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Uncle Sam Earns C-minus Grade for PC Security
An anonymous reader writes "Twenty-four federal departments and agencies earned a collective grade of C-minus last year for their performance in meeting computer and network security requirements, according to marks handed out by a key congressional oversight committee today. The government-wide grade is up slightly from the 2005, when it earned an overall grade of D+. Eight agencies earned A grades, while as many warranted failing marks. '..the Department of Defense led a group of eight agencies that received failing marks for computer security. Also receiving that dubious distinction were the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Interior, State and Treasury, as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Department of Homeland Security earned a D, although its overall performance improved since 2005. The Department of Veterans Affairs did not provide enough data to earn a grade. In 2005, it received an F.'"
This is why there is a 90-day project currently in progress to select a Full Disk Encryption suites for all government owned computers. A Request for Quotation (RFQ) has already gone out on the April 12, 2007. See http://www.herbb.hanscom.af.mil/download.asp?rfp=R 1450&FileName=NOTICE_OF_AVAILABILITY_OF_A_SOLICITA TION_2.doc
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Yesterday, we have a story where Turbo Tax's online system exposed a few tax forms for returns with similar names.
Last Friday, it was reported that the IRS lost 490 computers with potentially millions of taxpayer records. (The IRS is not sure what was lost.)
Tell me why the latter isn't a bigger story?
Answer: With TJ Max, Georgia CHIP, the CIA, and Los Alamos were all desensitized to the daily reports.
>If this has changed since 9/11 I don't know.
A couple friends of mine recently hired on with a growing government contract IT firm out here. The HR department didn't even really care about the resume, but rather the fact that two of them already had clearances. According to them, they work with some utter idiots, but they're qualified to see almost anything, so they keep them around.