Elizabeth Hyman Posts

A look at the week of July 16 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Republican governors have stopped their opposition to imposing state sales taxes on online purchases, which signifies the inevitable end of a no-tax Internet, says the Wall Street Journal. The Marketplace Fairness Act – which grants states the authority to tax “remote sellers” the same way they do local business – is long overdue, says the Washington Post. The Senate is going to consider a new cybersecurity bill next week, says ...

A look at the week of July 9 in public advocacy for the IT channel: The optimism of small business owners took the largest month-to-month dive from May to June since June 2010, says the Washington Post. For the eleventh year in a row, the federal government has missed its goal of contracting out its business to small businesses, says the Washington Business Journal. A new government report showed that cyberattacks on U.S. energy companies, public water districts and other infrastructure faciliti ...

A look at the week of July 2 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Electrical outages caused by storms over the past weekend at an Amazon data center in Ashburn, Va., are forcing federal officials to reconsider its shift to cloud computing managed by the private sector, says the Washington Post. Senators are hoping to move forward from a political standoff regarding two opposing cybersecurity bills once they return from the July 4th congressional recess, says The Hill. Unemployment rates for ve ...

A look at the week of June 19 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Small cloud companies are struggling to secure federal contracts and certification due to the overwhelming demand of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, says the Washington Post. Small business owners are embracing a new bill designed to keep productive immigrant workers in the U.S., says the Wall Street Journal. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee predicts that Obama will back down from his thre ...

Although still early, the 2012 Presidential election remains very close (within the margin of error).  According to Rasmussen Reports, Governor Romney leads President Obama 47 percent to 44 percent (5 percent support another candidate and 4 percent are undecided).  Expect these numbers to fluctuate throughout the election, but generally remain very close.Of course, some events may lead to slight changes in polling numbers in the near term, including the Supreme Court’s ruling on healthcare refor ...

A look at the week of June 13 in public advocacy for the IT channel: The revelation that the U.S. was partly behind a computer virus used to damage Iranian nuclear centrifuges has added urgency for Congress to compromise and push through cybersecurity legislation, says The Hill. Two cybersecurity bills are stalled in the Senate amid the growing media spotlight on the U.S.’s vulnerability to cyberterrorism, says the National Journal. A bipartisan group of senators is working out a compromise rega ...

A look at the week of May 29 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  With the celebration of Memorial Day weekend, The Washington Post renewed its focus on how to educate and train our nation’s returning veterans.  White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel testified before a congressional committee, defending the federal government’s efforts to take advantage of the latest technology. On the small business front, Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills s ...

As a small business owner with eight employees, MJ Shoer, president and virtual chief technology officer of Jenaly Technology Group Inc., sees first-hand the costs and staff time associated with tax compliance.“It seems like an unnecessary distraction that saps resources, time and money,” Shoer noted.  “For example, why do we need to file quarterly payroll tax returns?  It would save me a lot of time and money if I could file a single annual return.”MJ ShoerLike many other small business owners, ...

Wendy Frank, founder of Accell Security, Inc. and Accell Technology Inc., became active in advocating for a change in the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal contracting program after finding it an obstacle to her efforts to grow her business. By partnering with CompTIA’s public advocacy team, Frank is making her voice heard in the corridors of Congress.Wendy FrankFrank has been immersed in technology since her childhood, literally growing up around computers and studying Accounting and Co ...

A look at the week of May 7 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  This week, all eyes are on cybersecurity.  Senior military leaders recommended that the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare unit be elevated to full combatant command status.  A National Preparedness Report commissioned by President Obama found that state and local officials are most concerned about the government’s ability to respond to a cyberattack.  Where the responsibility lies in protecting the computers that control critical U.S. inf ...