$20 Billion in UK healthcare IT spending for Google or Microsoft? In the UK,  Conservative Party leader David Cameron has made it clear that he wants to scrap the Labour Party government’s “centrally determined and unresponsive” plan for a $20 billion national health data network, in favor of Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault, according to the Daily Mail.  While Google is the “front runner” and David Cameron’s top adviser is married to Google’s VP of Public Sector Relations in Britain, Rachel Whetstone, Microsoft has made significant headway in the US.  Microsoft recently launched a pilot electronic health record (EHR) program with Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the US, and recently partnered with iGuard, a nonprofit online initiative to track prescription drug interactions.  With $800 million of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health IT budget allocated for new programs, competition for the growing US public-sector health IT marketplace is going to be fierce.  Click here to read more.

Independence Day Cyber Attack: Who’s Responsible?

“Smart Power” Players Win Big Infrastructure Contracts

Tony Zinni

Last week, Tony Zinni told the Wall Street Journal that BAE was seeking “Smart Power” contracts, favoring infrastructure over expensive weapons systems likely to be culled from the DoD’s budget.  This week, we saw several big infrastructure awards:

• DynCorp won a $375 Million FEMA contract  to supply temporary housing to victims of natural disasters.
• ACS won a $200 Million contract with the Lima, Peru government to implement a contactless ticketing system for national bus lines.
• Verizon Federal won a $245 Million HHS contract to provide voice, data, and video conferencing support.

We all know that a cybersecurity attack isn’t a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. That moment has arrived. Government and private sector websites in South Korea and the United States were hit with a series of denial-of-service attacks over the last few days. Such attacks, which usually manifest themselves as simultaneous electronic requests for data from thousands of computers, are a persistent problem rather than an outright threat. However, these particular attacks, which experts say may have come courtesy of North Korea, signal a shift. Money quote from the Financial Times:

“… officials privately acknowledged that the assaults, which began over the July 4 holiday in the US, were among the longest and most effective to date. For US government sites to go down so hard for so long is almost unprecedented.”

Meanwhile, the call for a cybersecurity czar is growing. “In the final analysis, we’re running out of time,” says CSO.

Cybersecurity: How you can help

In the midst of these attacks, now’s as good a time as any to consider your role in the cybersecurity solution. For ideas, check out these recent pieces:

Mark Gerencser offers his take on how to create a megacommunity for cybersecurity. Industry leaders offer nine ideas on where the government contracting community can fit into future cybersecurity efforts. And SRA offers a three-point checklist on how you can strengthen your company’s cybersecurity posture.

How can a public-private partnership best prevent future cybersecurity attacks? Share your comments here.