Articles by John K. Higgins

The U.S. government is on track to significantly boost spending on cybersecurity solutions. However, evolving requirements to greatly improve federal protection of information technology resources will shape that spending In fact, federal cyberprotection goals should be augmented and significantly modified, according to recent studies of the federa...

Key components of the Obama administration's multipronged cybersecurity initiative keep falling into place One of the most recent developments was the formation of a federal Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. Another was the formal introduction in Congress of the administration's information technology investment plan, which is heavily...

Information technology -- especially the Internet -- can have a positive impact on the U.S. financial system. Used improperly, however, such tools have the potential to wreak havoc on the financial sector and consumers TheOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency, a unit of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has launched an initiative on the futu...

The U.S. government's objectives for improving cybersecurity are taking shape in updated contracting procedures, contracts and projected increases in spending. Several recent developments have underscored the federal commitment to bolstering the protection of IT resources On the contracting front, the General Services Administration has asked vendo...

Another federal agency has entered the arena for regulating e-commerce companies regarding the protection of consumer data The federalConsumer Financial Protection Bureau has closed its first and so far only privacy case with a consent agreement between itself and an online payments processor. The case has raised questions about the legal approach ...

The U.S. government is picking up the pace in its efforts to use open source software as much as possible. Federal CIO Tony Scott last month released details of a proposed policy designed to allow customized software created for one agency to be openly available to other government agencies as well Industry and government professionals may comment ...

Broadband Internet service providers are wary of a government plan to impose consumer privacy protection regulations on the sector TheFederal Communications Commission likely will issue the proposed regulations by Friday. It will accept public comment on the proposal before taking final action....

The federal program for improving the operation of thousands of government data centers has entered a new phase that will impact significantly how electronic information is stored and managed. Proposed updates to data center operations will affect providers of data management products and could spur the use of cloud technology Commercial vendors an...

The Obama administration is seeking US$3.1 billion for a modernization fund to update federal information technology resources that need to be replaced with more efficient and productive systems Initially, the fund would bolster the government's annual spending on IT, which is set for a modest increase to $89.8 billion in the administration's propo...

Vivek Kundra, the former federal CIO, envisioned that 25 percent of the funds the federal government spends each year on information technology could productively be deployed through cloud-based systems "The adoption of cloud computing will play a pivotal role in helping the government close the productivity gap between the public and private secto...

U.S. government agencies have spent more on cloud configurations than official budgets have predicted -- and those agencies will pick up the pace of cloud spending over the next five years Federal agencies will significantly boost spending on cloud deployments with various "as a service" configurations, according to two recent reports....

The U.S. government is under pressure to improve cybersecurity and is meeting that challenge with a commitment to substantially enhance spending for protecting IT systems. The Obama administration projected that the federal budget for cybersecurity spending in fiscal 2016 would be about US$14 billion -- an increase of $1.4 billion from 2015 That fu...

The U.S. government was shaken last year when theOffice of Personnel Management disclosed that employment records affecting 21.5 million people had been breached. The Obama administration acted quickly and initiated several comprehensive actions designed to shore up federal data protection -- including an immediate 30-day cybersecurity sprint A par...

The U.S. government has authorized an information technology contract with a potential value of US$503 million that is designed to meet newly adopted goals for greatly improving IT acquisition. TheGeneral Services Administration, which issued the contract for software and cloud-related services, described the acquisition approach as a first-of-its-kind initiative...

The U.S.Federal Trade Commission is extending its regulatory reach to the e-commerce impact of big data For years, the FTC has asserted vigorously its authority to apply existing consumer protection laws to emerging developments in the realm of information technology....

The U.S. Army may be in the walking phase of its plan to shift major portions of its information technology resources to the cloud, but a recent contracting initiative could move the service up to a jogging pace by the end of the year The Army's progress in migrating much of its IT capabilities to the cloud was characterized as a crawl during 2015....

The U.S.Federal Trade Commission is engaged in an internal struggle over how it should assess the effect on consumers when businesses fail to provide proper e-commerce security The outcome of the debate will have a significant impact on the FTC's ability to initiate cybersecurity violation cases. Depending on the outcome, in fact, the legal issue c...

The U.S.Federal Trade Commission andWyndham Worldwide earlier this month reached a settlement over allegations that the company violated federal law regarding the protection of customer records The settlement could have a significant impact on e-commerce in that it ended a major legal challenge to the FTC's extension of its authority into the realm...

Federal information technology purchasing often involves large amounts of money based on the small print of acquisition requirements. Arcane procurement language seemingly can have a big impact on transactions For IT vendors, provisions of recent legislation are prime examples of why it pays to scrutinize every line of the laws and regulations pert...

The good news for federal information technology managers -- and the vendor community -- is that government IT budgets will remain stable for the next few years in terms of projected spending. An additional potential benefit is that a recent budget agreement will support agencies for two years, removing some of the uncertainty that has characterized recent government funding...