Fergie's Tech Blog

DHS Looks to Get Its Cyberhouse in Order

Jason Miller writes on GCN.com:

Homeland Security Department officials are counting on system consolidation to help solve some of the cybersecurity shortcomings that got a recent airing on Capitol Hill.

On the heels of a report by the Government Accountability Office that found “systemic and pervasive” problems with DHS systems, members of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, grilled DHS Chief Information Officer Scott Charbo at a hearing on the state of the agency’s cybersecurity.

“Information provided by DHS suggests that the CIO is failing to engage in defensive best practices that would limit penetrations into DHS networks,” said Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), subcommittee chairman. “The department’s failure to implement the Einstein program, contracts with Sprint and MCI where the carrier has misconfigured the firewall, and other problems are quite disturbing.”

Charbo said the agency’s cybersecurity posture is getting better but could not answer many of the questions about the problematic configurations of DHS’ systems.

posted by Fergie @ 7/02/2007 06:09:00 PM