TechUpdate

Summary

November 2015 Blue Mountain Data Systems

For CTOs, CIOs & CISOs

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For CTOs, CIOs & CISOs

Every business day, we publish a Daily Tech Update for Federal & State CTOs ,CIOs & CISOs on the

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Here’s the summary of the Daily Tech Updates for November 2015. Hope the information and ideas

prove useful.

Best,Paul VeselyPresident and Principal ArchitectBlue Mountain Data Systems Inc.

Big DataSOFTWARE: How Apache Kafka is Greasing the Wheels for Big Data. Analytics is often described as one of the biggest challenges associated with big data, but even before that step can happen, data has to be ingested and made available to enterprise users. That’s where Apache Kafka comes in. Originally developed at LinkedIn, Kafka is an open-source system for managing real-time streams of data from websites, applications and sensors. Read more[COMPUTERWORLD.COM]

ACCURACY: Improving the Accuracy of Big Data Analysis. Big data may hold a lot of potential, but it can still be held back if the data being analyzed is inaccurate. Due to restrictions on technology and other business considerations, the analyses companies are getting back may not reflect what is really happening. If businesses want to ensure their big data insights get the desired results, they need to improve the accuracy in their analytics efforts. Read more[DATACONOMY.COM]

Open SourceGOOGLE: Offers Up Its Entire Machine Learning Library as Open-Source Software. Via its research blog, Google announced that it was releasing the second generation of its machine learning framework as an open-source library called TensorFlow. According to Google Technical Lead Rajat Monga and Google Senior Fellow Jeff Dean, “We’ve open-sourced TensorFlow as a standalone library and associated tools, tutorials, and examples with the Apache 2.0 license so you’re free to use TensorFlow at your institution (no matter where you work).” Read more[MOTHERBOARD.VICE.COM]

FEDERAL IT: Open Source Software Gains Traction in Federal IT. “If you don’t innovate in the open, you are missing an orders-of-magnitude opportunity to discover something,” says Greg Godbout, CTO of the EPA. A former executive director of GSA’s digital team 18F, Godbout says he used to think of open source code as inferior to proprietary code. But his opinion changed. “The very core of our citizen government is open sourced,” he says. Read more [FEDSCOOP.COM]

Open SourceAZURE MARKETPLACE: Yellowfin And Microsoft Launch Free Cloud BI Environment. Microsoft and Yellowfin have launched a business intelligence (BI) offering that will be available for free from Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. The product will help businesses deploy an enterprise-grade BI environment in just a few clicks, allowing organisations to start analysing the information they hold straight away and helping them make sense of the large, complex data issues they face every day to create real insights. Read more[CLOUDPRO.CO.UK]

MICROSOFT: Azure Welcomes MariaDB Open-Source Database. The Microsoft-Red Hat deal wasn’t the only cloud-related development with an impact on Azure. Microsoft announced a wide-ranging cloud partnership with Red Hat, an alliance between once-fierce rivals that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Red Hat Executive Vice President Paul Cormier stated, “This will help customers embrace hybrid cloud computing by providing greater choice and flexibility.” Read more [EWEEK.COM]

Application DevelopmentRMAD: Rapid Mobile Application Development (RMAD) and its Pros and Cons. Rapid Mobile Application Development (RMAD) is a term introduced by the analyst firm Gartner to describe user-friendly solutions that allow business professionals to build and deliver cross-platform mobile apps quickly and easily, increasing efficiency and time-to-market. Discover the pros and cons of RMAD. Read more[TECH.CO]

APPLE’S SWIFT: Takes First Steps Toward Android App Development. Developers can use available workarounds today, but the coming open-sourced Swift will be the real enabler. Apple’s Swift language, initially intended for iOS and OS X applications, will become available for Android development as part of Apple’s decision to open-source Swift. But developers can start using Swift now for Android. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

Application DevelopmentMOBILE APPS: Post-Paris Attacks, IBM Launches First Responder App Contest. In the wake of the ISIS terror attacks in Paris, many technology companies are looking ahead and preparing for the worst. Disaster recovery is a new focus for some, while others have had their eye on the target for much longer. IBM, for example, announced a contest this week that gives developers access to its cloud Relevant Products/Services to encourage disaster response-related app development. Read more[CIOTODAY.COM]

SHAREPOINT: 4 Things Mobile Users Should Anticipate in SharePoint 2016. The release of Microsoft SharePoint 2016 brings some benefits for mobile users and marks another positive mobility shift for Microsoft. Enterprise mobile users may find more to like in the upcoming Microsoft SharePoint 2016. Read more[TECHREPUBLIC.COM]

Application DevelopmentAGILE DEVELOPMENT AT USCIS: How USCIS Went Agile and Open to Move Application Process Online. Fixing a ‘broken’ immigration system has not been easy. Each year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service processes 6 million applications, and the paper-based system sometimes requires documents to change hands and locations among various federal actors at least six times, according to a recent White House report. The first thing CIO Mark Schwartz and Kathleen Stanley, the chief of the Office of Transformation Coordination at USCIS, did was move to agile development, with agency staff taking on the role of systems integrator. “We moved from one contractor to many contractors; it was a huge change in the acquisition strategy for us,” Stanley said in an interview. “By using an agile approach we put the contractors in a position where they have to keep delivering finished work to us every week,” Schwartz said, rather than relying on a lengthy development cycle. “We have our people working with them side by side and that keeps the pressure on them to perform.” Read more [GCN.COM]

Application DevelopmentBUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Microsoft’s Graph Wants to Turn User Data into Business Intelligence It Can Sell. In Microsoft’s future, if you’re chatting about pizza on Skype, Domino’s could pitch you a deal. How does data become information? Through context. And that’s what Microsoft’s new Microsoft Graph aims to do: Collect data points about you, then turn around and sell it to apps and services–with your permission, of course. Read more[PCWORLD.COM]

Cloud Security

PUBLIC SECTOR: FedRAMP and the future of public-sector cloud security. The cloud allows federal agencies to process data faster, store it more efficiently, and access it on demand. But, historically, cloud adoption in government has proven difficult. Today, FedRAMP — the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program — governs that process, and Silicon Valley companies want to pitch in. Read more[WJLA.COM]

SECURITY TIPS: Security Tips For Federal Agencies When Moving To The Cloud. The federal government is moving more of its IT infrastructure to the cloud as it looks for ways to cut costs and increase agility. But any migration to the cloud raises cyber security concerns. The process of moving data, applications and workloads off-premises can backfire if it’s rushed, poorly implemented or built on a foundation of weak security. Read more[FORBES.COM]

Cloud Security

FYI: Cloud Security Requires Shared Responsibility Model. Both cloud providers and their users are responsible for data security in the cloud. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy determining who’s accountable for what. Read more[TECHTARGET.COM]

VMI: How VMI Can Improve Cloud Security. Virtual machine introspection (VMI) offers centralized VM management and other benefits that make it a strong option for cloud security. Read more[ESECURITYPLANET.COM]

Windows 10COMPARISON: Windows 10 Vs 8 Vs 7 — What’s The Difference? Let’s weigh up the main differences between Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows 8. There are a large number of pros but also some significant cons, including a few potential deal breakers. Read more[FORBES.COM]

QUESTION: Should You Upgrade To Windows 10? It Depends. Microsoft is billing Windows 10 as “the last version of Windows”. That doesn’t mean the company is going to quit making it, but rather there aren’t plans for any massive, overhauled releases of its flagship operating system. From here on out, Microsoft is treating Windows as a service, rather than as a monolithic piece of software. Read more[SEATTLEPI.COM]

Windows 10WI-FI SENSE: Why This Windows 10 Feature Is Freaking Everyone Out. Wi-Fi Sense allows you to automatically log your friends onto your Wi-Fi network without ever giving them your password. It’s a convenient solution to the awkward “what’s your Wi-Fi password?” conversations. In turn, you can use Wi-Fi Sense to automatically connect your Windows 10 PC to your friends’ Wi-Fi networks without knowing their passwords. Read more[CNN.COM]

W10 OVERVIEW: The New Start Menu, Edge Browser, New Apps And Cortana. So Windows 10 is here. You should see pop-up messages appear on your computers running Windows, prompting you to upgrade. We’ve been running it since the early builds and now we have the ‘final’ version. Read more[PCADVISOR.CO.UK]

Agile DevelopmentFOR DEVELOPERS: How To Make Your (Entire) Enterprise More Agile. In the current software development parlance, “agile” has become synonymous with innovation and speed. But many organizations limit their agile approaches to one or two siloed departments out of a mistaken belief that they’re too big, too ‘legacy,’ too process-oriented to scale the approach across the larger business. Read more[CIO.COM]

TEAM BUILDING: 4 Tips To Make Any Team Agile. The goal of agile programming is to provide early and continuous delivery of valuable software. But it’s not so easy to implement methodologies that can deliver on the agile promise, and the blame typically lands on people: they’re just not the tech elite. Read more[THENEXTWEB.COM]

Agile Development

BEST PRACTICES: Things CIOs Must Know About Agile Development. CIOs are under pressure to support fast-evolving digital business scenarios but are finding traditional project and development methods unsuitable, according to Gartner. Read more[ENTERPRISEINNOVATION.COM]

BIMODAL IT: Provides New Requirements For Agile App Development. For years IT organizations have been criticized for being too slow, too restrictive and unresponsive to the business. Analysts and vendors have pushed IT to transform itself as a whole, and encouraged the adoption of technologies that enable agility. Read more[SDTIMES.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOCISO IN THE WILD: Stepping out of the C-Suite to Take on Server Compliance. The CISOs of the world, particularly those in large organizations, often sit high above the daily operational fray of systems management. They stay out of the wild, so to speak, of technical administration and compliance activities. Their days are frequently consumed with reacting to various issues and the management of policies, projects and personnel. Read more[SECURITYINTELLIGENCE.COM]

STATE CIO ADVICE: Building Successful Relationships With IT Partners. Given today’s fiscal environment, states are turning to their IT partners to provide cost-effective delivery of citizen services. This brief focuses on the best strategies for IT partners to engage with state CIOs while building successful business relationships. Read more[NASCIO.org]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOCLOUD-ENABLED SAAS: SEC CIO Leads Efforts To Move Agency To The CloudPamela Dyson is shepherding a determined, if incremental, effort to move her agency’s applications to the cloud. Dyson was named the CIO at the Securities and Exchange Commission in February, after having joined the agency in 2010, when she joined an ambitious initiative to modernize and improve efficiencies in the SEC’s IT infrastructure. Read more [CIO.COM]

SECURITY AWARENESS: 5 Reasons Why Newer Hires Are The Company’s Biggest Data Security RiskA study on U.S. mobile security by Absolute Software shows that Millennials – many of whom are now joining the workforce — hold the greatest risk to data security over other age groups. Shorter-tenure and younger respondents tend to have lower expectations of their own responsibility for corporate security, according to the study of 762 U.S. workers who use employer-issued mobile devices, including laptops, smartphones and tablets. Read more [CSOONLINE.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOCISO: Veterans Affairs Names New Permanent CISO. The Veterans Affairs Department has a new full-time chief information security officer, Brian Burns, a longtime VA employee and health IT security expert. Burns will take over for acting CISO Dan Galik, who was serving in the interim after the departure of Stan Lowe this summer. Read more[FEDERALTIMES.COM]

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CTO: U.S. Deputy CTO Steps Down. U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Ryan Panchadsaram is leaving his White House post. After serving in the federal government for three years, starting as a presidential innovation fellow at the Department of Health and Human Services, he is moving back to San Francisco to be with his family, according to the White House statement. Read more[NEXTGOV.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISODEFENSE CIO: Marine Corps CIO Seeks to Cordon Off Network. When it comes to warfighting data, the Marine Corps has all its eggs in one basket. Having a single network entails particular risks, especially when it comes to data manipulation. Marine Corps CIO Brig. Gen. Dennis Crall said the solution is to fortify the network via compartmentalization. Read more[FCW.COM]

FACEBOOK: Facebook to widen use of Safety Check tool beyond Paris attacks. Facebook’s Safety Check tool to help users alert friends about their safety was activated for the first time after a terror attack in Paris on Friday, with a large number of users reporting they had benefited from it. But that move drew widespread criticism online that the company had been partial, as it had not activated the feature in other locations recently hit in terror attacks, notably the twin attacks in Beirut on Thursday. Read more[CIO.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOSECURITY LEADERSHIP: CISOs Facing Boards Need Better Business, Communication Skills. As information security becomes a more important topic of interest for corporate boards, CISOs are increasingly asked to step up and brief boards on cyber issues — which means they need to become better communicators, and have a broader understanding of business needs. Read more[CSOONLINE.COM]

PROJECT PLANNING: 20 Ways Your IT Team Makes You Look Like a Hero. One of the disturbing realities of working in IT is that most of your non-IT coworkers don’t know what you do. That’s good because it offers a certain level of freedom, but it also means you often don’t get credit for great work. Read more[CIO.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISONEWLY-APPOINTED STATE CIOS: Meet the Class of 2015. Thanks to administration changes, retirements and new legislation, a dozen states appointed new CIOs this year and in late 2014. It’s a group that includes few true outsiders. Most of these new IT chiefs — but not all of them — have been in government before, and many bring a mix of public- and private-sector experience to the job. Read more[GOVTECH.COM]

FITARA PLANS: Federal CIO Gives Agencies B-Plus. Agencies have submitted action plans for implementing the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and, while not perfect, the Office of Management and Budget’s top IT official is generally pleased with the results. Read more[FEDERALTIMES.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOSTATE CIOs: Push Accessibility and User Experience Standards. Nearly one in five citizens need some kind of accommodation when accessing digital government services – and ensuring that every citizen has equal access to those services is the focus behind a new guidelines initiative of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) calling for increased understanding and use of accessibility standards. Read more[GOVTECHWORKS.COM]

CTOs: The Lasting Power Of Incremental Innovation. Guy Duncan, Chief Technology Officer at PayU, discusses the importance of innovation that isn’t just a “big bang,” but “fuel that powers the future.” Read more[PYMNTS.COM]

For the CTO, CIO & CISOCISOs: Déjà vu for the CISO. Rising chief information security officers, like CIOs before them, need to start thinking like business people. Read more[FEDSCOOP.COM]

FEDERAL CISOs: The US Government Wants In On the Public Cloud, but Needs More Transparency. The U.S. federal government is trying to move more into the cloud, but service providers’ lack of transparency is harming adoption, according to Arlette Hart, the FBI’s chief information security officer. Read more[CIO.COM]

Document ManagementINDUSTRY NEWS: How Advanced Scanning and Archiving Can Help Academic Institutions Streamline Workflows. Scanning and archiving has become essential – and sometimes legally necessary – to keep pace in today’s business world. Document scanning is an efficient way to store building, engineering, and architectural drawings as well as your everyday business files in a secure and searchable location. However, scanning and archiving of large format technical documents and drawings is still an often underutilized process. Read more[THOMASNET.COM]

E-DISCOVERY SERIES: Document Automation Helps You Sleep Better At Night. Attorneys who understand how document automation works and the benefits it brings are well positioned to develop a strong business case for introducing the technology to their organization. The first article of this three-part series offered an overview of the basics of document automation. Read more[INSIDECOUNSEL.COM]

Document ManagementPRIVACY BREACHES: How Private is Your Private Data When It Comes to eDiscovery? Home Depot, IRS, Chase, and Ashley Madison — no one is safe anymore from security breaches or data privacy leaks. It is not a matter of ‘if’ but generally a matter of when some form of your private data will be compromised. A breach always truly reveals how private that ‘private’ data really is. Let’s take a moment and discuss some of the potential privacy breaches when it comes to eDiscovery. Read more[BNA.COM]

LAWSUIT: Appeals Court Upholds FTC Authority Over Data Breaches. Any organization that’s been the victim of a cyber attack has a host of stakeholders to deal with, not the least of which is the applicable regulatory authority, either state or federal. Any businesses hoping that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would lose some of its authority in pursuing companies following cyber breaches have been sent a clear signal by an appeals court. Read more[PROPERTYCASUALTY360.COM]

Business Process IntegrationCUSTOMER-FACING PROCESSES: BPM and CRM — Better Together. CRM is all about managing sales and marketing interactions with customers and potential customers. Business process management (BPM) is about optimizing workflows and business processes. So what have they got to do with each other. Read more[ENTERPRISEAPPSTODAY.COM]

GLOBAL MARKET REPORT: BPM To See Anticipated Compound Annual Growth Rate of 14% By 2019. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage. The Global BPM market has also been witnessing the increased demand for cloud-based solutions. However, the high implementation costs could pose a challenge to the growth of this market. Read more[MOBILECOMMERCEPRESS.COM]

Business Process IntegrationBETTER TOGETHER: Geolocation And Mobile BPM Are A Natural Extension. For all that has been written about the impact of mobile devices on business process management (BPM), relatively little attention has been lavished on what, to me, is one of the more exciting aspects of the technology: geolocation. Read more[TECHTARGET.COM]

PLAN AND STRATEGIZE: How to Implement BPM in Your Organization. Business Process Management, or BPM, can be a fairly broad term. It encompasses a whole set of tools and techniques that enhance how you run your business, no matter what that business may be. Using BPM, those who run a business can better serve the customer and meet the organization’s goals. One secret of BPM’s success is that it does not just apply to management or to regular employees or to a particular department. The best kind of BPM is a company-wide implementation. Read more[SMARTDATACOLLECTIVE.COM]

SharepointHYBRID CLOUD: Microsoft Pushes SharePoint Server 2016 to Preview. Microsoft rolled out the IT Preview of SharePoint Server 2016, along with the new cloud hybrid search offering for SharePoint 2013 and 2016. The tech giant is gearing its new releases to the realities of enterprise IT, by including features for device responsiveness, simplified and intuitive controls, and hybrid cloud environments. Read more[THEWHIR.COM]

UNSUPPORTED WORKAROUND: Removing On-Hold Items From Exchange And SharePoint. On the face of it, the request to remove some items from a mailbox or SharePoint library that are subject to a compliance hold seems odd. After all, you place items on hold to retain them. But situations do arise when you might be compelled to remove some items, probably due to a law suit or similar directive, and if so, the question then arises as to how best to meet this need. Read more[WINDOWSITPRO.COM]

SharepointENTERPRISE SOFTWARE: SharePoint 2016: What Do We Know? As you’re probably aware, SharePoint Online and Office 365 run SharePoint 2013, but at a massive, multi-tenant, global sort of scale. The product group develops new features, tests bug fixes and uncovers and fixes other issues and conditions while running this software in production for hundreds of thousands of customers. Read more[CIO.COM]

ON-PREMISES COLLABORATION: The Future Of SharePoint 2016 Is Hybrid. The beta preview of Microsoft Exchange 2016 shows it to be more of a service pack for Exchange 2013 than a full server release. The message is loud and clear that in keeping with Microsoft’s “cloud first” strategy, the real innovation would happen in the cloud version, and eventually the product will become cloud-only. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

BABEL: Babel 6 More Than A JavaScript Modernizer. Babel 6 is a JavaScript compiler that targets JavaScript 5 so that you can run the latest version in old browsers. In its latest version it also aims to be a framework for developing JavaScript tools. Read more[I-PROGRAMMER.INFO]

WEB DEV: 7 Reasons Every Programmer Needs to Learn JavaScript. The realization: the programming language to learn today is JavaScript. This is particularly true if you are a web developer,. Yet, if you are a programmer, you should learn JavaScript. Read more[DZONE.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

JAVA: RoboVM Java-to-iOS Dev Tool No Longer Open Source. RoboVM says competitors were leveraging the technology but making no meaningful contributions in return. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

ORACLE: Java Turns 20: Bring On The Internet of Things. The Java programming language may be turning 20 years old, but it manages to stay young by taking on the day’s biggest computing challenges—including the Internet of Things. And by staying young, Java will help companies of all sizes adapt to a quickly shifting economic environment. Read more[FORBES.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

JAVASCRIPT: I Turned Off JavaScript for a Whole Week and It Was Glorious. There’s another web out there, a better web hiding just below the surface of the one we surf from our phones and tablets and laptops every day. A web with no ads, no endlessly scrolling pages, and no annoying modal windows begging you to share the site on social media or sign up for a newsletter. The best part is that you don’t need a special browser extensionor an invite-only app to access this alternate reality. All you need to do is change one little setting in your browser of choice. Just un-tick the checkbox that enables “JavaScript” and away you go, to a simpler, cleaner web. Read more[WIRED.COM]

HTML5: On The Rise: No Longer Ahead Of Its Time. It’s the one-year anniversary of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) declaring the HTML5 standard complete, a significant milestone in the history of the Internet and web application development. In this past year, HTML5 adoption has gone into overdrive, with more and more companies moving to HTML5 to deliver rich cross-platform web applications. The most recent examples include Amazon, Facebook, Google and YouTube, which transitioned from Adobe’s Flash to HTML5. Why is that? And why now? Read more[TECHCRUNCH.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

JAVA: Serious Bug in Widely Used Java App Library Patched. The CSRF-style bug in Java Spring Social core library affected websites that allowed users to log in with credentials from LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, and Facebook, among others. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

PHP 7.0: 7.0 Version Delayed, But Release Candidate Available. In order to address some lingering bugs, the PHP team pushed back the 7.0 release two weeks. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

JAVASCRIPT: Move over, Linux — JavaScript-powered NodeOS 1.0 approaches. NodeOS lowers the bar for developers using a base foundation of JavaScript, Node.js, and Npm. NodeOS is a small-footprint Linux distribution that uses only the Linux kernel, with the Node.js engine and Npm on top as a userland component. All software is provided via Npm packages or the Vagga container engine, though there’s talk of enabling support for Docker. Using Node and Npm for development lowers the barrier of entry for programmers, since JavaScript is arguably faster and easier to work with than C. Plus, the wealth of libraries in Npm — 200,000 packages — simplifies the reuse of third-party code. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

HTML5: Microsoft Surface Phone running Windows 10 spotted in a HTML5 Browser Benchmark. Previous reports of Microsoft working on the Surface Phone seems to be turning out true. Earlier today a mysterious device bearing the name Microsoft Surface Phone was spotted in HTML5test benchmark. The test was conducted via Microsoft Edge 12.0 Browser which was running on Windows 10. Read more[GIZBOT.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

PHISHING: 10 Reasons Why Phishing Attacks Are Nastier Than Ever. Spearphishing is a targeted approach to phishing that is proving nefariously effective, even against the most seasoned security pros. Why? Because they are crafted by thoughtful professionals who seem to know your business, your current projects, your interests. They don’t tip their hand by trying to sell you anything or claiming to have money to give away. In fact, today’s spearphishing attempts have far more sinister goals than simple financial theft. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

SCRUD TUTORIAL: Creating a SCRUD System Using jQuery, JSON and DataTables. Every non trivial software allows to manipulate data, generally stored in a database. The acronym SCRUD refers to the basic manipulation functions that the user needs to work with the available data: Search, Create, Read, Update and Delete. Learn how to create a web application which empowers the user to search a database and fully manage its content. The system is based on jQuery, JSON, and the popular DataTables and jQuery Validation plugins. Read more[SITEPOINT.COM]

Programming & Scripting Development Client & Server-Side

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT: 9 Bad Programming Habits We Secretly Love. Breaking the rules can bring a little thrill — and produce better, more efficient code. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

NEW CODING TOOLS: Eve Aims To Change The Way Programming Works. There’s been a tremendous amount of focus on teaching the world to code in the last couple of years, but Eve—out in public for the first time this week—takes a different approach. Rather than turning us all into computer programmers, it wants to change what programming is and create “a better way for us to interact with computers.” Read more[READWRITE.COM]

Cloud Computing

SaaS: Will Finland’s Solu Lead a Cloud-based Revolution in Computing? Solu brings a more holistic hardware-software experience than the Chromebook and pioneers a new SaaS model, but it needs to survive its Kickstarter first. Read more[GEEKTIME.COM]

NASCIO 2015: CIOs Explore Alternate Sourcing Models. Annual survey reveals a rise in managed services and outsourcing. As government IT departments continue to shutter state-owned and operated data centers, shared services and managed services are on the rise. If this trend continues, in the future states will run shared services organizations that take advantage of managed services and application outsourcing to deliver the bulk of the service portfolio. Read more[STATETECHMAGAZINE.COM]

Cloud Computing

VERIZON: Exec Denies It’s Selling Off Cloud Infrastructure. Fran Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, strongly denied recent reports that the company is selling off the infrastructure underlying its cloud business. Late Friday, Reuters reported that Verizon was weighing a sale of enterprise assets, including what used to be known as MCI and Terremark, a data center-and-cloud company Verizon bought 5 years ago to boost its presence in cloud computing. The report said the company was seeking up to $10 billion in a potential sale. A Verizon spokesman had no comment on the report. Read more[FORTUNE.COM]

Cloud Computing

GSA: Mulls New Cloud Acquisition Vehicle. The General Services Administration is considering establishing a broad cloud-specific contracting vehicle that would help agencies handle their growing cloud service needs. GSA’s existing cloud blanket purchase agreements are expiring, and federal customers are evolving past the cloud services designations under GSA’s Schedule 70 and other contracting vehicles that include cloud services. Therefore, the agency is thinking about creating a next-generation cloud-specific contract, said Stan Kaczmarczyk, director of GSA’s Cloud Computing Services Program Management Office. Read more[FCW.COM]

Cloud Computing

PUBLIC CLOUD: 11 Top IaaS Cloud Computing Certifications. One way to stay abreast of the fast-changing cloud market is to get trained on the leading cloud platforms, open source technologies and vendors that make up this increasingly important industry. These are some of the leading infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing certifications, listed in alphabetical order. Read more[NETWORKWORLD.COM]

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: Making the Most of the Hybrid Cloud. Cloud services rank No. 2 on state and local CIO’s top 10 priorities list for 2015, an emphatic indication of how essential they have become to day-to-day and mission critical operations. It is clear that agencies are moving beyond just dipping their toes into the cloud, as 20 percent of states are now highly invested in cloud services, according to a survey of CIOs conducted by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, Grant Thornton and TechAmerica. Read more[GCN.COM]

Business Process Integration

CUSTOMER-FACING PROCESSES: BPM and CRM — Better Together. CRM is all about managing sales and marketing interactions with customers and potential customers. Business process management (BPM) is about optimizing workflows and business processes. So what have they got to do with each other. Read more[ENTERPRISEAPPSTODAY.COM]

GLOBAL MARKET REPORT: BPM To See Anticipated Compound Annual Growth Rate of 14% By 2019. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage. The Global BPM market has also been witnessing the increased demand for cloud-based solutions. However, the high implementation costs could pose a challenge to the growth of this market. Read more[MOBILECOMMERCEPRESS.COM]

Business Process Integration

BETTER TOGETHER: Geolocation And Mobile BPM Are A Natural Extension. For all that has been written about the impact of mobile devices on business process management (BPM), relatively little attention has been lavished on what, to me, is one of the more exciting aspects of the technology: geolocation. Read more[TECHTARGET.COM]

PLAN AND STRATEGIZE: How to Implement BPM in Your Organization. Business Process Management, or BPM, can be a fairly broad term. It encompasses a whole set of tools and techniques that enhance how you run your business, no matter what that business may be. Using BPM, those who run a business can better serve the customer and meet the organization’s goals. One secret of BPM’s success is that it does not just apply to management or to regular employees or to a particular department. The best kind of BPM is a company-wide implementation. Read more[SMARTDATACOLLECTIVE.COM]

Business IntelligenceSLIDESHOW: Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard. As far as business buzzwords go, the terms Big Data, data visualization, data structure, predictive analytics and business intelligence all get thrown around with the frequency of a used car salesman putting together his best customer pitch. In fact, when it comes to acquiring a business intelligence tool, you might hear the mention of these terms ad nauseam. Read more[ITBUSINESSEDGE.COM]

TWO-TIER ANALYTICS: Reimagining the User Experience for Business Intelligence. Software applications have historically been built with a very specific purpose in mind. Word processors are designed for writing and editing documents, while spreadsheets are for working with numbers. Today’s more modern tools allow you to copy a portion of a spreadsheet and paste it into your written document, or even perform some basic calculations. Read more[ENTERPRISEINNOVATION.COM]

Business IntelligenceAZURE MARKETPLACE: Yellowfin And Microsoft Launch Free Cloud BI Environment. Microsoft and Yellowfin have launched a business intelligence (BI) offering that will be available for free from Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. The product will help businesses deploy an enterprise-grade BI environment in just a few clicks, allowing organisations to start analysing the information they hold straight away and helping them make sense of the large, complex data issues they face every day to create real insights. Read more[CLOUDPRO.CO.UK]

CLOUD PORTFOLIO: How Microsoft Is Floating An Intelligent Cloud. Windows 10 just launched, but Microsoft’s head already is back in the cloud. he software giant shares its strategy for getting enterprises on the cloud with advanced analytics, machine learning and support for developer-friendly application containers. Read more[EWEEK.COM]

Federal AgenciesECONOMICS: Why The American Economy Is About To Boom Again: Private Domestic Investment Is Exploding. Here are two good reasons as to why rising business investment could and should be seen as something which is positive for the future. Read more[FORBES.COM]

LEGACY TECH: Legacy Technology Makes Government Less Secure, Less Innovative, Say Federal IT Leaders. Legacy systems impair the government’s ability to secure its information technology, said Federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott. “Most of the technology that the government has invested in and the private sector has produced — most of it had its design point 10, 15, 20 years ago when we didn’t face the kinds of threats that we face today,” said Scott during a panel discussion at the ACT-IAC Executive Leadership Conference Oct. 27. Read more[FIERCEGOVERNMENTIT.COM]

Federal AgenciesSECURING GOVERNMENT: Lessons From The Cyber Frontlines [DOWNLOAD]. Nearly every state experienced a government network breach during 2014, while simultaneously managing disruptions in commerce caused by hacks of companies such as Home Depot, Staples, and Target. Even localities were not exempt — Rapid City, N.D., and Napa, Calif., are just two cities whose websites were hacked. Read more[GOVLOOP.COM]

STRONG AUTHENTICATION: OMB Cites Progress With Hardware-Based Verification. Agencies have made significant progress instituting hardware-based personal identity verification cards or alternative forms of strong authentication for access to cyber systems, OMB has said. Read more[FEDWEEK.COM]

Federal Agencies

IG NEWS: Lack Of Cybersecurity Staff, Technology Left USPS Vulnerable To 2014 Attack. A lack of properly trained cybersecurity workers and a comprehensive cyber strategy were major reasons why the U.S. Postal Service experienced a data breach late last year, a new report found. Read more[FIERCEGOVERNMENTIT.COM]

MEANINGFUL USE: Critics Warn Of $11 Billion Pentagon Health Records Fiasco. As the Pentagon prepares the biggest federal IT contract announcement since Healthcare.gov, critics are warning of an even bigger fiasco, a record system that’s obsolete before it’s even finished. Read more[POLITICO.COM]

Federal AgenciesATTACKS/BREACHES: Kicking Off A New Era For Policing Cybersecurity. In the wake of FTC v. Wyndham, government agencies are becoming more aggressive about protecting corporate data and customer privacy. But the new rules are very much a work in progress. Read more[DARKREADING.COM]

FEDERAL CIO: More than 10,000 Openings for Cyber Pros in the Federal Government. After a 30-day, governmentwide “sprint” this summer to shore up federal agencies’ cybersecurity posture, the federal chief information officer is turning to broader challenges, such as recruiting technology talent, he said on Tuesday. During a keynote at a FedScoop conference in Washington, D.C., Tony Scott outlined his IT priorities for the next year, which included attempting to fill more than 10,000 estimated openings for cyber professionals in the federal government, and encouraging agencies to share technology platforms, instead of individualizing them. Read more [NEXTGOV.COM]

Federal AgenciesELECTIONS: Could National Security Make 2016 Tougher for Women Candidates? As national security becomes a bigger issue in the wake of the attacks in Paris, some Democratic strategists worry the issue could cause troubles for their Senate candidates in 2016 — and women candidates in particular. Read more[ATR.ROLLCALL.COM]

SECURITY: U.S. Government Wants in on the Public Cloud, but Needs More Transparency. The federal government is trying to move more into the cloud, but service providers’ lack of transparency is harming adoption, according to Arlette Hart, the FBI’s chief information security officer. “There’s a big piece of cloud that’s the ‘trust me’ model of cloud computing,” she said during an on-stage interview at the Structure conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. Read more[COMPUTERWORLD.COM]

Federal AgenciesFTC: Shuts Down Phony Apple, Microsoft, Google Tech Support Scammers. While consumers are much more tech-savvy today than we were during the days of Windows 3.1 and baud modems, there are still a lot of people whose tech-insecurity makes them potential prey for bogus tech support businesses that make money by convincing victims their computers are infected with viruses. The Federal Trade Commission — along with the attorneys general for Pennsylvania and Connecticut — announced it had shut down several tech support scammers that bilked consumers for more than $17 million. Read more[CONSUMERIST.COM]

NETWORKS: Best Practices are Moving Targets. The sheer magnitude and complexity of federal networks make cybersecurity one of the government’s biggest challenges. To tackle cybersecurity, agencies increasingly are engaging each other and sharing best practices, but it has to be an ongoing conversation that evolves along with the practices themselves, experts say. Read more [FEDERALTIMES.COM]

Federal AgenciesJUSTICE: Feds Lack Method to Grade Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. Most federal agencies overseeing the security of America’s critical infrastructure still lack formal methods for determining whether those essential networks are protected from hackers, according to a new government report. Of the 15 critical infrastructure industries examined in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report — including banking, finance energy and telecommunications – 12 were overseen by agencies that didn’t have proper cybersecurity metrics. Read more[SACBEE.COM]

DHS: 4 Ways DHS is Being ‘Aggressive’ on Cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a top priority for the Department of Homeland Security — the agency charged with protecting the .gov and .mil domains and coordinating breach response for the private and public sector. With little more than a year left for the Obama Administration, it is also a top priority for DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, on par with the agency’s counterterrorism mission. Read more [FEDERALTIMES.COM]

IT - State & Local GovernmentsGSA: GSA.gov Refreshed with Eye Toward Mobile Users. GSA unveiled a refreshed GSA.gov website yesterday with a more crisp design layout, improved usability, and features geared more toward mobile users. “Our ultimate goal for the refresh was to continue our work to get important government information into the hands of users–no matter how or where they’re accessing the information,” said Sarah Bryant, Director of GSA’s Enterprise Web Management Team within the Office of Communications and Marketing. “With the focus on mobile users, the refreshed GSA.gov is another step toward anticipating the future needs of our customer agencies to make smarter, more strategic decisions that provide better value to our stakeholders.” Read more[DIGITALGOV.GOV]

IT - State & Local Governments

CALIFORNIA: Obama Admin Announces New Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Hub. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the seventh of nine new manufacturing institutes underway will invest $171 million in advancing next-generation flexible hybrid electronics manufacturing, fostering American leadership in manufacturing technologies from smart bandages to self-monitoring weapons systems to wearable devices. Read more[WHITEHOUSE.GOV]

MINNESOTA: State, Local Officials Preparing For Drones. flood of new flying tools and toys is forcing local and national officials to prepare new policies to keep everyone safe in the sky. They’re called drones, unmanned aerial vehicles or systems, and they’re a booming business, but the new technology is not without friction. Read more[SOUTHERNMINN.COM]

IT - State & Local GovernmentsMULTI-STATE: Public Assistance Fraud Pilot Shows Promise. A consortium of five states were able to thwart cross-border, dual participation in the food stamp (SNAP) program by detecting fraud in real time. The U.S. budget for SNAP exceeds $80 billion annually and the program serves more than 45 million Americans. Read more[GOVTECH.COM]

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Smart Cities of the Future. Federal and local governments around the world are expected to spend $475.5 billion on technology products and services by 2019. From New York to Chicago to Rio de Janeiro, metropolitan centers around the world are looking for new ways to be “smart” – to become more sustainable, improve the efficiency of public services and citizens’ quality of life. Read more[THEHILL.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityFEDERAL RESOURCES: Bill Gives State, Local Governments Access to Federal Cyber Resources. Rep. Will Hurd is introducing a new bill to encourage federal analysts to lend a hand to state and local IT staff. Read more[FEDSCOOP.COM]

SECURITY: Are States Slacking on Cybersecurity? A recent audit finds California’s efforts are woefully inadequate. And that’s the good news. Hackers in the past year have broken into computer systems at the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Internal Revenue Service and the Office of Personnel Management. The carnage doesn’t stop at the federal level, either. Both SC and UT were victims in 2012 of major data breaches that compromised personal data stored on government computers. But if you think that these increasingly frequent and expensive breaches, hacks and data leaks have led to the public sector being more prepared, you would be wrong. Public-sector technology is more vulnerable than ever. Read more [GOVTECH.COM]

IT Security | Cybersecurity

ATTACKS/BREACHES: Kicking Off A New Era For Policing Cybersecurity. In the wake of FTC v. Wyndham, government agencies are becoming more aggressive about protecting corporate data and customer privacy. But the new rules are very much a work in progress. Read more[DARKREADING.COM]

HP SPLIT: What The HP Split Means For Cybersecurity. HP surprised analysts and end-users a couple of weeks ago when they announced that Trend Micro – a leading malware and anti-virus vendor – would be buying HP’s TippingPoint security unit for $300 million. HP TippingPoint is a hot network security product lineup which includes the Threat Protection System (TPS), Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW). What’s going on here? Read more[FORBES.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityMOBILE: Google Reveals Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge’s Security Flaws. Google has highlighted 11 security flaws in Samsung’s flagship Android handset, the Galaxy S6 Edge. The vulnerabilities include a loophole that could have been used by hackers to gain control of a victim’s phone. Read more[BBC.COM]

SECURITY SECTOR: Is the Red-Hot Security Sector Hitting a Plateau, or is it Just FireEye? The canary in the security sector coal mine is starting to wheeze. FireEye Inc. was one of the most prominent cybersecurity companies to enter the public markets amid a wave of high-profile attacks and investor fervor for such firms. But it says it is seeing a slowdown in attacks and projecting slower growth because of it . Read more[MARKETWATCH.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityCLOUD SECURITY: How to Push Security Earlier into the Dev Process. A new crop of products is emerging that aim to implant security best practices and compliance checks as early and often as possible when new infrastructure is spun up in the cloud or when new applications are launched in a rapid development environment. Read more[NETWORKWORLD.COM]

UAE: Recognises Importance of Cyber Security, says official. Like the UK, the UAE federal government has identified the importance of creating an environment in which it is safe to do business online. Read more[COMPUTERWEEKLY.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityCLOUD: Security’s Future is the Cloud, as Enterprise Trust in Amazon Grows. As more workloads move to the cloud, so must security solutions. Matt Asay explains how the future of security is cloudy with a chance of Amazon. Read more[TECHREPUBLIC.COM]

MICROSOFT: GeoShield moves to Microsoft Azure Government Cloud. CyberTech’s GeoShield, a public safety platform for real-time crime analysis and intelligence-led policing, is now available through the Microsoft Azure Government Cloud. Because the Microsoft cloud platform meets the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services security requirements, governments and public safety agencies now can get the GeoShield tools on a cloud platform secure enough for criminal justice data. Read more[GCN.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityVIDEO: How Paris Attacks Will Change Cybersecurity. Connecticut Democratic Senator Jim Himes discusses the future of cybersecurity with Emily Chang on “Bloomberg West.” Read more[BLOOMBERG.COM]

HOW: SLAC National Laboratory Revamped Its Cybersecurity. When officials at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory were handed the results of the Energy Department’s inspector general audit citing nine findings related to its compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act, Ben Calvert, the newly appointed chief information security officer for SLAC, knew the lab’s cybersecurity program had to change. Read more[GCN.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityINFO SHARING: Cybersecurity After the Paris Attacks: Info-Sharing in the Spotlight. The U.S. expanded intelligence sharing with France in the wake of the attacks in Paris last week. Speaking at the Group of 20 Summit in Antayla, Turkey, President Obama announced the initiative to streamline information-sharing with France. Israel took similar measures: on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli intelligence forces to assist France. Read more[SCMAGAZINE.COM]

DHS: Bulking Up Civilian Agency Cybersecurity. The Department of Homeland Security is embarking on an “aggressive” timetable to secure civilian networks in response to the cyber attack on the Office of Personnel Management. “As the OPM breach painfully demonstrated, our cybersecurity efforts are not where they need to be,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Nov. 18. Read more[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityCYBERSECURITY FUTURE: What the Paris Attacks Mean for the Future of Cybersecurity. Governments seek access to data, citing national security concerns. The horrendous Paris attacks raise a number of national security issues, including one involving cybersecurity, and the debate over whether governments should have easy ways to break through technology that safeguards the privacy of our communications and transactions — all in the name of national security. Read more[FORTUNE.COM]

PATCHES: Adobe Releases Out-of-Band Security Patches – Amazingly Not for Flash…ColdFusion, LiveCycle and Premiere Get Fixed. Adobe released important patches for some of its other products – people still using Flash can stand down, however. Read more[THEREGISTER.CO.UK]

IT Security | CybersecurityMOBILE SECURITY: New Security Study: Consumers Fearful Of Mobile Shopping. 29 Percent of Consumers Do Not Know When Personal Information Has Been Accessed Without Consent, According to Study from Blancco Technology Group. Read more[DARKREADING.COM]

TRAINING: Six Lessons From Cybersecurity Superhero Training. According to a 2014 report from IBM, 95 percent of IT security breaches are caused by human error. And it gets worse. You may also be shocked to learn “123456” is the most common password on the Internet, closely followed by “password,” according to SplashData’s annual list of 25 most common passwords. Why? The answer seems simple: The majority of the population does not receive cybersecurity training in any form. Read more[TECHCRUNCH.COM]

IT Security | CybersecurityTWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION: It’s convenient and effective, so why aren’t more businesses using two-factor authentication? The world’s largest social networks are adopting 2FA for their users, yet businesses are failing to do the same for their staff and customers. it’s time to take a two-factor authentication seriously in enterprise. Read more[INFORMATION-AGE.COM]

RISK ASSESSMENT: 7 Keys to Better Risk Assessment. The No. 1 problem with computer security is poor root-cause analysis, where security pros fail to identify and track the ways an environment was exploited, be it malware or human attack. When bad guys penetrate a network, too many defenders worry about what they stole rather than how they broke in. Focus on causes! Here’s how. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

Server-Side Tech

JAVA: Why The Java Deserialization Bug Is A Big Deal. A recent blog post by FoxGlove Security that described remotely executable exploits against several major middleware products including WebSphere, WebLogic, and JBoss has focused attention on what some say is an extremely dangerous but wholly underrated class of vulnerabilities. The so-called Java deserialization vulnerability affects virtually all apps that accept serialized Java objects and gives attackers a way to gain complete remote control of an app server. Security researchers believe that potentially millions of applications — both commercial and internally developed– are susceptible to the issue, which is not easily mitigated. Read more[DARKREADING.COM]

ORACLE: Should Oracle Spring Clean JavaFX? Why JavaFX hasn’t taken off, and what Oracle can do to improve it’s place in the ecosystem. Read more[DZONE.COM]

Server-Side Tech

ASP.NET: Microsoft’s open source .Net now ready for real apps. Microsoft is delivering feature-complete release candidates of .Net Core 5 and the ASP.Net 5 Web framework for Linux, Windows, and OS X. Developers can start using Microsoft’s open source .Net Core cross-platform framework and ASP.Net Web platform in productionenvironments, with an upgrade to be unveiled soon. Read more[INFOWORLD.COM]

TRANSLATION: Multilingual Support in ASP.NET Using AngularJS. Internationalization (i8n) in AngularJS can be tricky when using it along with ASP.NET, but here’s a tutorial that shows you how to get it done with no trouble at all. Read more[DZONE.COM]

Project Management

MANAGEMENT: Senate Clears Bill to Improve Management of Federal Programs. The Senate has passed a bill designed to curb government waste by using private-sector performance standards for federal programs and by creating new agency specialists in the discipline of program management. Read more[GOVEXEC.COM]

PRODUCTIVITY: 5 iPhone Project Management Apps To Simplify Your Work. So here are 5 project management apps that get it right when it comes to managing projects on the move on your iOS device. All of these iPhone project management apps are free to download although you’ll need a subscription with the corresponding cloud project management software vendor to use them. Read more[IPHONE.APPSTORM.NET]

Project Management

CLOUD: Containers March Into Mainstream With Security, Management Updates. Containers are making unrelenting advances into production systems, thanks to better security and management platforms from the likes of Docker, HP, Red Hat, and VMware. Recent developments have made it clear that containers are not just a great way for developers to package up code and move it around. They’re becoming secure, reliable vehicles with which enterprise IT operations and cloud users can move their code around as well. Read more[INFORMATIONWEEK.COM]

Project Management

FISMA: How NIST Helps Government Meet FISMA Requirements. Getting agencies to cooperate is never easy. Getting entire communities to work together can be even harder. But one success story is the way the National Institute of Standards has brought together the best ideas in defense, intelligence and among Federal civilian agencies in support of the Federal Information Security Management Act. That effort, directed by Congress in the FISMA legislation, was led by NIST Fellow Ron Ross. Ross explains the many ways NIST is working to increase knowledge and understanding of cyber security and the standards it has developed for Federal, commercial and academic use. [VIDEO] Read more[GOVTECHWORKS.COM]

Business Continuity

CRITICAL PLANNING: Systems Are Changing And Business Continuity Must Keep Up. Today, IT systems are at the center of the successful operation of many business processes. As we move into higher levels of automation, data collection through the IoT and more use of compute power than we’ve yet to even image, the importance of our systems becomes critical to revenue generation and cost control. This is true across every business. Read more[DIGINOMICA.COM]

FILL IN THE GAPS: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Data Centers. To mitigate a wide range of business risks, including those involving data centers, many organizations establish business-continuity (BC) or disaster-recovery (DR) plans. Fewer, however, write plans that focus on specific threats, keep those plans current or even test them. To ensure success, companies need to do better. Working with the right advanced data center is one way to fill those gaps. Read more[DATACENTERJOURNAL.COM]

Personal Tech

MORPHOTRUST: Iowa Begins Testing Digital Driver’s Licenses On Your Smartphone. Last year, we told you about Iowa’s interest in launching digital driver’s licenses, a move that might begin the phasing out of plastic licenses currently in use nationwide. As a result, the state recently announced live testing of what it calls the Mobile Driver License (mDL) in a number of settings, but that testing will be limited to hundreds of Iowa Department of Transportation employees. Read more[MASHABLE.COM]

CONNECTED SIGNALS: Tech Startups Want To Change the Way You Drive. It’s no secret that technology is changing the car industry. The major automakers, as well as tech giants such as Google and possibly Apple, are laying the groundwork for the first driverless cars. Meanwhile, a number of engineers and entrepreneurs have started their own companies to tackle other automotive challenges. Read more[TOPTECHNEWS.COM]

Personal Tech

TOUCH TAIWAN 2015: This Smartphone Is Actually Supposed To Bend. Remember when the iPhone 6 Plus was released last year, and some users reported that the phone was so big, it was actually bending after they put it in their pockets? This even became a bit of a controversy, so much so that the ordeal got its own name, Bendgate. Read more[TECHTIMES.COM]

MICROSOFT: 10 Things You Should Know About Upgrading To Windows 10 [VIDEO]. Even if your computer or tablet is eligible and can run Windows 10, there’s a good chance you might not be able to upgrade to the new OS for a while. But don’t fret — if you need to know when you might get it, how to install it, system requirements, what’s new and more, we’ve got you covered. Read more[COMPUTERWORLD.COM]

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Three-Dimensional Governance for the CIOhttps://www.bluemt.com/three-dimensional-governance-for-the-cio

7 Reasons to Take Control of IT Incidentshttps://www.bluemt.com/7-reasons-to-take-control-of-it-incidents/

Breach Mitigation Response Time Too Long, Survey Sayshttps://www.bluemt.com/breach-mitigation-response-time-too-long-survey-says/

Six Tactics for Cyberdefensehttps://www.bluemt.com/six-tactics-for-cyberdefense/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Feds Report Mixed Responses to Shared Serviceshttps://www.bluemt.com/feds-report-mixed-responses-to-shared-services

Federal Employees Are Not Security Expertshttps://www.bluemt.com/federal-employees-are-not-security-experts

Survival Guide for Network Administratorshttps://www.bluemt.com/survival-guide-for-network-administrators

DBaaS: OpenStack Trove Changes DB Managementhttps://www.bluemt.com/dbaas-openstack-trove-changes-db-management

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Help Wanted: Certified Cybersecurity Professionalshttps://www.bluemt.com/help-wanted-certified-cybersecurity-professionals

Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center Previewhttps://www.bluemt.com/cyber-threat-intelligence-integration-center-preview/

Cloud Moves in 1-2-3https://www.bluemt.com/cloud-moves-in-1-2-3/

Change Management for Disaster Recoveryhttps://www.bluemt.com/change-management-for-disaster-recovery/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Jeffersonian Advice For C-Suite Career Advancementhttps://www.bluemt.com/jeffersonian-advice-for-c-suite-career-advancement/

Ways To Survive The “Mobile-Pocalypse”https://www.bluemt.com/ways-to-survive-the-mobile-pocalypse/

Microsoft Cloud Services Receive FedRAMP Authority to Operatehttps://www.bluemt.com/microsoft-cloud-services-receive-fedramp-authority-to-operate/

Hiring Pentesters? Here Are 10 Things You Need to Knowhttps://www.bluemt.com/hiring-pentesters-here-are-10-things-you-need-to-know/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Home Router Malware Alerthttps://www.bluemt.com/home-router-malware-alert/

Threat Model Deconstructionhttps://www.bluemt.com/threat-model-deconstruction/

Business Email Scam Nets $214 Millionhttps://www.bluemt.com/business-email-scam-nets-214-million/

How to Prevent Unauthorized Software from Taking Over Your Organizationhttps://www.bluemt.com/the-cios-guide-to-happy-end-users-2/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Digital Marketing Predictions for 2015https://www.bluemt.com/digital-marketing-predictions-for-2015/

SDN: Network Administrator’s Friend or Foe?https://www.bluemt.com/sdn-network-administrators-friend-or-foe/

Mobile Payments: A Must for Federal Agencieshttps://www.bluemt.com/mobile-payments-a-must-for-federal-agencies/

Soft Skills Are A Must-Have For Careers In IThttps://www.bluemt.com/soft-skills-are-a-must-have-for-careers-in-it/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Security Risks Most Prevalent in Younger Workershttps://www.bluemt.com/security-risks-most-prevalent-in-younger-workers/

The Security World’s Maturationhttps://www.bluemt.com/the-security-worlds-maturation/

Data Breach Concerns Keep CISOs Up At Nighthttps://www.bluemt.com/data-breach-concerns-keep-cisos-up-at-night/

Personalized Govt Equals Instant Gratification for Citizenshttps://www.bluemt.com/personalized-govt-equals-instant-gratification-for-citizens/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

People-Centric Securityhttps://www.bluemt.com/people-centric-security/

Pentagon Tries BYOD To Strike Work/Life Balancehttps://www.bluemt.com/pentagon-tries-byod-to-strike-worklife-balance/

Open Source Model Considered for MS Windowshttps://www.bluemt.com/open-source-model-considered-for-ms-windows/

Open Internet: To Be or Not to Be?https://www.bluemt.com/open-internet-to-be-or-not-to-be/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems BlogMalware Stays A Step Ahead Infecting One Third of Websiteshttps://www.bluemt.com/malware-stays-a-step-ahead-infecting-one-third-of-websites/

Machine-Generated Data: Potential Goldmine for the CIOhttps://www.bluemt.com/machine-generated-data-potential-goldmine-for-the-cio/

Government Legacy Programs: Reuse vs. Replacementhttps://www.bluemt.com/government-legacy-programs-reuse-vs-replacement/

It Takes a Whole Village to Protect Networks and Systemshttps://www.bluemt.com/it-takes-a-whole-village-to-protect-networks-and-systems/

From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog

Governance For the CIOhttps://www.bluemt.com/governance-for-the-cio/

Help Desk Consolidation – Lessons Learnedhttps://www.bluemt.com/help-desk-consolidation-lessons-learned/

One Year Later, Companies Still Vulnerable to Heartbleedhttps://www.bluemt.com/one-year-later-companies-still-vulnerable-to-heartbleed/

Federal Projects Cultivate Worker Passionhttps://www.bluemt.com/federal-projects-cultivate-worker-passion-2/

ABOUT US

Blue Mountain Data Systems Inc.

Blue Mountain Data Systems Inc. is dedicated to application and systems development, electronic document management, IT security support, and the automation of workflow processes.

Read more about our experience here:>> http://bluemt.com/experience

Recent Experience

U.S. Dept. of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration

1994 to Present

Responsible to the Office of Technology and Information Systems for information systems architecture, planning, applications development, networking, administration and IT security, supporting the enforcement of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — ERISA. Within the EBSA, Blue Mountain is responsible for design, development and support for its various enforcement database management systems, as well as all case tracking and customer service inquiry systems. Blue Mountain also provides IT security services to the EBSA, in the form of FISMA Assessment and Authorization, System Security Plans, Risk and vulnerability assessments, monitoring and investigation support.

MANAGEMENT

Paul T. Vesely Founder, President, CEO and Principal Architect

Mr. Vesely is a recognized thought leader in systems architecture and delivery, having designed and delivered many enterprise wide information and document management solutions. Mr. Vesely’s history includes 33 years experience in the information systems industry, with Unisys, Grumman, PRC and a host of clients in both government and private sectors.

CONTACT US

Contact Us Today to Discuss Your Next IT Project

HEADQUARTERS366 Victory DriveHerndon, VA 20170

PHONE 703-502-3416

FAX 703-745-9110

EMAILpaul@bluemt.com

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