Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page 19)

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 17 Crystal Committee ‘Cloudy’ H.R. 964 Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (Spy Act) Level: Federal Introduced: Feb. 8, 2007 What It Means: This would establish ofﬁcial, more stringent anti-spyware legislation at the federal level. It would be against the law to perform functions that facilitate the spread of malicious code against protected computers in use by a ﬁnancial institution, the U.S. government, or computers used in interstate or foreign commerce communication. Possible Impact: Although there have been anti-cyber-terrorism bills in the past, this one would ofﬁcially clamp down on spyware use, and possibly be the federal watershed that incites government agencies to do more to protect themselves from malicious attacks. Where It Is Now: The House of Representatives passed this in June 2007 and it’s currently waiting for a Senate vote. Ball W HAT WILL BE THE NEXT hot IT trend in 2009 for state and local government? Government Technology informally polled prominent CIOs and security experts about their best guesses. Predictably no consensus emerged, but the majority opinion was that government will turn to technologies that are easy on budgets — much like U.S. consumers are cutting back their spending amid Wall Street struggles and turmoil in the credit and housing markets. States were forced to close a $48 billion gap in their fiscal 2009 budgets, and the economic pain also has stretched into municipal government because of tax revenue shortfalls. ACR 157 Information and Communications Technologies Digital Literacy Level: State — California Introduced: Aug. 12, 2008 What It Means: This measure asks the governor to create the California Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Digital Literacy Leadership Council. The council would be tasked with spreading digital literacy within California to help the state become more competitive in the global economy. Possible Impact: This would establish a goal for the state to make more citizens digitally proﬁcient in the Information Age and spur ofﬁcials to think of ways to make this happen. Where It Is Now: This measure was only recently introduced and further action is pending. Unsettled IT budget environment makes 2009 hard to predict. MATT WILLIAMS | ASSISTANT EDITOR AB 1393 California Public Records Act Level: State — California Introduced: Feb. 23, 2007 What It Means: This would require state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection. As of July 1, 2009, state agencies with Web sites would have to specify on the home page information about how to contact the agency and request records. Possible Impact: This would mandate changes to legions of public-sector home pages, to say the least. Where It Is Now: This act was vetoed in October 2007 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 20 19 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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