risk

Today, more than ever, with the increasing number of cybersecurity attacks on government organizations and threats of data breaches to the privacy of government officials and their staffs, and government contractor staffs, strong IT Governance based on sound IT risk management is critical to restoring confidence in the security and privacy protections provided by our Federal Government.  This is no longer purely an IT technology issue but an issue that must be addressed at the top layers of government – from the “overseers” of IT policy (e.g., Office of Management and Budget (OMB), National

As previously discussed, all Federal departments/agencies were charged with establishing an IT Governance program per OMB Memorandum M-09-02.

Cutting edge technology and innovation is more important today than ever before, as NASA develops missions of increasing complexity to understand the Earth, our solar system, and the universe. We spoke with Dr. Bobby Braun, Chief Technologist at NASA, who was a guest on The Business of Government Hour about NASA’s space technology program, its focus on research and development, forging disruptive innovation, and making a difference for the future. I share with you some of his insights from our conversation. 

John Kamensky

Risk & Reform. In an op-ed for Government Executive, Linda Miller writes: “Making decisions about which programs to eliminate or how to restructure the organizational functions of an agency is a challenge. It’s even more difficult when an agency lacks adequate information on either performance or risk or a mechanism with which to analyze it.”

The common perception is that, as a group, federal managers tend to be risk adverse.  However, new research based on data from the annual federal employee viewpoint survey concludes that the answer is: it depends.  Managers in both high-performing and low-performing organizations tend to be risk takers.  They probably feel they have little to lose by trying something new.  In contrast, managers in stable, middle-of-the-road organizations tend to be risk adverse and do not want to rock the boat by taking risks.

Yet, the seriousness of Insider Threats motivates the ongoing efforts to implement systems and processes to inhibit their effects.  As the first in a three-part series on Insider Threats, this blog seeks to address the following:

Part (1) What are the key organizations working on the Insider Threat problem (the post below, followed by the next two parts).

Part (2) current and recommended strategies to countering Insider Threats, and

Part (3) potential future strategies to counter Insider Threats.

Defining an Insider Threat

The first blog in this series presented information about Insider Threat policies and key organizations working to prevent Insider Threats.  This blog will focus on current, IT-based, and recommended, whole-person risk-rating, efforts to detect and prevent Insider Threats.  The next blog post w