CRIME [Fwd: [Information_technology] Daily News 12/02/02]

lylel@private

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Information_technology] Daily News 12/02/02
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 10:29:12 -0600
From: "NIPC Watch" <nipcwatch@private>
To: "Information Technology" <information_technology@private>

November 27, Global Security Newswire - Pentagon distributes software for
modeling effects of attacks. The Defense Department has licensed to a few
select non-governmental organizations previously unavailable software that
can model the effects of releases of nuclear, chemical, biological or
radiological weapons and materials. The Heritage Foundation, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Stanford University and other institutions have
recently gained access to the computer modeling programs. The goal is to
educate political leaders and the public about the potential consequences of
weapons of mass destruction whether they are used by terrorists or by a
state in conflict with the United States. Furthermore, defense officials
have said that they benefit from the independent analysis by
non-governmental organizations. The modeling programs-the Hazard Prediction
and Assessment Capability (HPAC) and the Consequences Assessment Tool Set
(CATS)-are both capable of calculating the outcome of thousands of possible
scenarios involving a variety of weapons and materials. The models can
determine the human medical effects, toxicity levels, contaminated areas,
population exposure, hazard areas and casualties should WMD materials be
unleashed in an attack or dispersed in a military strike or by accident.
Source. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/112702gsn1.htm

November 27, Government Computer News - FedCIRC plans centralized software
patch distribution. The General Services Administration (GSA) is working to
make it easy for agencies to stay up-to-date with software patches. GSA
recently awarded a $10.8 million task order contract for a company to
support the Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCIRC) in issuing
alerts and distributing patches via the Web. GSA awarded the task order,
which is for one year with four one-year options, through its Safeguard
government-wide acquisition contract. The chosen firm will develop the Web
portal by late December. The technology will notify federal IT managers and
CIOs about the software patches, then authenticate and distribute the
patches. The system will use commercial software to pinpoint in real time
the computers that need software patches and provide CIOs and IT managers
with alerts specific to the software used by their agencies. FedCIRC is one
of the 22 entities being transferred to the new Homeland Security
Department. Source. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20577-1.html

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