February 2018: For CTOs, CIOs & CISOs Every business day, we publish a Daily Tech Update for Federal & State CTOs ,CIOs & CISOs on the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog. We hope you will visit our blog for the latest information >> https://bluemt.com/blog/
3. For CTOs, CIOs & CISOs
Visit Blue Mountain Data Systems
https://www.bluemt.com
4. For CTOs, CIOs & CISOs
Every business day, we publish a Daily Tech Update for Federal & State CTOs ,CIOs & CISOs on the Blue
Mountain Data Systems Blog. We hope you will visit our blog for the latest information.
You can also receive these updates via email. Click here to subscribe.
Here’s the summary of the Daily Tech Updates for February 2018. Hope the information and ideas
prove useful.
Best,
Paul Vesely
President and Principal Architect
Blue Mountain Data Systems Inc.
6. Network Security
VIRTUALIZATION: What is Microsegmentation? How Getting Granular Improves
Network Security. Microsegmentation is a way to create secure zones in data
centers and cloud deployments that allow you to isolate workloads and protect
them individually. Read more
[NETWORKWORLD.COM]
CLOUD: Defense Department’s Secret Weapon for Network Security. Lessons
civilians—or other organizations—can learn from how the military approaches
cybersecurity. Read more
[NEXTGOV.COM]
7. Network Security
OPINION: Blurred Lines Between Networking and Security. Not so long ago,
networking and security were largely separate entities. Traditionally, networks
were constructed on standard building blocks such as switches and routers and
security solutions such as perimeter firewalls or intrusion prevention systems
applied afterwards. Each had its own set of tools, strategic approaches and
dedicated operational teams. IT security departments typically focused on the
delivery of time-honored threat detection methods and perimeter-based security
defense mechanisms, as well as incident response and remediation. Networking
teams spent time on issues around latency, reliability and bandwidth. However, the
move to hybrid networks means traditional approaches cannot cope with the
scale, automation requirements or the rate of change. So what are the reasons for
this evolution? Read more.
[INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM]
8. Network Security
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Proposal for Federal Wireless Network Shows Fear of
China. Today’s mobile networks are known as “4G” networks because they are the
fourth generation of wireless technologies. Carriers are already planning “5G”
networks. But a presentation and memo by the National Security Council disclosed
by Axios proposes that the government build a nationalized 5G network out of
fears of falling behind China both economically and militarily. Read more.
[WIRED.COM]
10. Encyption
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: New National Academy of Sciences Report on Encryption
Asks the Wrong Questions. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has released
a much-anticipated report that attempts to influence the encryption debate by
proposing a “framework for decisionmakers.” At best, the report is unhelpful. At
worst, its framing makes the task of defending encryption harder. Read more
[EFF.ORG]
11. Encyption
MICROSOFT: Data Encryption Using Always Encrypted in SQL Server. Data security
is always a matter of concern for organizations and application users. The key
challenge for any developer or architect is to understand all the concerns and build
a foolproof system to ensure data security. This is not only more intense, but more
complex these days, as many organizations are planning to move their applications
to the cloud. There’s a lot of room for small and mid-size organizations to take
maximum advantage in this time of technology transformation. All of these small
and mid-size organizations want to explore the benefits of the cloud. However, the
biggest threat, Data Security, needs to be dealt with. Read more
[DATABASEJOURNAL.COM]
12. Encyption
CLOUD CONTENT: Using Structured Encryption to Search Protected Photos in the
Cloud. In a recent presentation at the Real World Crypto symposium, researchers
affiliated with Brown University and a startup called Pixek presented their work
developing an app that encrypts photos at the moment they’re taken and uploads
them in encrypted form to a cloud server, in such a way that the keys remain on
the user’s device, meaning the service provider can’t view the photos. Despite
that, the photos remain searchable using automated tags generated by image
classifiers, thanks to a largely theoretical tool called “structured encryption,” which
provides for the ability to do computational work on a system without the system
knowing what kind of work it is doing. Read more.
[BOINGBOING.COM]
13. Encyption
MORE CLOUD: How Secure Is Your Data When It’s Stored in the Cloud? As cloud
storage becomes more common, data security is an increasing concern. Companies
and schools have been increasing their use of services like Google Drive for some
time, and lots of individual users also store files on Dropbox, Box, Amazon Drive,
Microsoft OneDrive and the like. They’re no doubt concerned about keeping their
information private—and millions more users might store data online if they were
more certain of its security. Read more.
[SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM]
15. Databases
LAW ENFORCEMENT: To Deter Criminals, Expand DNA Databases Instead of
Prisons. Elected officials often push for lengthening prison sentences for particular
crimes in the hopes of deterring people from committing them. But new research
highlights a more effective and less costly approach: expanding databases that
record the DNA of criminal offenders. Read more
[WASHINGTONPOST.COM]
AWS: Rolls Out New Graph Database, More Database Functionality. At re:Invent,
Amazon Web Services unveils new services for Aurora and for DynamoDB, along
with Neptune — a fully managed graph database. Read more
[ZDNET.COM]
16. Databases
GRAPH DATABASES: A Look at the Graph Database Landscape. Graph databases
are the fastest growing category in all of data management, according to DB-
Engines.com, a database consultancy. Since seeing early adoption by companies
including Twitter, Facebook and Google, graphs have evolved into a mainstream
technology used today by enterprises in every industry and sector. So, what makes
graph databases so popular? By storing data in a graph format, including nodes,
edges and properties, graphs overcome the big and complex data challenges that
other databases cannot. Graphs offer clear advantages over both traditional
RDBMs and newer big data products. Here’s a look at a few of them particular.
Read more.
[DATANAMI.COM]
17. Databases
ENTERPRISE: Data Storage and Analytics: 10 Tips to Make it the Perfect Marriage.
In the past, data storage was kind of dumb. It sat there inert – waiting for an
application to come along and do something with it. Those days are gone, as big
data and analytics tools seek to unearth trends, isolate opportunities and detect
threats in real time. Here are some tips from the experts on how to get the most
out of the evolving relationship between storage and analytics. Find out more
[ENTERPRISESTORAGEFORUM.COM]
18. More About Blue Mountain
BLUE MOUNTAIN DATA SYSTEMS HAS THE EXPERIENCE: 1994 to Present – U.S.
Dept. of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. 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. Read more.
20. Federal Tech
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: APIs, Shared Services Can Reshape,
Modernize Government Technology. The size and scope of the
federal government’s information technology landscape only
continues to grow and in a way that makes it incredibly difficult to
change. In the Federal Chief Information Officers Council’s latest
study, the current state of government IT is described as monolithic.
And, it is not meant as a compliment. Read more
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
21. Federal Tech
OPINION: Government Efforts to Weaken Privacy are Bad for Business and
National Security. The federal government’s efforts to require technology and
social media companies to relax product security and consumer privacy standards
– if successful – will ultimately make everyone less safe and secure. Read the rest
[INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM]
PUBLIC SAFETY: Rapid DNA Technology Gives Law Enforcement Access to Your
DNA in 90 Minutes. Before recently-passed legislation, law enforcement agencies
had to send DNA samples to government labs and wait for it to get tested, which
could take days or even weeks. Find out more
[GOVTECH.COM]
22. Federal Tech
MODERNIZATION: Making Modernization Happen. Now more than ever before,
comprehensive IT modernization for federal agencies is a real possibility. The
question that remains is whether President Donald Trump’s words and actions
during his first months in office will be sustained by the administration and
Congress in the months and years ahead. Read more
[FCW.COM]
24. State Tech
SURVEY: Cybersecurity Concerns May Keep One in Four Americans
from Voting. Cybersecurity concerns may prevent one in four
Americans from heading to the polls in November, according to a
new survey by cybersecurity firm Carbon Black. The company
recently conducted a nationwide survey of 5,000 eligible US voters to
determine whether reports of cyberattacks targeting election-related
systems are impacting their trust in the US electoral process. The
results revealed that nearly half of voters believe the upcoming
elections will be influenced by cyberattacks. Consequently, more
than a quarter said they will consider not voting in future elections.
Read more
[HSTODAY.US.COM]
25. State Tech
ALASKA: Unique Challenges in IT Consolidation. The Last Frontier is
centralizing IT operations under Alaska’s newly created Office of
Information Technology. But consolidating IT in a sprawling state like
Alaska offers challenges not found in other environments, says the
state’s new CIO Bill Vajda. Read the rest
[GCN.COM]
ALABAMA: Acting CIO Jim Purcell Is a Man on a Mission for Smarter
State IT. Jim Purcell wasn’t expecting a call from Alabama’s new
governor, Kay Ivey, and he certainly wasn’t expecting her to ask him
to head up the Office of Information Technology (OIT) – but that’s
exactly what happened last week. Find out more
[GOVTECH.COM]
26. State Tech
ILLINOIS: Inside a State Digital Transformation. Hardik Bhatt, CIO of the State of
Illinois, sought to become the nation’s first Smart State – a process that required
reorganizing its 38 IT departments into one, improving government services, and
finding new sources of innovation to apply to its revenue model. Within 18
months, Illinois rose in national rankings from the bottom fourth of state
governments to the top third. Read more
[ENTERPRISERSPROJECT.COM]
28. Electronic Document Management
CFPB: Looks to Embrace Cloud for Email, Office Application Needs. The Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau wants to move to a public cloud setup for some of its
core enterprise apps. The financial watchdog agency recently sent out a Request
for Information (RFI) on the process, technical requirements and costs of moving to
cloud services in fiscal year 2017. CFPB wants to establish a more complete
understanding on the costs associated with moving fully to a cloud solution for
email and office applications (e.g., documents, spreadsheets, presentations,
SharePoint and more).Read the rest
[FEDTECHMAGAZINE.COM]
29. Electronic Document Management
ROI: 4 Ways Business Document Management Software Can Save You Money. Lisa
Croft, Group Product Marketing Manager at Adobe Document Cloud, talks about
the many ways business document management can save your company time,
space, and more importantly, loads of money. Here are the four most obvious ways
these tools provide excellent return-on-investment. Read more
[PCMAG.COM]
31. Section 508 Compliance & WCAG 2.0
GOVERNMENT: New Federal Accessibility Requirements Take Effect. The federal
government’s new Section 508 standards are now in effect, requiring compliance
from agencies, and any state or locality that accepts federal funding, to ensure
their digital services are accessible to people with physical, sensory, or cognitive
disabilities. Read more
[STATESCOOP.COM]
DEMAND DRIVERS: US Accessibility Standards a Boon to Media Localizers and
Subtitlers. The United States Access Board has updated the Electronic and
Information Accessibility Standards covered under Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to make public-facing content produced by federal
government agencies more accessible to users with disabilities. The revised
standards, which took effect on January 18, 2018, now include the mandatory
provision of audio or video descriptions and closed captions for digital content
accessible from multi-function devices such as smartphones, cameras, and
computers. Read more
[SLATOR.COM]
32. Section 508 Compliance & WCAG 2.0
DEMAND DRIVERS: US Accessibility Standards a Boon to Media Localizers and
Subtitlers. The United States Access Board has updated the Electronic and
Information Accessibility Standards covered under Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to make public-facing content produced by federal
government agencies more accessible to users with disabilities. The revised
standards, which took effect on January 18, 2018, now include the mandatory
provision of audio or video descriptions and closed captions for digital content
accessible from multi-function devices such as smartphones, cameras, and
computers. Read more
[SLATOR.COM]
33. Section 508 Compliance & WCAG 2.0
LEGAL: Website Accessibility Cases Proceed Despite Absence of Regulations. Recent
trends indicate that ’tis always the season for web accessibility litigation, so with the
new year, you should take a new look at your website. Businesses around the country,
and especially in Florida, are discovering that their websites are within the crosshairs of
visually impaired plaintiffs who, on contacting a business for assistance, may be told to
visit a website that might not be accessible. Read more.
[LEXOLOGY.COM]
BUSINESSES: Accessibility In The Workplace: What Businesses Need To Know. Here’s a
deeper look into the compliance landscape, at global rules and standards in the U.S., EU
and beyond. Although many of these standards currently apply to public sector entities,
rather than private entities, it is expected to change as technology transforms the
nature of the workplace – not only within back offices and factories, but also on the
front-line for customer-facing operations, in sectors such as the hospitality industry and
retail. Read more.
[NATLAWREVIEW.COM]
34. Section 508 Compliance
LEGAL: Is Your Company Website Sufficiently Accessible to the Disabled? Over the
last two years, there have been an increasing number of lawsuits filed over the
alleged failure of websites to accommodate persons with disabilities. According to
a recent New York Times article, since January 2015, at least 751 website
accessibility lawsuits have been filed under Title III. The vast majority of these suits
have targeted retailers and restaurants. Now, other entities, such as academic
institutions, are coming under fire, and we anticipate litigation to increase in 2018
impacting all industries. Read more.
[LEXOLOGY.COM]
35. Section 508 Compliance
ACCESSIBLE WEB DESIGN: How to Accommodate the Dyslexic Reader. Dyslexia is
a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret
words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence. It is
the most common cause of reading, writing, and spelling difficulties. Of people
with reading difficulties, 70-80% are likely to have some form of dyslexia. It is
estimated that between 5-10% of the population has dyslexia, but this number can
also be as high as 17%. Here are some CSS tips to consider when designing web
content to accommodate the dyslexic reader. Read more.
[ACCESSIBLEWEBSITESERVICES.COM]
37. Security Patches
MICROSOFT: Two Nasty Outlook Bugs Fixed in Microsoft’s Feb. Patch Tuesday
Update. Microsoft issued 50 security fixes as part of its February Patch Tuesday
release, covering vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Edge and its
JavaScript engine ChakraCore. Fourteen of the vulnerabilities are labeled as critical,
34 as important and two as moderate. Read more
[THREATPOST.COM]
INTEL: Intel’s Security Patches are Causing Computers to Randomly Restart. Intel
confirms that its patches to fix processors affected by the Spectre and Meltdown
security flaws are causing computers to suddenly reboot on their own. Read more
[CNBC.COM]
38. Security Patches
SECURITY: The Hidden Toll of Fixing Meltdown and Spectre. In the early days of
2018, the engineering team at the mobile services company Branch noticed
slowdowns and errors with its Amazon Web Services cloud servers. An
unexpected round of AWS server reboots in December had already struck Ian
Chan, Branch’s director of engineering, as odd. But the server slowdowns a few
weeks later presented a more pressing concern. Read more.
[WIRED.COM]
GOOGLE: Says Its Security Patches Not Slowing Down Systems. Alphabet Inc’s
Google said it has already deployed software patches against the Spectre and
Meltdown chipset security flaws last year, without slowing down its cloud
services. Find out more
[WIRED.COM]
39. Security Patches
SECURITY: The Hidden Toll of Fixing Meltdown and Spectre. In the early days of
2018, the engineering team at the mobile services company Branch noticed
slowdowns and errors with its Amazon Web Services cloud servers. An
unexpected round of AWS server reboots in December had already struck Ian
Chan, Branch’s director of engineering, as odd. But the server slowdowns a few
weeks later presented a more pressing concern. Read more.
[WIRED.COM]
GOOGLE: Says Its Security Patches Not Slowing Down Systems. Alphabet Inc’s
Google said it has already deployed software patches against the Spectre and
Meltdown chipset security flaws last year, without slowing down its cloud
services. Find out more
[WIRED.COM]
41. For the CIO, CTO & CISO
CIO: Advice for the New Federal CIO Suzette Kent from Those Who Came Before
Her. The White House finally named a new federal chief information officer on Jan.
19 after a year of waiting. Suzette Kent comes to the government with little or no
background in the public sector and no clear information technology background,
according to her LinkedIn profile. Federal News Radio asked those who came before
Kent at the Office of Management and Budget for some insights, advice and words
of wisdom as she takes on this new role. Read more
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
CTO: Former CIA CTO Talks Meltdown and Spectre Cost, Federal Threats. Gus
Hunt, former technology leader for the CIA, explains the potential long-term cost of
Meltdown and Spectre. Read more
[DARKREADING.COM]
42. CIO, CTO & CISO
CISO: As Trump Lags to Fill Senior Vacancies, Retirements Pile Up. A spate of
recent nominations and appointees to key leadership positions in the Trump
administration are offset by senior-level employees announcing their retirement
and still more agencies lacking personnel, complicating the administration’s
efforts to fill longstanding vacancies. The chief information security officer for
the Department of Homeland Security, Jeff Eisensmith, announced his
retirement from federal service. Read more.
[FEDERALTIMES.COM]
CIO: State and Local Governments Tap Chatbots to Slash Staff Workloads. As
state and local agencies come up against tight budgets and shoestring staffing,
any tool that can help alleviate the workload is welcome. Luckily, chatbots are
getting lots of buzz for helping government workers cut back on menial tasks and
focus instead on innovation and larger projects, while also increasing citizen
engagement. Read more.
[STATETECHMAGAZINE.COM]
44. Penetration Testing
HOW-TO: Using Search Engines as Penetration Testing Tools. Search engines are
a treasure trove of valuable sensitive information, which hackers can use for
their cyber-attacks. Good news: so can penetration testers. Read more
[INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM]
DHS: How DHS Hacks Agency Networks to Make Them Stronger, More
Resilient. Hackers in Virginia are the good guys. Their job is to educate agencies
and protect federal networks by looking for the weaknesses and helping agency
chief information officers and chief information security officers close the gaps
to stop the bad guys. The Homeland Security Department’s National
Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services team (NCATS), in the National
Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), has been
building up its technical capabilities over the last seven-plus years to provide a
service to civilian agencies like none before. Read more
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
45. Penetration Testing
READ: Social Engineering Penetration Testing: An Overview. Social engineering
has proved to be extremely efficient hacking technique, as it exploits both human
weaknesses (greed, vanity, authority worship) and virtues (compassion,
willingness to help others). The technique has already made a name for itself with
43% out of 1,935 documented data breaches (2017 VERIZON DBIR). Quite a
reason for companies to add social engineering penetration testing to their
security wish list. Read more.
[SCMAGAZINE.COM]
LEGAL: Simulations Test Law Firm System Security. Last fall, MacKenzie Dunham
was a law student working at a personal injury firm in Houston when one of the
firm’s two partners called the office to say their car had been broken into and he
would not make it in. Not worried, the partner mentioned that among his stolen
belongings was a MacBook he used for work. This was when Dunham realized the
theft was not just a nuisance—it was a major breach of client documents.
Read more.
[ABAJOURNAL.COM]
46. Penetration Testing
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: The Pentagon Opened Up to Hackers—And Fixed
Thousands of Bugs. The United States government doesn’t get along with hackers.
That’s just how it is. Hacking protected systems, even to reveal their weaknesses,
is illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Department of Justice
has repeatedly made it clear that it will enforce the law. In the last 18 months,
though, a new Department of Defense project called “Hack the Pentagon” has
offered real glimmers of hope that these prejudices could change. Find out more
[WIRED.COM]
48. Open Source
ACQUISITION: Open Source Software Bill Advances in House, but Doesn’t Ditch
the DUNS. The ongoing debate on how the federal government processes its
spending data continued Tuesday, as the House Oversight Committee approved a
bill that would allow agencies to use open source elements for the electronic
tracking of grant information. The markup also included a tit-for-tat about the
bill’s potential long-term impact. Read more
[FEDSCOOP.COM]
49. Open Source
APPLICATION SECURITY: Open Source Components, Code Volume Drag Down Web
App Security. The number of new Web application vulnerabilities published last
year was 212% greater than the number disclosed in 2016, Imperva says in a new
report this week. Read more.
[DARKREADING.COM]
LEARN: Meet Open Source – The Not-So-Secret to Success. Open source is a great
tool for developers, but it doesn’t solve all problems. In this article, Milen Dyankov
discusses the lessons he has learned as a long time user and advocate of open
source software, and the value of nurturing relationships. Read more.
[JAXENTER.COM]
50. Open Source
BLOCKCHAIN: Developments And Adoption Of Blockchain In The U.S. Federal
Government. With the rise of Bitcoin, one of the underlying supportive
technologies that makes it possible has gained more awareness — blockchain. The
technology of blockchain has many applications to secure transactions and
activities outside of the financial sector, including in healthcare and other
industries. The U.S. federal government has interest in the application of blockchain
for various purposes. Read more
[FORBES.COM]
51. Open Source
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Open Source Turns 20: Here’s How it All Started. Open Source
software is almost inescapable, but that wasn’t always the case. Read more.
[ENGADGET.COM]
LINUX: Open Source and Standards Team: How Red Hat Measures Open Source
Success. Red Hat is, by its very nature, a deviation from the norm in this series of
profiles. It is not a company with an open source program, but rather an open
source company with an open source and standards office and an engineering team
dedicated to curating communities and tending upstream contributions. In essence,
Red Hat is a living, breathing testament to the success of open source. However, it
still benefited from some organization and goal-setting in its community efforts.
Read more.
[LINUX.COM]
53. Business Intelligence
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: How AI is Transforming Business Intelligence. Today,
businesses are entering into a new era ruled by data. AI, specifically, is gradually
evolving into a key driver that shapes day-to- day business processes and Business
Intelligence decision-making. Thanks to advances in cognitive computing and AI,
companies can now use sophisticated algorithms to gain insights into consumer
behavior, use the real-time insights to identify trends and make informed decisions
that give them an edge over their competitors. Read more
[DATACONOMY.COM]
54. Business Intelligence
ANALYTICS: 5 Business Intelligence Myths, Debunked. Taking a passive approach to
Business Intelligence (BI) is a mistake many companies today make. Their
competitors mine data related to optimize their stake in the marketplace starting
from their customers, and products all the way to market share and patterns of
growth. But why are so many companies still so fearful of BI? Here are the top five
myths debunked. Read more
[INSIDEBIGDATA.COM]
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: House Dives into Artificial Intelligence. Legislators are
working to get a grip on the thorny issue of artificial intelligence by conducting a
series of congressional hearings to guide government understanding and adoption
of the technology. Read more.
[GCN.COM]
55. Business Intelligence
READ: 12 Ways to Empower Government Users With the Microsoft Business
Intelligence (MBI) Stack. Are your organization’s Federal IT resources under
constant pressure, with no end in sight? Your agency is not alone. With limited
access to dedicated information technology resources, non-technical end users
often play the waiting game, relying on IT staff to do simple tasks like generating
custom queries and embedding them within applications. Here are ways to
empower your end users with the Microsoft Business Intelligence (MBI) Stack. Find
out more
[BLUEMT.COM]
56. Business Intelligence
MICROSERVICES: When Data APIs Go Neglected, Business Intelligence Suffers.
Many businesses have mature API management practices in place for integration
via REST APIs and application APIs. Unfortunately, those API strategies can create
data silos for most business intelligence and analytics practices. That’s a problem
that will only grow as demand for advanced analytics increases, according to
industry experts. Read more.
[SEARCHMICROSERVICES.TECHTARGET.COM]
57. Business Intelligence
READ: Business Intelligence vs. Business Analytics: Where BI Fits Into Your Data
Strategy. While BI leverages past and present data to describe the state of your
business today, business analytics mines data to predict where your business is
heading and prescribe actions to maximize beneficial outcomes. Find out more
[CIO.COM]
U.S. GOVT FINANCE: 11 Ways to Speed Up Government Procurement. Buying with
public money is difficult by design, but are there fair ways to fix it? Read more
[GOVTECH.COM]
59. Operating Systems
CONTAINERS VERSUS OPERATING SYSTEMS: What Does a Distro Provide? The
most popular docker base container image is either busybox, or scratch. This is
driven by a movement that is equal parts puritanical and pragmatic. The puritan
asks “Why do I need to run init(1) just to run my process?” The pragmatist asks
“Why do I need a 700 meg base image to deploy my application?” And both,
seeking immutable deployment units ask “Is it a good idea that I can ssh into my
container?” But let’s step back for a second and look at the history of how we got to
the point where questions like this are even a thing. Read more
[DAVE.CHENEY.NET]
60. Operating Systems
EUROPE: Barcelona Abandons Windows and Office, Goes with Linux Instead. In
another entire-city-abandons-Microsoft affair, Barcelona has announced that it’s
dumping Windows and Office in order to migrate to Linux and other open source
solutions. The idea is, obviously enough, to save money by not paying subscription
fees to Microsoft, because the beauty of open source software is that it’s free. Read
more
[TECHRADAR.COM]
MICROSOFT: Ends Mainstream Support for Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 users are
now left without mainstream support, as Microsoft officially pulls the plug on the
operating system. The company will still continue to offer security updates until
2023, when all support for the platform will end. Read more.
[KITGURU.NET]
61. Operating Systems
TECH TIP: Keeping Up With the Meltdown and Spectre Bugs. Is it safe to install the
Windows patch for these new Spectre and Meltdown bugs? Do they affect Linux?
(And who names these security flaws, anyway?) Find out the answer. Read more.
[NYTIMES.COM]
63. BYOD
SECURITY: Why BYOD Authentication Struggles to be Secure. A recent Bitglass
study pointed out some interesting statistics: Over a quarter (28%) of organizations
rely solely on user-generated passwords to secure BYOD, potentially exposing
countless endpoints to credential guessing, cracking and theft. 61% of respondents
also had reservations about Apple’s Face ID technology. Given that the general
concept in security has always been to eliminate passwords and use MFA, the
results are surprising, so why the disconnect? Read more
[INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM]
64. BYOD
DOD: ‘Wrong Trajectory’ in Mobile Strategy Stifles Marines’ BYOD Ambitions. The
Marine Corps has been talking about implementing a bring-your-own-device
strategy for more than three years as one way to cut costs and speed up its
adoption of commercial smartphone technology. But the service’s chief information
officer says the goal is still a long way off, and the Marines are still struggling to
bring aboard the most modern mobile devices, even when they’re owned by the
government. Read more.
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
TEXTBOOKS OPTIONAL: What Unbundling and BYOD Mean for Learning
Technology. Today, schools across the country look to educators to customize
learning for their unique classrooms. Here is how educators are accomplishing this
through unbundling and BYOD. Find out more
[ESCHOOLNEWS.COM]
65. BYOD
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BYOD: The Mobile Security Conundrum. There are
currently more than 7.7 billion mobile connections around the world. Thanks to the
Internet of Things, it is predicted that the number of connected devices will reach
an astounding 20.8 billion by 2020. With the average number of mobile devices
owned per person currently estimated at 3.64, those devices are becoming
necessary equipment for today’s workers. Yet while the private sector has been
quick to establish Bring-your-own-device policies, the public sector has lagged
behind because of security and privacy concerns. Despite several initiatives —
including a White House-issued BYOD toolkit and two National Institute of
Standards and Technology documents (800-124 and 800-164) giving guidance on
securing devices that connect with government networks — many federal agencies
are still reluctant to establish BYOD policies. Read more
[GCN.COM]
67. Incident Response
PREPARE: Creating an Incident Response Checklist to Prepare for a Data Breach.
The SANS Institute developed a six-step framework to help organizations respond to
security incidents, from the initial discovery of a breach to post-incident
investigations. Read more
[SECURITYINTELLIGENCE.COM]
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Cyber Takes on New Prominence in Shutdown
Government. According to the latest DHS shutdown plan, the National Protection
and Programs Directorate, which helps manage both CDM and AIS, would furlough
approximately 45 percent of its total workforce and up to 80 percent of its cyber
workforce in the event of a shutdown. Read more
[FCW.COM]
68. Incident Response
INTERVIEW: Ross Nodurft, Former White House Cyber Chief. Ross Nodurft, former
Chief of the Cyber and National Security team in the White House OMB has taken
up a new role as Vice President of Risk Management at OWI. IN a recent interview
he talks about cybersecurity and related subjects. Read more.
[DIGITALJOURNAL.COM]
ACQUISITION: Changes Coming to GSA’s Contractor Cybersecurity Requirements.
The General Services Administration plans to officialize regulations on how
contractors should handle and protect sensitive information for federal clients, as
well as report any incidents that could put that information at risk. Read more.
[FEDSCOOP.COM]
70. Cybersecurity
DHS: Needs More Cybersecurity Workers – It Just Doesn’t Know Where Or What
Kind. The government’s primary cybersecurity agency is missing congressional
deadlines to identify and categorize its cyber workforce, a congressional watchdog
said. Read more
[NEXTGOV.COM]
HOW: Machine Learning And Other Tech Trends Will Disrupt Cyber Security In
2018. The emergence of mobile platforms and cloud-based enterprise apps,
coupled with the increased adoption of advanced technologies such as fingerprint
identification and biometrics have collectively fueled a notable spike in the space.
Although cyber security is attracting greater attention across the globe, the United
States stands as the dominant force leading the charge for innovation. Read more
[FORBES.COM]
71. Cybersecurity
CAREERS: 5 Skills Cybersecurity Pros Will Need in 2018. In response to the growing
demand for cybersecurity and to protect against increasingly complex attacks,
security skills are in high demand. According to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, cybersecurity professionals earn an average salary of $116,000—nearly
three times the national average. In response to the rapidly evolving cybersecurity
landscape, professionals must keep their skills sharp. Here are 5 skills that
cybersecurity professionals should consider investing in for 2018. Read more.
[TECHSPECTIVE.NET]
CYBERSECURITY REPORT CARD: Why Too Many Companies are Graded ‘Could Do
Better’. Lack of budget and the right skills are leaving businesses vulnerable to
attack. Read more.
[ZDNET.COM]
72. Cybersecurity
IRS: Tax Scam Alert – The IRS Just Issued a New Cybersecurity Warning. While
cybersecurity should be a year-round concern for small business owners, income
tax filing season can bring some particular risks, according to the IRS. The agency
says it has gotten an increase in reports of attempts to obtain employees’ W-2
forms in hopes of stealing people’s personal information and identities. The scams
often go after employees in companies’ human resources and payroll departments,
but any staffer or manager could be a target. In the scam, a potential thief poses as
a company executive, sending an email from an address that might look legitimate,
and requests a list of employees and their W-2s. Read more.
[TIME.COM]
73. Cybersecurity
TRENDS: 18 Cyber Security Trends We Are Watching in 2018. If any trend is
obvious, it’s that 2018 will continue to be interesting for the cybersec industry. How
interesting? Here is are the 18 trends that will be making the headlines and should
be on your radar for 2018. Read more.
[SECURITYBOULEVARD.COM]
74. Cybersecurity
DHS: Needs More Cybersecurity Workers – It Just Doesn’t Know Where Or What
Kind. The government’s primary cybersecurity agency is missing congressional
deadlines to identify and categorize its cyber workforce, a congressional watchdog
said. Read more
[NEXTGOV.COM]
HOW: Machine Learning And Other Tech Trends Will Disrupt Cyber Security In
2018. The emergence of mobile platforms and cloud-based enterprise apps,
coupled with the increased adoption of advanced technologies such as fingerprint
identification and biometrics have collectively fueled a notable spike in the space.
Although cyber security is attracting greater attention across the globe, the United
States stands as the dominant force leading the charge for innovation. Read more
[FORBES.COM]
75. Cybersecurity
CAREERS: 5 Skills Cybersecurity Pros Will Need in 2018. In response to the growing
demand for cybersecurity and to protect against increasingly complex attacks,
security skills are in high demand. According to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, cybersecurity professionals earn an average salary of $116,000—nearly
three times the national average. In response to the rapidly evolving cybersecurity
landscape, professionals must keep their skills sharp. Here are 5 skills that
cybersecurity professionals should consider investing in for 2018. Read more.
[TECHSPECTIVE.NET]
CYBERSECURITY REPORT CARD: Why Too Many Companies are Graded ‘Could Do
Better’. Lack of budget and the right skills are leaving businesses vulnerable to
attack. Read more.
[ZDNET.COM]
77. IT Management
READ: All Management Is Change Management. Change management is having its
moment. There’s no shortage of articles, books, and talks on the subject. But many
of these indicate that change management is some occult subspecialty of
management, something that’s distinct from “managing” itself. This is curious
given that, when you think about it, all management is the management of
change. Read more
[HBR.ORG]
NARA: Improvements Seen in Federal Records Management, but ‘There is Work
to be Done’. Compliance, collaboration and accountability are the themes of the
National Archives’ recommendations to agencies for improving how they handle
paper – and electronic – trails. That’s according to NARA’s 2016 Federal Agency
Records Management Annual Report. Read more.
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
78. IT Management
FINANCIAL: Washington State’s Strategy for Tracking IT Spending. The state of
Washington’s first efforts to bring technology business management to its IT
spending practices began in 2010 when the legislature mandated annual reports
and specific evaluation requirements for investments. As interest grew in
monitoring the cost of IT along with the business services IT provides, officials in
the Washington’s Office of the CIO worked to refine the strategy through the
creation of a state TBM program. Find out more
[GCN.COM]
79. IT Management
HR: A Blueprint for Improving Government’s HR Function. Government, at its
core, is its employees and their commitment to serve the country. That fact is
too often overlooked. While technology enables employees to make better,
faster decisions, until artificial intelligence replaces the acquired knowledge of
employees, agency performance will continue to depend on the skill and
dedication of government workers. As such, civil service reform is increasingly
important because workforce rules and regulations are out of sync with current
management thinking. To use a basketball analogy, government is still shooting
two handed set shots. Read more
[GOVEXEC.COM]
81. Application Development
MOBILE APPS: What are the Advantages of Rapid Application Development?
Rapid mobile app development (RMAD) requires less know-how, but still reduces
the costs and risks typically involved in a traditional app build. Here are some of the
advantages of adopting RMAD products. Read more
[SEARCHMOBILECOMPUTING.TECHTARGET.COM]
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Will 2018 be the Year for Blockchain for Government?
While 2017 was the year everyone in government talked about blockchain, 2018
may finally mark the year of action. For all the discussion and hype, there are few
use cases of the technology to highlight. Jose Arrieta, former director of the
General Services Administration’s IT Schedule 70 Contract Operations, was quoted
in a recent interview that GSA’s use of blockchain to automate and speed up
contracts review for its FAStLane program was — as far as he knew — the only
actual proof of concept of a blockchain enabled system in the federal government.
Read more
[FCW.COM]
82. Application Development
APIs: Why Managing APIs is Critical for Federal Agencies. Federal IT managers are
basically software-as-a-service providers and should be prepared to act that way.
Read more.
[NEXTGOV.COM]
COMMENT: Why is There So Much Customized Software in the Federal
Government? Former federal CIO Tony Scott writes, “During my tenure as federal
CIO in the Obama administration, one of the things that shocked me most was the
enormous amount of custom code that has been (and continues to be) written
over the years to support the federal government. Nearly everywhere I looked, I
found that regardless of how old or how new (from mainframe all the way to
modern cloud), the business applications of the federal government were
invariably (and quite alarmingly) almost always based on custom software
applications.” Read more.
[FCW.COM]
84. Big Data
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: FAA, CMS and GSA Retool to Take Advantage of Big
Data. Agencies can use Big Data to gain insights that help citizens and make their
operations more efficient, but they must upgrade IT infrastructure to do so. Read
more
[FEDTECHMAGAZINE.COM]
2018: Cloud Computing, Big Data, Security: What CIOs Are Spending Their Budget
on This Year. What CIOs say they need to invest in to succeed, and what they are
actually going to spend their IT budgets on, may not be the same things. Read more
[ZDNET.COM]
85. Big Data
SECURITY: Blurred Lines Between Networking and Security. In today’s complex IT
environment, identifying security events fast is critical to minimizing the impact.
However, in order to detect and remediate attacks in this environment, security
teams need the proper tools to process and correlate massive amounts of real-time
and historical security event data. By applying advanced analytics techniques to
these huge amounts of data, infosec teams can better detect and defend against
sophisticated attacks. Implementing this in the real world is easier said than done.
Read more.
[INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM]
86. Big Data
RESEARCH: NSF’s New Initiative To Bring The Cloud Era To Academic Big Data
Research. Earlier this month, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced
a new collaboration with three major cloud vendors to provide computing credits
for academic research. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
and Microsoft Azure each committed up to $3 million over three years in computing
time on their platforms for academic research as part of the new NSF initiative,
making some of the world’s most powerful “big data” platforms far more readily
available to power the next generation of research. Read more.
[FORBES.COM]
88. Internet of Things (IoT)
BIG DATA: Blockchain And The Internet Of Things: 4 Important Benefits Of
Combining These Two Mega Trends. The Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain are
two topics which are causing a great deal of hype and excitement, not just in the
technology circle but in the wider business world, too. Many say they are set to
revolutionize all aspects of our lives, while others point out that there is a lot of hot
air around both ideas, and a lot is yet to be proved. However, the idea that putting
them together could result in something even greater than the sum of its (not
insignificant) parts, is something which is starting to gain traction. Read more
[FORBES.COM]
89. Internet of Things (IoT)
BUSINESS: Why Should You Beware of ‘Internet of Things’? Baltimore Firm
Explains. The “internet of things” — any device other than your computer, laptop,
tablet or phone that’s connected to the internet — is a rapidly expanding
technology. It includes anything from your Fitbit to your thermostat, home security
system, even your refrigerator or your child’s teddy bear. The internet of things is
making our lives more productive and entertaining — and making our privacy more
vulnerable. Read more
[WTOP.COM]
IoT & CRIME: An Internet of Things ‘Crime Harvest’ is Coming Unless Security
Problems are Fixed. Internet of Things product manufacturers must get their act
together and secure their devices or they risk creating new ways for wrongdoers to
commit crimes, a senior police officer has warned. Read more.
[ZDNET.COM]
90. Internet of Things (IoT)
DATA MANAGEMENT: The Internet of Things: Still Lots for You to Learn. IT groups
will need to provide architecture, data-mining tools and connectivity, while giving
business groups the freedom to innovate on their own with the Internet of Things.
Read more.
[INFORMATIONWEEK.COM]
92. Personal Tech
WINDOWS 10 & PDF: Signing Your Name in Digital Ink. Typing in text on a PDF
form is tidier and saves time, but on a touch-screen Windows 10 computer, it is
possible to “sign” PDF forms on the screen, instead of having to download a filled-in
form, print it out, sign it, scan it and mail it. Find out how. Read more
[NYTIMES.COM]
INVENTORY: Take 15 Minutes Now to Make a Video of Your Possessions. Grab your
phone, put it on video mode and walk around your house for 15 minutes getting
footage of every room, every wall and, if you can manage it, the inside of every
drawer. That’s the advice of insurance experts, who say if there’s one easy thing you
can do to aid the insurance recovery process from any natural disaster, it’s having
photos of your belongings. Read more
[USATODAY.COM]
93. Personal Tech
SECURITY: Protecting Your Digital Life in 9 Easy Steps. In a Medium post, Quincy
Larson, the founder of Free Code Camp, an open-source community for learning to
code, detailed the reasons it might be useful for people to make their personal data
more difficult for attackers to obtain. “When I use the term ‘attacker’ I mean
anyone trying to access your data whom you haven’t given express permission to,”
he wrote, “whether it’s a hacker, a corporation or even a government.” Here are
some of basic security steps he recommends. Read more.
[NYTIMES.COM]
TOOLS & SKILLS: No, Seriously – Do This Now: How to Protect Your Digital Life.
How to set up two-factor authentication for all of your online accounts. Read more.
[THEMUSE.COM]
95. Mobile
ENTERPRISE: How Killing Net Neutrality Will Affect Enterprise Mobility. As the FCC
prepares to eliminate net neutrality rules, allowing ISPs to charge more for some
internet traffic based on speed of delivery, companies will have to rethink how
mobile apps are created and how they host content. Read more
[COMPUTERWORLD.COM]
FINANCIAL: Most Cryptocurrency Mobile Apps Are Vulnerable. Mobile
cryptocurrency app report finds that many apps are vulnerable to cybersecurity
threats after testing the Google Play Store’s Top 30 Financial apps. Read more.
[APPDEVELOPERMAGAZINE.COM]
96. Mobile
DIGITAL WORKSPACE: DOD Creates New Security Requirements for Mobile Apps.
The Defense Department has outlined baseline standards that mission-critical and
business mobile applications need to meet. Find out more
[FEDTECHMAGAZINE.COM]
LOCAL: App Brings SA Government Contract Leads to Local Bidders. A pair of U.S.
military veterans-turned-entrepreneurs in San Antonio are banking on big returns
from a app geared toward connecting small businesses with the government
procurement process — both for municipalities seeking bids from local companies
and for businesses looking to break into the market. Find out more
[BIZJOURNALS.COM]
98. Programming & Scripting Development
Client & Server-Side
DEVOPS: 10 Most In-Demand Programming Languages of 2018. Do you have the
skills you’ll need to succeed this year, or are you still betting on a COBOL revival?
Read more
[INFORMATIONWEEK.COM]
CAREERS: Employers Want JavaScript, but Developers Want Python. Employers
also want developers skilled in React.js, Angular, and Node.js—but fewer
developers have those skills. Read more
[INFOWORLD.COM]
99. Programming & Scripting Development
Client & Server-Side
FULL STACK DEVELOPMENT: With a Great Language Comes Great Usability:
Making Blockchain More Accessible with JavaScript. JavaScript is seen as the go-
to language for newcomers to learn programming; meanwhile, blockchain still has
this “hard to understand” label attached to its name. JavaScript is not always the
right choice for blockchain projects, though. For Lisk, it ensures wide platform
adoption. Here’s how. Read more.
[JAXENTER.COM]
JAVA: Visual Studio Code Editor Gets New Extensions for Java Programming. The
Visual Studio Code team continues to add Java functionality to Microsoft’s open
source, cross-platform code editor via extensions, just launching a new batch for
working with Maven, Tomcat and Checkstyle. Read more.
[ADTMAG.COM]
100. Programming & Scripting Development
Client & Server-Side
BIG DATA: Which Programming Language Is Best for Big Data? Nothing is quite so
personal for programmers as what language they use. Why a data scientist,
engineer, or application developer picks one over the other has as much to do with
personal preference and their employers’ IT culture as it does the qualities and
characteristics of the language itself. But when it comes to big data, there are
some definite patterns that emerge. Read more
[DATANAMI.COM]
CAREERS: Employers Want JavaScript, but Developers Want Python. Employers
also want developers skilled in React.js, Angular, and Node.js—but fewer
developers have those skills. Read more
[INFOWORLD.COM]
101. Programming & Scripting Development
Client & Server-Side
FULL STACK DEVELOPMENT: With a Great Language Comes Great Usability:
Making Blockchain More Accessible with JavaScript. JavaScript is seen as the go-
to language for newcomers to learn programming; meanwhile, blockchain still has
this “hard to understand” label attached to its name. JavaScript is not always the
right choice for blockchain projects, though. For Lisk, it ensures wide platform
adoption. Here’s how. Read more.
[JAXENTER.COM]
JAVA: Visual Studio Code Editor Gets New Extensions for Java Programming. The
Visual Studio Code team continues to add Java functionality to Microsoft’s open
source, cross-platform code editor via extensions, just launching a new batch for
working with Maven, Tomcat and Checkstyle. Read more.
[ADTMAG.COM]
103. Cloud Computing
TECHNOLOGY: How Cloud Computing Is Changing Management. With cloud,
information travels rapidly in both directions, across computing systems that, with
attributes like virtualization, scaling up or down to handle bigger workloads, or
automated security patching across thousands of machines, are far more flexible.
This will likely mean a more flexible work structure as well, in the interest of products
and services that ideally can be adjusted to anticipate customer needs. Key to the
new system are rapid data collection and analysis, followed by over the air changes
to product software. Read more
[HBR.ORG]
104. Cloud Computing
MICROSOFT: Sales Lifted by Cloud Computing. The portion of Microsoft’s cloud
business that involves selling to companies — called commercial cloud — grew 56
percent, to $5.3 billion, in the quarter that ended on Dec. 31. Like many legacy
software companies that cater to the huge corporate computing market, Microsoft
was caught off guard by the emergence of cloud computing in the form of online
storage and computing services offered by the internet retailer Amazon. Read more
[NYTIMES.COM]
PREDICTIONS: Cloud Computing Will Virtually Replace Traditional Data Centers
within Three Years. Cloud data center traffic will represent 95 percent of total data
center traffic by 2021, says Cisco. Read more.
[ZDNET.COM]
105. Cloud Computing
GOVERNMENT: Government, industry Mix It Up in the Cloud. The government,
which is a little late to use cloud computing, is nevertheless driving the way
commercial providers are engineering their clouds. That’s according to an executive
of one of the biggest cloud providers. Cloud design, he said, is to a large extent
driven by federal scale and security requirements. He said if a cloud provider can
meet federal requirements — and especially military and intelligence — it can meet
anybody’s. Read more.
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
107. Announcement
Blue Mountain Data Systems DOL Contract Extended Another Six Months
The Department of Labor has extended Blue Mountain Data Systems Inc. contract
DOLOPS16C0017 for 6 months for network administration and application
support.
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.
109. IT Security | Cybersecurity
SECURITY: 5 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Cybersecurity. Terrorism
researchers, AI developers, government scientists, threat-intelligence specialists,
investors and startups gathered at the second annual WIRED conference to discuss
the changing face of online security. These are the people who are keeping you safe
online. Their discussions included Daesh’s media strategy, the rise of new forms of
online attacks, how to protect infrastructure, the threat of pandemics and the
dangers of hiring a nanny based on her Salvation Army uniform. Read more
[WIRED.CO.UK]
IT MANAGEMENT: Top 5 Cybersecurity Mistakes IT Leaders Make, and How to Fix
Them. Cybersecurity teams are largely understaffed and underskilled. Here’s how to
get the most out of your workers and keep your business safe. Read more.
[TECHREPUBLIC.COM]
110. IT Security | Cybersecurity
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Rep. Hurd Champions Modernizing Federal Cybersecurity.
The federal government is and will continue to be a target of cyber crimes.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, U.S. companies and government
agencies suffered a total of 1,093 data breaches in 2016. Mid-year numbers for 2017
show 791 incidents as of the end of June – a 29 percent increase over the same
period in 2016. With that said, is the government doing enough to prepare for cyber
threats? On this episode of CyberChat, host Sean Kelley, former Environmental
Protection Agency chief information security officer and former Veterans Affairs
Department deputy chief information officer, spoke with Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas)
about initiatives to modernize the federal cybersecurity space. Read more
[FEDERALNEWSRADIO.COM]
111. IT Security | Cybersecurity
STATE GOVERNMENT: To Simplify Cybersecurity Regulations, State Groups Ask
Federal Government for Help. A letter to the Office of Management and Budget
says that today’s regulatory environment “hampers” states in their pursuit of cost
savings and IT optimization. Find out more
STATESCOOP.COM]
112. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Programming & Scripting
https://www.bluemt.com/programming-scripting-daily-tech-update-september-
29-2017/
Cloud Computing
https://www.bluemt.com/cloud-computing-daily-tech-update-september-18-
2017/
Business Intelligence
https://www.bluemt.com/business-intelligence-daily-tech-update-september-15-
2017/
Mobile Applications
https://www.bluemt.com/mobile-applications-daily-tech-update-september-11-
2017/
113. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Personal Tech
https://www.bluemt.com/personal-tech-daily-tech-update-september-28-2017/
Databases
https://www.bluemt.com/databases-daily-tech-update-september-21-2017/
Penetration Testing
https://www.bluemt.com/penetration-testing-daily-tech-update-september-26-
2017/
Incident Response
https://www.bluemt.com/incident-response-daily-tech-update-september-14-
2017/
114. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Security Patches
https://www.bluemt.com/security-patches-daily-tech-update-september-22-
2017/
Operating Systems
https://www.bluemt.com/operating-systems-daily-tech-update-september-20-
2017/
Encryption
https://www.bluemt.com/encryption-daily-tech-update-september-19-2017/
Cloud Computing
https://www.bluemt.com/cloud-computing-daily-tech-update-september-18-
2017/
115. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Open Source
https://www.bluemt.com/programming-scripting-daily-tech-update-september-
5-2017/
CTO, CIO and CISO
https://www.bluemt.com/cio-cto-ciso-daily-tech-update-september-6-2017/
Programming & Scripting
https://www.bluemt.com/programming-scripting-daily-tech-update-september-
5-2017/
116. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Security Risks Most Prevalent in Younger Workers
https://www.bluemt.com/security-risks-most-prevalent-in-younger-workers/
The Security World’s Maturation
https://www.bluemt.com/the-security-worlds-maturation/
Data Breach Concerns Keep CISOs Up At Night
https://www.bluemt.com/data-breach-concerns-keep-cisos-up-at-night/
Personalized Govt Equals Instant Gratification for Citizens
https://www.bluemt.com/personalized-govt-equals-instant-gratification-for-
citizens/
117. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
People-Centric Security
https://www.bluemt.com/people-centric-security/
Pentagon Tries BYOD To Strike Work/Life Balance
https://www.bluemt.com/pentagon-tries-byod-to-strike-worklife-balance/
Open Source Model Considered for MS Windows
https://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/
118. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Malware Stays A Step Ahead Infecting One Third of Websites
https://www.bluemt.com/malware-stays-a-step-ahead-infecting-one-third-of-
websites/
Machine-Generated Data: Potential Goldmine for the CIO
https://www.bluemt.com/machine-generated-data-potential-goldmine-for-the-
cio/
Government Legacy Programs: Reuse vs. Replacement
https://www.bluemt.com/government-legacy-programs-reuse-vs-replacement/
It Takes a Whole Village to Protect Networks and Systems
https://www.bluemt.com/it-takes-a-whole-village-to-protect-networks-and-
systems/
119. From the Blue Mountain Data Systems Blog
Governance For the CIO
https://www.bluemt.com/governance-for-the-cio/
Help Desk Consolidation – Lessons Learned
https://www.bluemt.com/help-desk-consolidation-lessons-learned/
One Year Later, Companies Still Vulnerable to Heartbleed
https://www.bluemt.com/one-year-later-companies-still-vulnerable-to-
heartbleed/
Federal Projects Cultivate Worker Passion
https://www.bluemt.com/federal-projects-cultivate-worker-passion-2/
120. 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
121. 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.
122. 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.
123. CONTACT US
Contact Us Today to Discuss Your Next IT Project
HEADQUARTERS
366 Victory Drive
Herndon, VA 20170
PHONE 703-502-3416
FAX 703-745-9110
EMAIL
paul@bluemt.com
WEB
https://www.bluemt.com