US Government IT Security 'Outstandingly Mediocre'

mrneutron2004 writes wrote with a link to an article on The Register, discussing an annual IT security report card handed out to the federal government. The results this year were mixed. The good news is that they graded higher than last year. The bad news? They still just rate a C-". Individual departments did better than others, but overall the results were quite poor. "Although overall security procedures improved the Department of Defense (DoD) recorded a failing F grade. Meanwhile the Department of Veterans Affairs - whose loss of laptops containing veterans' confidential data triggered a huge security breach - failed to submit a report. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, another agency that has trouble keeping track of its PCs, flunked."

Comments

Re:You owe me

[Anonymous Coward]

Ooh, a sarcasm meter. That's a useful invention.

Re:Government

[HomelessInLaJolla]

The only solution is to stop giving them money and confine them to the strictest interpretation of the 9th and 10th amendments possible.

Re:Help Wanted

[JordanL]

What you writes wrote makes no sense.

No Department Left Behind?

[Wyzard]

Clearly the White House should launch a "No Department Left Behind" initiative to improve the government's IT security grades.

It could begin with routine penetration testing to assess how well-defended systems are against known and common attacks -- one could call this "standardized testing" to establish a minimum level of security, with budget cuts for departments that fail to keep their networks secure. The results should be reported to the taxpayers, so that we know which systems are secure and which are not, and can put public pressure on departments that aren't keeping their grades up. And of course, all IT managers should have MCSE, CCNA, RHCE, and A+ certifications, to prove that they're qualified for their jobs.

Re:Government

[omeomi]

When we look at the federal debt, and see that the federal government is $8.8 trillion dollars in debt, it's no different than a home loan.

I wonder what will happen when the government can't make the payments, and the banks foreclose and take the country away on the back of a really big truck...it'd make a good reality show, anyway...