Federal IT security improvements are coming too slowly, lawmakers said at a June 24 hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on technology, information policy, intergovernmental relations and the census.
In 2002, hackers broke into a California state payroll database and gained access to confidential personnel data for more than 250,000 employees. The state did not become aware of the security breach for a month and took another two weeks before notifying state employees. On July 1, California Senate Bill 1386 went into effect to decrease the chances of such a crime happening again.
A new national cybersecurity research center, funded by the Office of Naval Research, will be led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Defense department's CIO says open-source software should be held to the same levels of security and licensing accountability as commercial software.
Thirteen senior government information security professionals have agreed to serve on an advisory board to help define certification needs for IT security professionals.
A massive surveillance system designed by Raytheon Co. to protect Brazil's Amazon Jungle against illegal mining and other ecological threats could play a similar role in protecting U.S. borders and ports of entry. It's a "truly unique" program that is the first of its kind to be national in scope, according to Raytheon business development manager Philip Marshall.
As the use of open-source software, such as Linux, increases in the public sector, commercial and government agencies are taking steps to obtain credentials necessary for open source use in high-security environments.<br>
The former head of the National Information Assurance Partnership, has founded an office to develop the standards for certifying that new agency systems are secure, Ross told Washington Technology today.
Potential buyers of wireless solutions abounded at the 27th annual FOSE government IT trade show, but industry observers said many parties still hesitated to purchase them, citing inadequate security guidance from their agencies.
Administration officials sought to reassure information technology industry executives that the federal government has not lost its focus on cybersecurity.
Software from three companies has been identified as the most reliable in tests of 14 facial recognition products by the National Institute of Standards.
