Department of Homeland Security Has Trouble With Its Security

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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The Department of Homeland Security has, among other functions, the mission to prevent cyberattacks on the balance of the federal government. Unfortunately, the protector needs protection. Hackers have remained ahead of hack protection, in many cases, and even the most protected part of the U.S. government is no exception.

The report is from the Office of Inspector General: Department of Homeland Security, and is titled “Improved Coordination Needed to Meet Cyber Threats.”

According to the authors:

OIG conducted this performance audit to determine whether DHS and three of its component agencies have well-delineated cyber roles and responsibilities, a process for information sharing, and the ability coordinate a national response to cyber incidents. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), National Protection and Programs Directorate, and United States Secret Service (USSS) each have key roles in cybersecurity. The audit identified vulnerabilities due to a lack of coordination, guidance, training, and compliance with existing policies.
The report recommended that DHS:

  • Develop a strategic plan to improve cyber awareness in all of its agencies.
  • Establish a department-wide cyber training program.
  • Create a department-wide system for sharing cyber security information.
  • Make technical enhancements to strengthen information systems.
  • Bring ICE and USSS into full compliance with information security
    policies.

Although the document does not point to North Korea and China, it might as well. Based on past information, made available to the press, groups in these countries are particularly anxious to break into government computers and those from the private sector, especially ones that give services to the government.

The Inspector General’s Office does not provide these groups any comfort.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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