From robots to Obamacare, listed here are the 15 ultimate InformationWeek government tech stories from 2013. If several words could sum up 2013 for the govt technology community, they could be surveillance, robots, security, cloud computing, mobility, sequestration, and HealthCare.gov. Each helped defined the year. It is sensible, then, that every of those topics figured prominently in a single or more of the year’s hottest stories in InformationWeek Government. This year’s top-ranking stories, in keeping with the variety of readers who read them, capture a glimpse of ways technology shaped the work that government agencies were busy tackling in 2013. Government surveillance practices which have remained largely out of sight for Americans suddenly spilled into our living rooms in April as surveillance video played a number one role in identifying the suspects within the tragic Boston Marathon bombing. Although the rapid arrest of the surviving suspect brought a way of the advantages of surveillance, it also made clear just how much the nation’s citizens had... Read More »

Cryptographic currency’s massive rise in value ends up in a corresponding increase in online heists by criminals seeking easy paydays. 10 IT Job Titles We Miss (Click image for larger view.) Say you’ve created a cryptographic currency called bitcoin that promises users relative anonymity and untraceable transactions. What may be able to get it wrong? The reply, obviously, is that these virtues also attract hackers, malware developers, and arranged crime rings who wouldn’t consider carefully about committing virtual bank robberies. Earlier this month, as an example, Bitcoin Internet Payment System (BIPS), a Denmark-based Bitcoin payment processor, suffered a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Unfortunately for users of the company’s free online wallets for storing bitcoins, the DDoS attack was merely a smokescreen for a digital heist that quickly drained numerous wallets, netting the attackers a reported 1,295 bitcoins — worth nearly $1 million — and leaving wallet users with little chance that they’d ever see their money again. “On November 15th BIPS was the objective of a... Read More »

VMware steps up competition with Amazon Web Services by hiring away its international technology evangelist. IT Jobs: Best Paying Titles Of 2014 (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Simone Brunozzi was named chief technologist and senior VP for VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service. He was recruited from Amazon Web Services and said he’ll miss working with “great people like (CTO) Werner Vogels,” but can’t resist going over to the opposite side. VMware has urged its third-party partners to step up and compete more effectively with Amazon for cloud customers. At its Partner World in April, president Carl Eschenbach urged them to bypass being beaten by a would-be technology company “that sells books.” Now VMware is recruiting former booksellers into its own ranks: among his other credits, Brunozzi said he used to be a novelist. VMware announced Friday that Brunozzi has resigned from Amazon as a senior technology evangelist to aid VMware establish the cloud credentials of its vCloud Hybrid Service. Brunozzi grew up in Assisi,... Read More »

Programs aim to take advantage of technology to higher inform and have interaction citizens in a variety of topics, from scientific research to budgeting. The Obama Administration released a second round of open government initiatives, introducing nearly two dozen plans to stimulate or improve the government’s interaction with citizens — from streamlining Freedom of knowledge Act (FOIA) requests to “participatory budgeting” mechanisms allowing citizens to steer public spending projects of their communities. The Second Open Government National Action Plan (NAP) expands on initiatives from the administration’s first set of open government initiatives, released in September 2011. Those initiatives included improving the functionality of different government websites, including the White House “We the folks” online petition site, Performance.gov, Data.gov, and other open data initiatives throughout government agencies. Other initiatives launched or expanded by the administration, in accordance with a Dec. 6 post by Nick Sinai, US Deputy CTO, and Gayle Smith, special assistant to the President, include efforts to expand using challenges, incentive prizes, citizen science,... Read More »

Tech companies, advocacy groups, and Internet users rally to demand that governments limit online surveillance. 20 Great Ideas To Steal (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) On Tuesday, a coalition of businesses and advocacy groups have scheduled a sequence of events around the globe to induce governments to reform surveillance practices. The protest against mass surveillance, inspired by the months of revelations in regards to the reach of the usa National Security Agency and designated “The Day We Fight Back,” was announced last month at the anniversary of the death of technology activist Aaron Swartz. It’s also intended as a reminder of the defeat two years ago of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a up to date high-water mark for online activism. By midday Pacific Time, the coalition’s website said that it has facilitated more than 37,900 calls and over 86,000 emails to legislators. A Google lookup the JavaScript code particular to the coalition’s protest banners suggests almost 1,000 of them has been put on websites.... Read More »