SiliconBeat

Six years after passage of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), a report by the Government Accountability Office describes the persistence of “significant weaknesses” to the security of the federal government’s computer systems, leaving them “vulnerable to intrusion by individuals and groups who have malicious intentions and can obtain sensitive information, commit fraud, disrupt operations, or launch attacks against other computer systems and networks.”

In their fiscal year 2008 performance and accountability reports, 20 of 24 major agencies noted that Read the rest of this entry »

Twenty four major federal agencies reported “that they had not yet installed encryption technology to protect sensitive information on about 70 percent of their laptop computers and handheld devices”, according to a survey conducted by the General Accountability Office during the third quarter of 2007.

The security gap exists despite Read the rest of this entry »

Last September, an “expert” task force of the Department of Homeland Security recommended the establishment of “an integrated operations center” designed to better plan for and respond to disruption on converged voice and data networks in the United States.

But the DHS has so far implemented only one of the three specific coordination recommendations made by its own experts, according to a report Thursday the Government Accountability Office gave to Congress, and doesn’t seem in a hurry to fulfill the other two. Read the rest of this entry »