Government IT News For VARs — September 17, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, the U.S. Defense Department (DoD) institutes a three-part cloud strategy, one senator warns agencies may already have been hacked, and Internet Slow Down Day proved to be a thorn in lawmakers’ sides. Social media is also proving to be a valuable resource for agencies.
DoD Ramps Up Security As It Advances Toward Cloud
This article from The eCommerce Times says that the U.S. Defense Department is committed to pursuing cloud-based services and steadily has been improving its capabilities to make the transition to the cloud. Most recently, the DoD has approved a protocol that will facilitate the use of the technology at higher security levels. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) wants to pursue a three-part cloud strategy, according to Deltek’s Alex Rossino: the agency’s (IaaS) milCloud offering for DoD customers; a commercial cloud infrastructure for cybersecurity purposes, and a commercial cloud solution for publicly releasable data. “This leaves a lot of room for multiple players,” Rossino says.
Senator Asks Which Federal Agencies Have Not Been Hacked
Fed Tech Magazine reported that one senator is requesting FBI data to determine which federal agencies have not fallen victim to hackers. During a Sept. 10 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Asked “Can you tell me which departments, major departments, of the federal government that haven’t been hacked?” All organizations should assume they’ve been hacked, or at least agree that it’s not a question of if they will be targeted for an attack, but when,” according to Cisco's 2014 Annual Report. Last year, federal agencies reported 60,753 computer-security incidents to the Department of Homeland Security’s US-CERT, an increase of 26 percent over 2012, according to a published report.
What Social Media Can Do For Government
Fed Tech Magazine examines how defense and civilian agencies rely on social media data to gauge public sentiment and gather intelligence. Dan Doney, DIA’s chief innovation officer said, “We’ve seen recently in conflict social media has enormous value in an intelligence understanding of the situation on the ground.” Speaking at the Nextgov Prime conference in Washington, D.C., Doney talked about the benefits and challenges that social media present.
Government IT Talking Points
The e-Commerce Times reported that United States lawmakers were getting an estimated 1,000 calls a minute from constituents concerned about Net neutrality by noon Pacific Time on Internet Slowdown Day, an online demonstration held on Wed., Sept. 10. “Just under 10,000 websites used our official code from battleforthenet.com to run their action as part of the slowdown,” Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, told TechNewsWorld, “but many other websites chose to participate in their own way, creating their own actions, so the actual number is probably significantly higher.”
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Government IT Resource Center.