Thursday, October 03, 2002

eVital and eGovernment e-Vital is one of the Federal government's 24 "Quicksilver" initiatives.  When I heard a little about it, I could see all kinds of potential for doing vital information checks and verifications online.  I talked to several state agencies, all of whom were very interested in the potential for this project.  When I finally was able to contact the right person in the Social Security Administration, I learned that the scope at this time is really quite narrow - the project is focused on allowing the Social Security Administration to send a query to the vital records section of eight different states to verify that the birth / age of a given person is really correct.  This initial piece was launched on Tuesday in the State of Colorado.  KPMG Consulting (who just changed their name to BearingPoint) is doing a feasability study on the potential costs and benefits associated with expanding the scope which is what I would like to see happen. 2:39:35 PM

Wireless Security If anyone has had time to analyze wireless security, it is the Pentagon.  In 1985, I was using wireless satellite communications in Honduras to communicate critical information globally.  We were using double encryption at the time and I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that transmissions were secure.  We were only sending at 19.2, but that was pretty good at the time, since some were still using other types of communication at 300 baud.  I bring this up because an article in GCN states that the Pentagon is now prohibiting connections from any kind of wireless device to any classified network.  I imagine that this is because there has been a proliferation of wireless applications for military use.  Speaking of military security, I just stumbled across this 1999 report online, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AND MILITARY/COMMERCIAL CONCERNS WITH THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.  I hadn't read it before, but with my interest in China, I will. 7:34:15 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.