Technology

The National Reconnaissance Office is concerned that budget cuts will force the agency to cut science and technology demonstration missions because large satellite programs already underway would be difficult to scale back, the agency’s top official said Monday. NRO Director Bruce Carlson told attendees at the GEOINT geospatial intelligence conference in …

Chief information officers at federal agencies are limited in their ability to exercise their authority on information technology management even though federal law calls for it, according to the Government Accountability Office. In its 72-page report, GAO found 14 of 30 surveyed CIOs held other job titles with different responsibilities, …

Much federally funded medical research, disease prevention and public health initiatives will suffer if the congressional super committee fails to agree on a deficit-reduction package, according to a report from Kaiser Health News and the Washington Post. While much focus is on possible cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare …

The federal government will slightly reduce its spending on information technology through 2017, according to a forecast from the Washington-based technology trade association TechAmerica. Technology spending will remain flat at $43 billion in the next five years, with defense spending on IT dropping to $35 billion by 2017 from $38 …

The recent BlackBerry outages may drive more smartphone users to the iPhone and Android platforms, but the BlackBerry is still preferred in government offices. According to National Journal, the main reason is simple: BlackBerry devices are more secure than the others. The devices have embedded encryption technology, making it difficult …

The federal government has recently embarked on a round of data center closures, an initiative the White House said will save agencies a combined $630 million by 2015. The Office of Management and Budget had previously said the closures would save $3 billion by 2015. Agencies are reporting revised data …

NASA announced it is planning to launch the very first Earth-observing satellite on Oct. 27. The ultimate goal for the satellite entitled The National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) will be to collect critical data on short and long-term weather patterns and increase our knowledge of climate …

Eric Perakslis, former chief information officer of R&D information technology at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, has joined the Food and Drug Administration as its new chief information officer and chief scientist of informatics. In a brief statement to Bio-IT World, Perakslis said, “The commissioner has given me license to …

NASA’s seven-seat space taxi could take flight next summer as part of a test, according to a story from Reuters. The launch site will either be from the Edwards Air Force base in California’s Mojave Desert or from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. There are four space …

Cybersecurity is still a major worry of government IT personnel, presenting an opportunity for data protection vendors, according to two recent surveys by Cisco and MeriTalk. In the Cisco-sponsored study,  71 percent of the federal IT managers surveyed said that the top threat scenario was the “increased sophistication of cyberattacks.” A survey …