Veterans Affairs awarded a $3.7 million contract to SMS, Inc., Aug. 14, to provide “enhanced data security encryption” for all agency computers. The plan calls for all VA laptop computers to have the new encryption program within four weeks of the Aug. 18 start date. After that, SMS will move on to desktop computers and portable media. Sen. Larry Craig, chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called this contract, and the one last week to provide credit analysis, “major steps forward” following the May 3 data theft affecting more than 26 million veterans and military members—and subsequent VA tribulations.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…