Circuit
Published on February 18, 2008
Operation Jump Start, now in its fourth year, raised about $58,500 to help service members returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars move into civilian careers.
The Jan. 31 event at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va., raised $18,500 in cash and check donations, $23,500 in sponsorships and $16,500 worth of gift cards from stores such as Sprint, Macy’s and Target.
Individuals also gave generously to outfit the soldiers for civilian life. Volunteers collected 600 men’s and women’s business suits.
Each service member who attended the event received at least two suits. About 25 soldiers came from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The event’s sponsors were the CIO Council, the IT Association of America, 1105 Government Information Group, the Association for Federal Information Resources Management, the Industry Advisory Council and AFCEA International’s Bethesda, Md., chapter.
Comings and Goings
■ David Marin, minority staff director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will join the Podesta Group as a principal, Tony Podesta, chairman of the company, announced Feb. 7. Marin starts Feb. 19. Marin was previously majority staff director of the committee and lead staffer for the Select Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. He is the chief aide, spokesman and speechwriter for Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.).
■ Retired Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor, the first chief of staff at the Homeland Security Department, has been named director of the new Center for Technology, Security and Policy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The center will perform academic research, enhance existing graduate programs, and develop new educational courses and executive programs related to national and homeland security, Virginia Tech officials said.
■ Pennsylvania Secretary of Administration Naomi Wyatt appointed Brenda Orth as the Administration Department’s deputy secretary of information technology and state chief information officer.
■ Kevin Reardon has been appointed as deputy assistant secretary of homeland security for infrastructure protection. Reardon is a retired Navy captain with more than 30 years of active duty. He commanded two nuclear submarines and held key strategy, policy and technology leadership positions with the Navy and Joint Chiefs of Staff.
■ Daniel Johnson will become president of General Dynamics’ information technology business, replacing Michael Chandler, who is retiring.
■ The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2 , a nonprofit group that educates and certifies information security professionals, announced Jan. 28 the results of the election for its 2008 Board of Directors . Peter Berlich, David Melnick, Rolf Moulton, William Hugh Murray and Jill Slay were elected to three-year terms that began Jan. 1.
■ Richard Nealon was recently appointed to fill a board vacancy left by the retirement of John Colley. The board also appointed W. Hord Tipton to fill the vacancy left by James Wade, who died in October. The board’s members are industry leaders from business, government and academia elected by (ISC)2 members to provide strategic direction for the organization.
Security by the numbers
Agencies must configure 729 software settings to comply with the now-mandatory Federal Desktop Core Configuration standard for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista operating systems. As many as 16 of those require manual compliance checks.
Agencies can use software tools to check the remaining 98 percent.
For the record, here is the breakdown of those configuration settings:
- XP: 253 settings
- XP firewall: 26
- Vista: 293
- Vista Firewall: 35
- Internet Explorer 7:122
Source: Andrew Buttner, Mitre
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