This week in our roundup of federal government IT news, government agencies are still under attack and IT is not the problem; the VA’s CIO, LaVerne Council pledges to change the agency’s reputation and lead the FITARA Scorecard rankings this year; and what do you know about DevOps?
White House Reports Uptick in Cyber Attacks on Agencies
The annual review for agency cyber security is in and the news is not good. Far from making strides against hackers, agencies were subject to more attacks, but those attacks continued to have a higher than expected success rates. In a recent report by NextGov it was noted that:
“Most major federal agencies — 21 out of 24 — earned a two or lower on a five-point scale for the maturity of their real-time “continuous monitoring” of security controls…”
While the number of attacks overall is hardly surprising, what is of interest is how many of these attacks stem from human failure. Phishing attacks and social engineering attacks have been at the root of some of the most damaging cyber attacks on federal agencies in the past year. Interested in learning more? The full article is over on NextGov.
VA CIO Vows to Lead FITARA Scorecard Rankings in 2016
While the Department of Veterans Affairs was one of just a handful of agencies to receive a grade higher than ‘D’ on last November’s FITARA Scorecard, CIO, LaVerne Council, has vowed to lead the agency to the top. Having created an Enterprise Program Management Office in December 2015, to help guide strategic and tactical IT activities, Council is determined to overcome a long-standing reputation of IT waste and mismanagement and be in full compliance with FITARA by the end of 2016. How does Council plan to achieve this vision? You can find out here…
DevOps 101
Did you know that 45% of government workers are in the dark about DevOps? According to a recent GovLoop report there’s still a lack of understanding about what DevOps is and why it’s so important to mission success. Jim Tunnessen, Chief Technology Officer at the Food Safety and Inspection Office, USDA and Diego Lapiduz, Software Engineer at GSA’s 18F, understand both what DevOps is and the value it brings to government agencies as they modernize their infrastructure to meet the demands of 21st Century government. Want to learn more? You can download a copy of the report for free here…
