Thursday, February 13, 2003

Cybersecurity Advisory The NIPC issued an advisory to heighten awareness of global hacking activity two days ago.  The advisory states that during a time of increased international tension, illegal cyber activity: spamming, web defacements, denial of service attacks, etc., often escalates.  I checked the internet storm center for anything unusual, but everything looks pretty normal.  Current status is green. 1:06:29 PM

UCJIS Transaction Counts Last year, Utah implemented an XML-enabled criminal justice information system that allows users to access all kinds of information through a single interface.  Based on data released in the January issue of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation's (BCI) newsletter, the system is being used quite heavily. UCJIS Transaction Counts For Nov, 2002 Transaction ID .................................................Count DQ Utah Drivers License........................... 349,236 QW SWW/PO ............................................ 291,207 RQ Utah Motor Vehicle.............................. 248,949 QV Query Vehicle ...................................... 204,696 QW Query Wanted - NCIC ........................ 168,282 ID Ident/Authorized Transaction List ......... 110,339 MIP Multiple Inquiry Person.......................... 89,821 IQ UCCH Name List .................................... 57,501 MIV Multiple Inquiry Vehicle ......................... 50,316 ACL Access Control List ............................... 44,829 Criminal Justice Issues in the States , vol. XVI (2948 K) 7:27:15 AM

Remote Broadband Opportunities We met with the Utah Department of Transportation yesterday to discuss their business case for broadband connections into all of their road maintenance stations throughout the state.  That's something I have been expecting for a while due to the increasing sophistication of highway maintenance and intelligent transportation systems.  UDOT station managers are expected to perform a wide variety of tasks and the department has developed a growing array of applications to support them in things like maintenance management, payroll, performance management, scheduling, cost analyiss, electronic plans, online manuals (they don't print anything anymore), weather station reporting, etc.  I view this as a tremendous opportunity.  By getting broadband into these remote areas, we can also support a growing number of hotspots that will allow other users like the highway patrol and local government agencies to access WAN support services and information from throughout the state.  In addition to the hotspots, we should consider direct online reporting for unmanned weather stations and other environmental sensors. 6:38:28 AM

Cellphone controversy in Honduras Yesterday, the Honduran Congress proposed a law that would outlaw cellphones not only while driving, but also in government office buildings, hospitals, and education facilities.  Under the law, abusers would be subject to drivers license revocation and even possible loss of employment.  The rational for the proposed law is that the use of cellphones "contaminates the environment and shows a lack of respect and culture."  There are 140,000 cellphones in the country which has a population of 6 million. The congressional website has a little poll where citizens can rate the actions of Congress.  The current results are an inverse bell curve with the majority of respondents voting that these actions are very good or very bad. 6:05:52 AM

eGovernment in Thailand I can't get my Thai character set to work properly with Netscape 7.0 or IE, but Thailand has vastly improved its egovernment internet portal.  When you get into the secondary sites like the Ministry of Education, they become very Asian in appearance.  Interesting, the character set works on the Education Ministry's site, but not on the egov portal. 5:51:57 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.