Raytheon said the center will focus on developing open architecture and open communications standards to assist public safety agencies in their daily operations and incident response processes.

Raytheon will demonstrate a vendor-neutral communications network for first responders at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.

Raytheon will also demonstrate:

• A system for locating the source of a discharged firearm
• A search-and-rescue tool for cutting through concrete walls

Daniel Crowley, Raytheon president of network centric systems, said the company partners with public safety agencies to develop new capabilities and bring in new partners.

Raytheon partnered with UCLA’s school of engineering to create a public safety network systems laboratory and the lab held its first workshop in December.

Raytheon said the center builds on its presence in California, where the company has more than 11,000 employees and all six Raytheon businesses represented in the state.

Photo: Christopher Hall

Agencies are increasingly implementing policies to allow employees to bring their own mobile devices to work, according to a CDW Government report.

CDW surveyed 414 federal employees and information staff and found that about 62 percent of federal agencies have policies in place for employees to bring their own devices.

According to CDW, 89 percent said using their own mobile devices at work would improve productivity and 69 percent said increased mobility will enhance the ability of federal employees to carry out agency missions.

President Obama issued an executive order in November 2011 asking agencies to reduce the amount of IT devices given to workers.

Photo: NIST.gov

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will increase its focus on big data and increased use of mobile devices in 2012, a NIST lab director told InformationWeek. 

NIST Information Technology Laboratory Director Chuck Romaine said that NIST is working to issue standards for big data technologies.

NIST helped publish a report in 2009 that discusses how to harness big data. 

Romaine said NIST is is also working to develop standards in regard to wireless network technologies. 

According to InformationWeek, NIST will also work on a strategic planning process to engage private sector and industry in determining technologies the agency should focus on in the future.

Romaine said NIST, which creates standards under the Federal Information Security Management Act, will continue to focus on cybersecurity standards as he does not see it disappearing in the foreseeable future, the report said.

The new center was formerly located in Alexandria, Va. and Symantec also operates centers in Australia, India and the UK.

Brian Dunphy, a Symantec senior product management director, said the new center provides nearly twice the amount of technical staff.

The security operations centers track known and emerging threats and analyze more than 12 million logs per day.

Photo By: Miosw

The General Services Administration is exploring a purchase of tablet computers and wants to know if U.S. small businesses have what the agency would want.

In a request for information, GSA said the tablets must be manufactured by a small business in the U.S. and meet encryption standards established by the National Institutes of Technology.

GSA is asking respondents to include previous and current agencies that are using the tablet, where the tablet is made and what operating system the tablet uses.

GSA is requiring the tablets have a screen size of between 7 and 11 inches in height, between 4 and 8 inches in width and less than one inch in diameter.

GSA is also requiring the tablets weigh no more than two pounds and have:

• Application support
• Built-in camera
• Data wipe capabilities if lost or stolen
• Eight hours minimum of battery life
• Internet browser support
• Touch screen
• VPN and remote access capabilities
• Wi-Fi access

Photo: Stasys Eidiejus

The U.S. has closed its embassy in Syria but could still use social media to communicate with Syrians, NextGov reports.

Experts told NextGov that State Department officials could still interact with Syrian activists and citizens on Facebook or Twitter.

The department has not confirmed plans to conduct a virtual embassy, similar to what was done in December for Tehran, the report said.

The department launched a virtual embassy site for Iran in December and posts information about visas, statements from officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other topics.

According to the OpenNet Initiative, nearly 20 percent of Syrians and 30 percent of Iranians can access the Internet.

Collin Anderson, an independent researcher, told NextGov that a website for Syria could easily transition to the structure of the website for Iran.

Anderson also said social media has an audience that has not already formed an opinion on an issue.

NASA image

NASA is accepting proposals for low-cost flight demonstration of small satellite technologies through the agency’s Edison program.

NASA said the program is intended to demonstrate communication systems, proximity operations and propulsion systems.

In a broad agency announcement, NASA said the program is part of an effort to lower the threshold for accessing space and expand the small-space community.

Executive summaries of proposals are due March 4 and selected projects must be completed within two to three years and cost no more than $15 million.

NASA will work with selected applicants to conduct demonstration flights.

NIST’s Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology said the 700 megahertz spectrum range, known as the D block, for public safety is attractive because of its propagation and penetration characteristics.

The panel did not take a position on whether the D block should be allocated to public safety.

The panel said public safety could also unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 gigahertz to 5  gigahertz range, television white space and 60-to-100 gigahertz range.

The paper also suggests Internet protocols will be necessary components for the network since they incorporate data, voice and video communication.

A network based on Internet would be more flexible and can bridge new technologies into present designs, the paper said.

The panel also recommended the network use authentication more advanced than passwords, easily replaceable, interoperable and rugged equipment and established standards that permit interoperable devices.

The panel did not release a definite plan of action but said creating a framework for cooperation is the most productive avenue for progress on developing the network. 

Photo: Christopher Hall

The Interior Department launched a portal Thursday allowing employees to access the agency’s network on mobile devices, Federal News Radio reports. 

“Any device that will access a network can access this new system that we’re launching today,” Andrew Jackson, deputy assistant secretary for technology, information and business services, said to Federal News Radio.

Interior employees can now access the internal network using an Apple or Android device, for example, to record his time and attendance. 

Jackson said the department is aiming to give employees more flexibility to get work done while reducing some of the department’s device management costs. 

The department also aims to allow employees to have mobile access to the department’s internal email and Sharepoint systems.

Photo: Juanjo Tugores

 In a 2010 strategic concept report, NATO said cyber attacks were becoming more damaging to government administrations and economies.

NATO leaders are meeting in Brussels, Belgium this week but cybersecurity measures from the organization are still not clear because NATO is not sure of what to do in the event of a major cyber attack, Wired reports.

NATO is also unsure of what it needs to protect.

“We need to think these things through,” said Jamie Shea, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, according to Wired.

Shea added that NATO is focusing primarily on developing defensive strategies in cyberspace.

NATO is also unsure of its level of involvement in the event of a cyberattack because countries such as the U.S. have mostly private information infrastructures for cyberspace.

Other countries in Europe have government involvement in developing information infrastructures.