With the supersonic speeds that technology advances, it’s hard to imagine that legislation not even a decade old is considered archaic. Whether its the accountability that Internet Providers should face for releasing client information, or what stance the government should take for regulating the video game industry.

So many technologies that we use today are brand new, when compared with how long it usually takes legislation to pass through Washington. When legislation does get past, it doesn’t take it long before it’s considered out-dated either. The quick advancement in the technology sector, specifically the internet leads to some odd interpretations of the law.

These interpretations lead to questions like: Should a struggling family with a daughter in the hospital be liable to a multi-thousand dollar lawsuit for downloading music? Is the content in video games not as susceptible to the law, as other forms of evidence?

Perhaps a good start, is to make sure our government is using updated computer technology, and not six year old versions of Windows. It’s imperative that our officials begin to grasp everything about the implications that the internet, and other forms of technology has on society.

I’m not saying that the US go completely the way of South Korea, but could possibly get inspiration. During the economic crisis of the late 90’s, South Korea heavily began investing government money in the video game sector. They opened up gaming cafes that quickly began making a surge, which then helped to revitalize the economy. There were problems to be sure, with the almost epidemic ‘internet addiction’ problem. Which the government has instituted programs for.

I’m not saying that the US government should get as involved as the South Korean’s did, but maybe we can take a page from their book. We need as many tech experts advising our politicians in Washington as much as possible. They need to anticipate questions of the law as we advance with our technology. Instead of having to wait to see what happens before action is taken.

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For those wanting to know how invested Obama will be towards technology, you have an answer. According to BBC, Obama has called upon Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems to write a proposal on open source software.

$400 billion, that’s an estimate of how much the US spends in proprietary software in a given year. You can believe a huge chunk of that change is coming from our government. Now, don’t get me wrong that $400 billion goes to providing jobs for people, and is overall good for the public sector. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s what our government should be engaging in.

It always bring a smile to my face, when the government looks at ways to cut spending. Not to mention that doing could also greatly enhance the security of our infrastructure. Open Source is a wonderful place to start, and in the long run could easily save the government billions of dollars in spending.

So, I just wanted to send a kudos out to Obama for looking into the wonderful world of Open Source. Here’s hoping you take a gander at McNealy’s proposal and find a legitimate software investment for the government.

[via: BBC]

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As we watch the swearing in of the new president today, there’s going to be quite a bit of action taking place behind the scenes. One factor you might not be able to see is how technology will play a key role in the inauguration. From security, to the strain put on wireless connections, it will all be apparent.

The security that will be present at Obama’s inauguration looks to be staggering. There’ll be hundreds of people in charge of protecting the president, not to mention the armoured assault vehicle, and the toughened bomb containment chamber.

via: newscientist

The largest technological impact of the inauguration is the strain that wireless companies will face throughout the day. With nearly 2 million people poised to show up, it’s one of the largest events to take place in quite some time. With many of the people there with cell phones, wireless carriers have tried to reach out. They want people to limit calling, and sending of photos to a minimum. This is quite rare for carriers to reach out to customers to limit cell phone use.

Social Networking will also play a key role in today’s event. Facebook, and other networks are anticipating a huge spike in activity when the inauguration goes underway. Twitter is expecting double the regular usage as this Tuesday unfolds.

It’s quite an exciting day indeed, just from a technical outlook.

[via: WebProNews]

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As we inch closer and closer to tax season, this year could easily be the most important I’ve seen in my lifetime (since 1984). As more people continue to lose jobs, there will be many things to keep an eye on as we fill out the various tax forms. Will Obama be able to keep his campaign promise of no taxes for anyone below $200k/year? How will the proposed $800 billion stimulus package fit into all of this?

One question you might not be asking, but you should be is, ‘Is all of our tax information safe?’

According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and Government Accountability Office there should definitely be cause for concern. After reading the initial report, and the document its based on I’m utterly shocked by the vulnerabilities the IRS has left open with its systems.

Here is a list of the problems that the GAO was able to find within the IRS’ system:

• enforce strong password management for properly identifying and authenticating users;
• authorize user access, including access to personally identifiable information, to permit only the access needed to perform job functions;
• encrypt certain sensitive data;
• effectively monitor changes on its mainframe; and
• physically protect its computer resources.

What I find so puzzling is that most of the problems that the GAO found seem so easy to fix. After glancing through some of the more important parts of the report, the lack of strong password usage was a key issue. It seems like that all it should take is increasing the standards of complexity when creating a password for a user.

The other key issue that I found odd is the lack of monitoring on users when they are inside the system. These are the people that are viewing our data, with all the information about our social security numbers, bank accounts etc… You’d think that every action that they take while in the system is somehow being monitored.

I can be more forgiving on the problems that are found in terms of encryption, and the more technical aspects of security. But to be having problems with password management, and monitoring? It’s inexcusable, and definitely leaves me with a worse feeling than I already had with the IRS.

To be fair, the report also mentioned that the IRS was improving in some of their key areas. 49 of the 115 vulnerabilities that had recently been uncovered, had been addressed by the IRS. Here are some of those problems.

• implemented controls for unauthenticated network access and user IDs on the mainframe,
• encrypted sensitive data going across its network,
• improved the patching of critical vulnerabilities, and
• updated contingency plans to document critical business processes.

As Obama seems to have a heavy focus on technology, hopefully the security issues of the IRS get front stage. As the economy continues to struggle, the last thing we need is having our tax dollars put in jeopardy because of a lacking password structure.

[via: ComputerWorld]

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