The Cybersecurity Sprint: Are we safe yet?

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

Review: Executive’s Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano

By G C Network | January 26, 2010

Recently, I had the privilege of reviewing an advance copy of Executive’s Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano. Available now for pre-order on Amazon, this guide is a…

DoD Cloud Computing Session at 5th International Cloud Expo

By G C Network | January 22, 2010

I’m happy to announce that I will be presenting on DoD Cloud Computing Advances at the 5th International Cloud Expo, April 19-21, 2010 at the Javits Convention Center in New…

InformationWeek Prediction: Cloud Computing for Classified Software

By G C Network | January 20, 2010

Yes, I know you’re sick of all the predictions, but I just can’t resist pointing you to Nick Hoover’s “5 Predictions For Government IT in 2010“. In summary: 1. Cybersecurity…

“Shaping Government Clouds” Just Released

By G C Network | January 12, 2010

As part of the On The Frontlines series, Trezza Media Group has just released it latest on-line electronic magazine. “Shaping Government Clouds” includes: Pete Tseronis, Chairman of the Federal Cloud…

Fed Tech Bisnow: If Nostradamus Did RFPs?

By G C Network | January 6, 2010

Nostradamus may no longer be with us, but check out the “beltway” predictions from Tech Bisnow! “Two hot trends almost all mentioned: early uptick on M&A and cloud computing ubiquity”…

Navy CANES and Cloud Computing

By G C Network | January 4, 2010

During the first quarter of 2010, the Navy is expected to make the first selection for the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES). CANES is just one component of the…

GovCloud, “Cloud Musings” rated “Influential” by Topsy

By G C Network | January 3, 2010

Log in with Twitter A search engine powered by tweets My sincere appreciation and thanks goes out to Topsy for rating my tweets as “Influential”! Topsy is a new kind…

Jill Tummler Singer Appointed NRO CIO

By G C Network | January 1, 2010

Effective January 1, 2010, Jill Tummler Singer will take the reigns as CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). As the CIA Deputy CIO, Ms Tummler has been a proponent…

Most Influential Cloud Bloggers for 2009

By G C Network | January 1, 2010

Thank you Ulitzer and SYS-CON Media for naming me to your list of the most influential cloud computing bloggers for 2009. My hearty congratulations go out to the other bloggers…

2009: The Government Discovers Cloud Computing

By G C Network | December 23, 2009

2009 was truly a watershed year for Federal information technology professionals. After inaugurating the first Cyber-President we saw the appointment of our first Federal CIO and the rapid adoption of…



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.)

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