Good morning tech

Executive notes

Agencies showing more interest in Google Apps. Google’s recent
federal security certification and efforts to ramp up its salesforce
inside the Beltway have resulted in more agencies showing interest in
Google Apps, according to the search giant’s federal enterprise team.
Services such as Gmail and Google Docs are appealing to agencies seeking
to move their in-house messaging and collaboration suites to the cloud,
which can reduce costs by up to 50 percent. http://bit.ly/aqdQ0Y

Hill notes

Craigslist removes ‘censored’ tag from its adult services section. The online classifieds site Craigslist has removed the word “censored” from its adult services section even though the controversial listing service remains blocked to users. The House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for next week about sex trafficking that will address the Craigslist issue. http://bit.ly/cmGoW4

Industry notes

Military bans sale of video game on bases. Soldiers seeking a copy of the new “Medal of Honor” game out on Oct. 12 won’t be able to pick it up at their base’s exchange shop; the military has banned sale of the game on its bases because of an option in multiplayer mode that allows users to play as a Taliban fighter and take aim at American soldiers. The latest edition in the popular series is set in modern Afghanistan; previous versions were set during World War II and allowed users to play as either a member of the Allied forces or the Nazi regime. http://bit.ly/ccNg6W

IG says DHS networks full of security holes. A new report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general shows the team in charge of protecting the government’s networks is facing hundreds of vulnerabilities in its own systems, mostly due to a failure to apply software patches and updates in a timely fashion. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has subsequently installed the patches and updates their policies to allow for more frequent updates. http://bit.ly/cjoAvA

HP bribery probe expands. Hewlett-Packard disclosed Thursday that a U.S. government investigation of possible bribes paid by the PC maker to Russian officials is wider than previously reported, according to The Wall Street Journal. Both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating claims HP officials paid bribes to secure a contract with the prosecutor general of the Russian Federation. German and Swiss authorities have been investigating the allegations for the past two years. http://bit.ly/aIB0Gg

SAID

“If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.”

—Google on its new search feature Google Instant, which displays search results as you type. google.com/instant

WATERCOOLER

ZUCK — A former Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, panned the upcoming movie about his rise in a Daily Beast commentary. The movie is “is paranoid, sleazy, and grim,” she said. 

Trying to correct the record on Zuckerberg, she talks about his reputation in college. “There are always a handful of kids at Harvard who are notorious before arriving on campus, and Mark was among them. As a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, Mark had created an adaptive music player (think iTunes Genius), prompting Microsoft to offer him a few million dollars and a job, which he turned down to go to college. This, we thought, was cool and rebellious,” she writes. She adds that Zuckerberg’s college nickname was “Slayer” because he tracked down organizational dues from his frat brothers. http://bit.ly/9sNkCb