The Cybersecurity Sprint: Are we safe yet?

August 7, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off on The Cybersecurity Sprint: Are we safe yet?

Cloud Acquisition Strategy, Customized to the Right Cloud Model

By G C Network | March 17, 2015

by Melvin Greer Managing Director, Greer Institute  This year has brought big news, significant changes and increased awareness of the adoption of cloud computing in Government. In fact Cloud computing…

Women leading us to the cloud

By G C Network | March 14, 2015

By Jodi Kohut Government Cloud Computing Professional   By Jodi Kohut Government Cloud Computing Professional March is Women’s History Month. As we celebrate women and their role in our history, our…

CSCC Cloud Privacy Summit – Reston, VA March 26th

By G C Network | March 12, 2015

Please join the Cloud Standards Customer Council in Reston, Virginia on Thursday, March 26th for the Cloud Privacy Summit. This all day symposium will stimulate lively, interactive discussion and deliver…

Bangladesh: A country transforms with IT

By G C Network | March 9, 2015

Born out of a nine-month war of liberation in 1971, Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy and a predominately Muslim country. After years of being a center for textile manufacturing, the country of…

Introducing CloudTek University

By G C Network | March 5, 2015

Visit us at https://www.CloudTekU.com Cloud Computing Basics https://sqz.co/Fs34AaX Cloud Technologies https://sqz.co/s2ACt68 Cloud Security https://sqz.co/Mp7m3TE Business Innovation https://sqz.co/j4NZb37 Cloud Computing Pilots https://sqz.co/e5HFy24 Cloud Operations https://sqz.co/p5CJo24 CloudTek Overview https://sqz.co/k9S4Ewt ( This content…

The Emerging Science of Digital Forensics

By G C Network | February 24, 2015

By Melvin Greer Managing Director, Greer Institute for Leadership and Innovation Without question, the rise in cyberleaks, nation-state cyber terrorism and the beach of consumer data across multiple industry domains…

African-Americans and STEM careers: Getting a foot in the door

By G C Network | February 16, 2015

By Sandra K. Johnson Technology leadership is driven by the innovation and creativity of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals. STEM careers offer some of the highest-paying jobs and the…

U.S. Department of Defense sets its cloud security guidelines

By G C Network | February 12, 2015

By Jodi Kohut Those watching federal cloud security in the defense space were pleased to learn the Defense DOD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (v1) (SRG) last month. This 152-page document outlines…

Circles are good for the economy

By G C Network | February 9, 2015

Contrary to what your mother may have told you, going in circles is sometimes a good thing. When it comes to our economy, it is actually a great thing. Throughout…

2015 National Chief Information Security Officer Survey

By G C Network | February 4, 2015

Cybersecurity breaches are seemingly making headline news every day. Recent cases have highlighted identity theft, the loss of personal financial data, and the disclosure of sensitive national security information.  The…



UPDATE: NBC News reports U.S. officials have disclosed a hack of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system, which took place on July 25.

Recent unauthorized access to a U.S. government database led to thecompromise of information on at least 21.5 million individuals. This massive background investigation data breach also compromised usernames, passwords, mental health records and financial information. Although a security update applied by the Office of Management and Budget (OPM) and the Homeland Security Department (DHS) in January ended the bulk of the data extraction, the U.S. government-wide remediation efforts were extended by launching a 30-day Cybersecurity Sprint.

This action was done to assess and improve the health of all federal assets and networks. Agencies were instructed to immediately patch critical vulnerabilities, review and tightly limit the number of privileged users with access to authorized systems and dramatically accelerate the use of strong authentication, especially for privileged users.

Last month, federal CIO Tony Scott reported significant progress with the sprint citing significant progress that included:

  • A Federal Civilian agency increase in the use of strong authentication for privileged and unprivileged users from 42 percent to 72 percent
  • An increase in the use of strong authentication for privileged users from 33 percent to nearly 75 percent
  • The implementation of strong authentication across 95 percent of privileged users working in thirteen agencies, or more than half of the largest agencies – including the Departments of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and the Interior Department



Although I applaud these recent efforts the Federal government has a very long way to go before anything like “Mission Accomplished” can be claimed.

One major and costly challenge will be in the area of software development. A recent analysis, State of Software Security by Veracode, that rated application security by using compliance with Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) top 10 vulnerabilities recommendations as a yardstick found a “low pass rate” in government applications. This dismal finding was theorized as being the result of a:

  • Higher use of scripting languages
  • More prevalent use of older languages which are known to produce more vulnerabilities
  • Low rate of software remediation (e.g. fixing flaws)
The four most important vulnerability categories listed by the study are SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), cryptography issues and command injection. This is due to the pervasiveness and severity of these vulnerabilities, specifically:

  • SQL injection was the application vulnerability most often exploited in web application attacks in a recent 2015 data breach Incident
  • Cross-site scripting is overall far more prevalent than any other category
  • OS command injection played a role in 2014’s Shellshock vulnerability, in which a commonly used open source component was exploited in a way that allowed taking over a server to run arbitrary code
Government developed software has performed poorly by having the highest prevalence of both SQL injection and cross-site scripting when compared to other industry rates.

To improve on the current sad state of government cybersecurity, the Federal Information Security Management Reform Act (FISMA Reform), has been proposed as a new bill. This legislations offers five major initiatives designed to improve the overall security posture of federal networks:

  • Grant DHS authority to operate intrusion detection and prevention software across the .gov domain
  • Authorize DHS to conduct regular risk assessments on federal networks
  • Require DHS to enact defensive countermeasures in the event an intrusion is detected
  • Strengthen and streamline authority Congress gave to DHS last year to issue binding operational directives to federal agencies, especially to respond to substantial cybersecurity threats in emergency situations
  • Mandate annual OMB reports on enforcement of government wide cybersecurity standards
As citizens we all place a significant amount of trust in our government’s ability to defend and protect society and our way of life. In the modern world this trust extends into our cyber life as well. Although individuals still need to take more responsibility for how they manage and protect their own information, our government needs to look at how they are managing our data and protecting information. National security needs to be a priority to all. 
FY 2015 Q2 (4/15) vs. Cybersecurity Sprint Results (7/29)
(https://www.performance.gov/node/3401/view?view=public#progress-update)

( This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. For more on these topics, visit Dell’s thought leadership site Power More. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.)

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2015)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity