While trying to stay out of the main areas of the fray, I think that it is funny that the use of linux makes him a "geek candidate". With all of the major distributions attempting to make it easier to use linux and with the battlecrys from the purists saying "you can do everything with linux" does it really seem like that much of a feat to run linux anymore?
I think it would be more impressive to say "I successfully and reliably use Windows".
The governments computer networks have grown much like the Internet, without any central control or configuration management. This makes them as difficult to secure as the Internet itself. While the government does have data that it doesn't want the general public to see, it also has a lot of data that needs to have protected integrity. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (Part of USDA) for example compiles data on crop prices, etc. that if altered could have a severe economic impact (See the movie Trading Places). Keeping the information private is not their concern, ensuring that it is accurate is. But they, like other agencies have seen explosive growth in network population without a corresponding growth in Information Security. Privatizing their network and having controlled internet access points would allow them the time to catch up.
As far as utilizing VPN technology, the government already does. But, as anyone who has put this in place will tell you, it comes at a price. Beyond the dollars involved, users must be trained in proper operation, technical staff needs to be proficient in its use and bandwidth needs to be increased to handle the larger (encrypted) data stream. And VPN's are not foolproof nor are they immune from exploitation (split tunneling ala Microsoft).
Finally, as to the cost involved - Preventing security problems is always less expensive than cleaning them up.
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While trying to stay out of the main areas of the fray, I think that it is funny that the use of linux makes him a "geek candidate". With all of the major distributions attempting to make it easier to use linux and with the battlecrys from the purists saying "you can do everything with linux" does it really seem like that much of a feat to run linux anymore?
I think it would be more impressive to say "I successfully and reliably use Windows".
Just a thought
The governments computer networks have grown much like the Internet, without any central control or configuration management. This makes them as difficult to secure as the Internet itself. While the government does have data that it doesn't want the general public to see, it also has a lot of data that needs to have protected integrity. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (Part of USDA) for example compiles data on crop prices, etc. that if altered could have a severe economic impact (See the movie Trading Places). Keeping the information private is not their concern, ensuring that it is accurate is. But they, like other agencies have seen explosive growth in network population without a corresponding growth in Information Security. Privatizing their network and having controlled internet access points would allow them the time to catch up. As far as utilizing VPN technology, the government already does. But, as anyone who has put this in place will tell you, it comes at a price. Beyond the dollars involved, users must be trained in proper operation, technical staff needs to be proficient in its use and bandwidth needs to be increased to handle the larger (encrypted) data stream. And VPN's are not foolproof nor are they immune from exploitation (split tunneling ala Microsoft). Finally, as to the cost involved - Preventing security problems is always less expensive than cleaning them up.