
After all, jurors have been given two truths to choose from about the defendant, Casey Anthony, 25, charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. Her body was found dumped less than a mile from the family home six months after she was last seen.
The prosecution
From the prosecution, the jurors have heard about a Casey free of remorse who had an affinity for parties, drinking and sleepovers with men. In Tuesday's opening statements, the jury heard about nearly all the 31 days Casey waited before reporting Caylee missing.
Those days included getting a tattoo, participating in a "hot body" contest at an Orlando club, many Caylee-free nights at her then-boyfriend Anthony Lazzaro's apartment and many, many lies, the prosecution said.
"No one else benefited from the death of Caylee Marie Anthony" said assistant state attorney Linda Drane-Burdick in her opening statements Tuesday. "Caylee's death allowed Casey to live a good life, at least for those 31 days."
Prosecutors allege Casey forced Caylee to inhale chloroform and then suffocated her by placing duct tape on the toddler's nose and mouth.
The defense
From the defense, jurors were presented with a loving mother, whose dysfunctional family forced her to live in a state of denial. They argue the family held dark secrets, including that Casey was sexually abused by her father and brother.
RELATED TOPICS
"It all began when Casey was 8 years old and her father came in and began to touch her inappropriately," Anthony's lead defense attorney, Jose Baez, said during his opening arguments Tuesday.
The defense says Caylee drowned in the family pool as the result of what Baez called "an accident that snowballed out of control." He said it was an accident to which Casey's father, George Anthony, was privy. Baez said George Anthony tried to cover up the drowning at Casey's expense.
"As soon as Casey came around this corner and went back she saw George holding Caylee in his arms," Baez said as he showed a diagram of the Anthony home and pool. "And shortly thereafter George began to yell at her, 'Look what you've done!'"
George Anthony was the first witness called after Baez's opening argument. He denied the molestation and any knowledge of the alleged drowning.
The witnesses
The prosecution team has brought in witnesses ranging from ex-boyfriends to women who partied with Casey. But even those who knew her best seemed to be describing two very different people.
When asked by prosecutors if Casey's behavior changed after June 16, 2008, the date on which Caylee was last seen, witnesses including Lazzaro and his roommates, who spent time with her during the 31 days, said Casey was her usual self. They said she was friendly and upbeat, never mentioning that her daughter was missing and making excuses for the toddler's whereabouts.
When pressed by Baez, the same witnesses affirmed Casey was a good mom with a strong bond with her daughter. In fact, during Friday's testimony, Mallory Parker, the fiancee of Casey's brother Lee, broke down on the stand as she described the relationship between Casey and Caylee as "amazing."
All this was topped off with the compelling testimony of George and Cindy Anthony.
George Anthony has been brought to the witness stand on three days, on Friday recounting the day he retrieved Casey's abandoned car from an Orlando tow yard. When pressed by Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, the former police officer said the odor that came from his daughter's car smelled like a human corpse.
Saturday, Cindy Anthony described the answers given to her when she questioned Casey about her whereabouts and the whereabouts of Caylee during the month before her mother reported Caylee missing. According to Cindy Anthony, Casey explained the absence by telling her Caylee was with a nanny while Casey was busy with work meetings and trips to other cities to visit a "wealthy suitor."
Casey's demeanor
If the jurors are looking for answers in Casey's face, they may come away empty-handed. While Casey has broken down in court on several occasions, particularly when the subject turns to her relationship with Caylee, she is often stoic as she hears the recollections of the men and women who once made up her life.
On Saturday, Casey was essentially stone-faced until a court recess in the middle of her mother's testimony. Then Casey was seen sobbing and speaking passionately to her attorneys. The defendant regained composure when her mother retook the stand.
Looking ahead
While many questions remain, weeks lie ahead in the trial, so there is hope for a clearer picture of Casey and those 31 days. Court will resume on Tuesday with the continuation of Cindy Anthony's testimony.
Casey Anthony will continue to fight for her life as she faces seven counts, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading police in the death of her daughter.
Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters
Cairo A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities.The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks.
At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."
But now a senior general who asked not to be identified said the virginity tests were conducted and defended the practice.
"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs)."
RELATED TOPICS
The general said the virginity checks were done so that the women wouldn't later claim they had been raped by Egyptian authorities.
"We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," the general said. "None of them were (virgins)."
This demonstration occurred nearly a month after Egypt's longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid a wave of popular and mostly peaceful unrest aimed at his ouster and the institution of democratic reforms.
Afterward, Egypt's military -- which had largely stayed on the sidelines of the revolution -- officially took control of the nation's political apparatus as well, until an agreed-upon constitution and elections.
The March 9 protest occurred in Tahrir Square, which became famous over 18 historic and sometimes bloody days and nights of protests that led to Mubarak's resignation.
But unlike in those previous demonstrations, the Egyptian military targeted the protesters. Soldiers dragged dozens of demonstrators from the square and through the gates of the landmark Egyptian Museum.
Salwa Hosseini, a 20-year-old hairdresser and one of the women named in the Amnesty report, described to CNN how uniformed soldiers tied her up on the museum's grounds, forced her to the ground and slapped her, then shocked her with a stun gun while calling her a prostitute.
"They wanted to teach us a lesson," Hosseini said soon after the Amnesty report came out. "They wanted to make us feel that we do not have dignity."
The treatment got worse, Hosseini said, when she and the 16 other female prisoners were taken to a military detention center in Heikstep.
There, she said, she and several of other female detainees were subjected to a "virginity test."
"We did not agree for a male doctor to perform the test," she said. But Hosseini said her captors forced her to comply by threatening her with more stun-gun shocks.
"I was going through a nervous breakdown at that moment," she recalled. "There was no one standing during the test, except for a woman and the male doctor. But several soldiers were standing behind us watching the backside of the bed. I think they had them standing there as witnesses."
The senior Egyptian general said the 149 people detained after the March 9 protest were subsequently tried in military courts, and most have been sentenced to a year in prison.
Authorities later revoked those sentences "when we discovered that some of the detainees had university degrees, so we decided to give them a second chance," he said.
The senior general reaffirmed that the military council was determined to make Egypt's democratic transition a success.
"The date for handover to a civil government can't come soon enough for the ruling military council," he said. "The army can't wait to return to its barracks and do what it does best -- protect the nation's borders."
NATO apologizes for Afghan airstrike that it says killed 9 civilians
Kabul, Afghanistan A coalition commander offered his alliance's "sincere apologies" Sunday for an airstrike that he said killed nine civilians in southern Afghanistan.Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the head of the International Security Assistance Force's command in southwest Afghanistan, said his apology was being made "on behalf of the coalition" and its top leaders, including U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus. He pleaded with Afghans to not only forgive, but also to work with coalition forces in hopes of bolstering their security.
"I offer our heartfelt apologies to the families and friends of those killed," Toolan said in a statement. "I ask that the Afghan people continue to trust and assist their security forces, so that together we can stop the senseless killing brought upon us by an enemy who wants to exploit the Afghan people through fear and violence."
Earlier, Afghan and NATO officials said that Saturday's attack in Helmand province killed a dozen children and two women. There was no immediate explanation for the disparity between this figure and the toll of nine civilians killed offered Sunday by Toolan, who also noted that a U.S. Marine was killed immediately before the strike.
The strike provoked the ire of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who strongly condemned the airstrike and insisted he was warning the U.S military and government "for the last time" on behalf of the Afghan people about civilian deaths. He called the operation a mistake, but offered a different death toll, saying 10 children, two women and two men were killed.
According to Toolan's statement, the strike occurred after coalition troops came under attack in Helmand's Now Zad district, leading to the death of the American Marine.
Five insurgents then moved into a compound, where they continued to fire, the ISAF commander said. An airstrike was then ordered on this building "to neutralize the threat."
Residents claimed that projectiles coming from a coalition helicopter hit two houses where women and children were staying, ISAF spokesman Daud Ahamadi had said earlier.
"Unfortunately, the compound the insurgents purposefully occupied was later discovered to house innocent civilians," Toolan said in his statement..
Even as a full investigation into the incident continues, the ISAF commander said, "We will ensure we make amends to the families (of those killed) in accordance with Afghan culture."
Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold that borders Pakistan, has been the scene of intense fighting this month since insurgents launched their so-called spring offensive.
Anger in Afghanistan and Pakistan over civilian casualties has mounted in recent months following NATO airstrikes that have killed dozens along their shared border.
In March, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered a personal apology to Afghan President Karzai for the killings of nine boys in a helicopter attack targeting insurgents.
The top coalition commander in Afghanistan has warned of a likely increase in high-profile attacks by insurgents looking to demonstrate their ability to strike. In a letter this month to ISAF forces, Petraeus said the attacks may increase the risk of civilian casualties and put Afghan and ISAF forces in difficult situations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)