Footnotes
1 CICS is an IBM software product that serves as the teleprocessing
monitor for the MVS operating system on EDSC’s mainframe computer.
CICS enables transactions entered at remote terminals to be processed concurrently
and is designed to control the execution of application programs in an
interactive/online environment.
2 TSO is an IBM software product that serves as the
session manager on EDSC’s mainframe computer whereby terminal users can
submit jobs online. It is a method of using a computing system that
allows a number of users to execute programs concurrently and to interact
with the programs during execution.
3 Asynchronous protocol refers to a set of conventions used
to start and stop transmissions that occur without a regular or predictable
time relationship to a specific event. Whereas, synchronous protocol
refers to a set of conventions used for transmissions that occur regularly
or predictably with respect to a specific event.
4 Ethernet is a networking scheme that allows microcomputers
to be connected to a network. It physically consists of cabling,
which connects all the machines on a network.
5 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the
system that networks use to communicate with each other by allowing traffic
to be routed from one network to another. The Internet Protocol (IP)
is a set of conventions used to pass packets (i.e., clusters of data) from
one network to another.
6 SVCs (also known as operating system extensions) are special
machine instructions within the operating system environment which application
programs use to communicate with the operating system. For example,
a "calling program" uses the SVC mechanism to request the operating system
to perform a desired system service routine, such as opening a data file
for modification.
7 Action taken fully implements the recommendation
or changes in USGS operations remedied this weakness or eliminated the
problems affected by the weakness.
8 Changes in the nature of operations eliminated the
significant concerns underlying the recommendation.
9 Recommendations which still require action to be fully
implemented.
10 Action taken substantially addresses the more significant
aspects of the recommendation.
11 Action taken partially addresses the more significant
aspects of the recommendation.
12 Action taken addresses the less significant aspects of
the recommendation.
13 The other 11 prior audit recommendations that remain
open are not included because they relate to DOI or USGS LANS which do
not store House data and represent an extremely low risk as they relate
to House FFS data.