A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has confirmed what others have reported for years: that official data on internet access across the country greatly over estimates availability and competition. The report [PDF] is focused specifically on tribal lands – small semi-autonomous areas of the United States …

American government agencies are spending billions of tax dollars on IT projects without getting the proper approval or oversight. This is according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which studied the IT spending of 22 agencies, and found that about $4.5bn of Uncle Sam's $19.2bn IT spending in fiscal …

US government agencies are falling behind on their plans to consolidate data center facilities to cut IT costs. This according to a report [PDF] from the US Government Accountability Office, which found that just three agencies have made up the bulk of data center closures as part of the Data Center Optimization Initiative. …

Boeing and SpaceX craft designed to take humans into orbit suffer fractures, according to a leaked report by the US government's General Accountability Office. The dossier, seen by The Wall Street Journal, states that SpaceX has an issue with cracking turbine blades in the fuel delivery system for its rockets. Boeing, …

A US Government Accounting Office (GAO) report has highlighted the parlous state of Uncle Sam's IT infrastructure. As an example, the computer used to coordinate America's nuclear forces is an IBM Series/1 that uses eight‑inch floppy disks capable of storing about 80KB of data each. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is …

America's toothless Tiger Moth, the F‑35, has copped another backhander from US government auditors: the US Government Accountability Office reckons its logistics software isn't ready for battlefield deployment. The GAO also warns that the US$16.7bn Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) could, instead, swallow anything …

The US government's firewall, named Einstein, is not as smart as its name would suggest. A report [PDF] by the General Accounting Office (GAO) into the National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS) has concluded that it is only "partially meeting its stated system objectives." Which is a polite way of saying it sucks. Among …

US government agencies are being called out by Congress after it was revealed that they are falling woefully short in data center consolidation efforts. Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the number of data centers the American administration runs has gone up, in part because an …

A highly anticipated report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has given the green light to a shift of critical internet functions away from the government to domain overseer ICANN. The report [PDF], published Friday, provides a neutral and explanatory rundown of the decision by the Department of Commerce (DoC …

The US Government Accounting Office (GAO) has told NASA it has a massive funding shortfall for its ambitious Space Launch System (SLS) rocket if the spacecraft has any chance of blasting off on schedule. "The agency’s current funding plan for SLS may be $US400 million short of what the program needs to launch by 2017," the …

The United States Court of Federal Claims has dished the dirt on why IBM lost out on a strategically crucial CIA cloud contract to Amazon Web Services, and this dirt is pungent. A court opinion [PDF] published today revealed why the US government picked Amazon over IBM for a $600m CIA cloud, why it felt IBM's protest was on …

IBM has stumbled away from its legal tussle with Amazon over a strategically important contract to build a $600m cloud system for the CIA. Today Big Blue withdrew its formal protest against the spooks' decision to use the online bazaar's technology, effectively ceding the massive contract to Jeff Bezos & Co. It also marks a …

Updated Amazon's attempt to muscle in on IBM's territory and grab a slice of oh-so-lucrative government cloud workloads took a step forward on Monday after a Federal Judge ruled in favor of Bezos & Co. The ruling by Judge Thomas Wheeler was published on Pacer on Monday, and could torpedo IBM's attempt to knock the Amazon Web Services …

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent, nonpartisan "congressional watchdog" charged with reporting to that branch of government how tax dollars are spent, has released its long-awaited report on patent infringement lawsuits, and has concluded that such suits are on the rise. From 2000 to 2010, the …

Amazon and IBM's tussle for a multi-million dollar government cloud contract has moved to DEFCON 3 when Amazon challenged the CIA's decision to take another look at the two companies' bids. In a complaint filed with the US Court Of Federal Claims on Wednesday, Amazon tried to short-circuit any future attempts by IBM to protest …

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) is urging legislators to update the health protection requirements required of mobile phone manufacturers, but indicated some emissions limits might be increased rather than reduced. In a report, the agency recommended a rethink after finding that the current rules for phone radio …

That massive amount of money that business groups such as the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claim is being lost due to piracy and copyright infringement? Well, fuggedaboutit. Such is the conclusion of a 37-page report (pdf) by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO …

The US "congressional watchdog" agency has taken the Federal Communications Commission to task for mishandling its duty to provide oversight of wireless phone service. In a 71-page report (PDF) entitled, rather directly, "FCC Needs to Improve Oversight of Wireless Phone Service," the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) …