[infowar.de] OMB accused of withholding computer security info from Congress

[Krystian Woznicki <krystian -! - snafu - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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OMB accused of withholding computer security info from Congress

By Kellie Lunney [mailto:klunney -!
- govexec -
 com], May 29, 2002

The Office of Management and Budget does not plan to provide detailed 
information to Congress on agencies' current plans to improve computer 
security, which could delay budget deliberations on security efforts for 
another year, according to the General Accounting Office. The 2000 
Government Information Security Reform Act (GISRA) directed agencies to 
conduct regular reviews of their security and information practices. The 
law required agencies to submit the first round of their security plans to 
OMB by September 2001, and to have programs to improve security in place by 
October 2002. OMB reported to Congress in February on how well agencies' 
were complying with the law, praising them for some improvements, but also 
identifying several weaknesses. Limited resources, poor accountability and 
a lack of attention to computer security issues from senior management 
continue to hamper agencies' efforts, OMB concluded. But OMB did not 
provide Congress with specific information on agencies' current plans to 
fix security problems, according to a May 2 letter from Robert Dacey, 
director of information security issues at GAO, to members of the House 
Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial 
Management and Intergovernmental Relations. Without such information, 
Congress does not have a clear picture of how well agencies' current 
improvement plans are working and cannot properly allocate money for 
computer security initiatives, Dacey said. "Regarding OMB's position on 
providing information on agencies' corrective action plans to the Congress, 
we believe that the lack of such important information for this year's 
plans would delay Congress' consideration of agencies' corrective actions 
in its oversight and budget deliberations for federal information security 
for another year," Dacey said. Although Congress has an important oversight 
role to play in evaluating agency plans to correct information security 
problems, OMB must protect the confidentiality of "predecisional" 
information contained in those plans, OMB Director Mitch Daniels told GAO. 
Dacey said OMB is working on a way to provide Congress with the necessary 
information on agency plans in next year's GISRA reports. "We will continue 
to work with OMB in an effort to find workable solutions to obtain this 
important information from these first-year plans, as well as from future 
agency corrective action plans." Congress is now considering legislation 
that would permanently reauthorize GISRA. The law expires in November 2002. 
President Bush has requested $4.2 billion for information security funding 
in fiscal 2003, which makes congressional oversight on future spending for 
such programs "important to ensuring that agencies are not using the funds 
they receive to continue ad hoc, piecemeal security fixes that are not 
supported by a strong agency risk management processes," Dacey said in 
March at hearing before the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, 
Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0502/052902m1.htm


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