cybersecurity

Post-Award Management of Agile Contracts. What happens after a contract is awarded? Steve Kelman writes in Federal Computer Week that there is “fear that some principles of agile cannot be reconciled with existing procurement regulations. I argued that good practice suggests, and the procurement regulations allow, issuing a solicitation for an agile contract, or a task order under an umbrella IDIQ contract, without specifying requirements at the beginning, which would violate the whole idea of agile.

Cybersecurity continues to be a major focus for Congress and the Administration, and a major investment area for government and industry (see prior blog summary).  Efforts to strengthen security are often based on a traditional cause and effect model – agencies do x, hoping for a result of y.

No longer can security programs rely on “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” — adversaries could already be inside systems, stealing data or probing to get in.  Too many CIOs and CISOs have thought their systems and data were secure when in fact the opposite was true.   Security programs need effective protection of valuable information and systems to prevent data breaches, and to comply with the ever increasing federal compliance requirements (such as the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the Privacy Act, policy and guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) an

Report card day: Agencies remain average or below on IT reforms. House lawmakers are set to release the second scorecard grading agencies’ implementation of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and the progress across all four categories is limited.

The RSA Conference (http://www.rsaconference.com/2011/usa) hosts the leadership and a large swath of the membership of the cybersecurity world.  Key figures speak at plenary sessions, including White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt, Cyber Command Director Keith Alexander, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn, DHS Deputy Under Secretary Phil Reitinger, and NIST Director Pat Gallagher.  A much larger number participate in panel sessions and informal discussions.  I moderated a panel around the challenges that security and pri

The cyber world was intensely active this year.  To wit:

The U.S. Coast Guard offers a unique and enduring value to the country. It serves on the front line for a nation whose economic prosperity and national security are inextricably linked to vast maritime interests. The 21st century Coast Guard operates in a complex and ever changing environment. Increasing demands across the maritime domain require near-term agility while strategically investing finite resources for tomorrow. As a unique force with both military and civil authorities, the Coast Guard and its missions touch nearly every facet of the nation’s expansive maritime domain.

John Kamensky

When Congress and Administration Agree to Save Billions. According to Federal News Radio, Congress gave a boost to the Administration’s IT category management initiative by passing the MEGABYTE Act (Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies) that requires agencies to inventory their software licenses and consolidate them where possible.

Blog Co-Author:  Christopher Ballister