Search DominoPower's 11,441 Lotus-related article archive 
Home
EasyPrint
News details Click here for the RSS feed's XML code. This is not a browser URL.
Articles-only Click here for the RSS feed's XML code. This is not a browser URL.
Twitter Feed Click here for the Twitter feed.
SPECIAL REPORT
U.S. government agencies' cyber-security and record-keeping worse than previously thought
By David Gewirtz

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigation arm of the United States Congress. This month, the GAO released a 74-page report entitled "National Archives and Selected Agencies Need to Strengthen E-Mail Management".

"The entire apocalypse-in-a-box that is the Internet is allowed to tunnel through all of Homeland Security's security."

After reading the report, I made three key observations:

  • The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has completely abdicated responsibility for investigating records management in the U.S. government, putting all U.S. government record-keeping at risk.
  • Record-keeping at the four agencies investigated by the GAO isn't all that bad by government standards, but they'd never survive the standards imposed on corporate CIOs by the government.
  • I've discovered two new cyber-security risks, this time at the Department of Homeland Security and another at the Federal Trade Commission, the government's lead agency for identity-theft protection.

The report was provided to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Unfortunately, while the GAO described certain record-keeping and computer management practices at these various agencies, they may not have fully understood how the practices they documented would lead to troubling security flaws at the DHS and FTC, and they certainly didn't point them out explicitly for the Committee to investigate.

The National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is the U.S. government agency charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. According to the report:

Under the Federal Records Act, NARA is given general oversight responsibilities for records management as well as general responsibilities for archiving. This includes the preservation in the National Archives of the United States of permanent records documenting the activities of the government. NARA thus oversees agency management of temporary and permanent records used in everyday operations and ultimately takes control of permanent agency records judged to be of historic value.


1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  Next »
Other articles you might like
Home > Lotus Community > Editorials (71 articles)
   Five trends for 2010
   Say goodbye to the Uh-Ohs. Long live the Tens.
   The editorial strikes back
Home > Strategies > Security (19 articles)
   Incident report: denial of service attack against ConnectedPhotographer.com
   Centralised email encryption at the Domino server level
   Analysis: Spying Chinese temptress steals senior Brit's BlackBerry
Home > Strategies > Legal Issues (12 articles)
   Analysis: Spying Chinese temptress steals senior Brit's BlackBerry
   When the email flood inundates the Domino Server
   An interview with Roger Matus on email archiving and retrieval
Home > Special Reports > White House email controversy (25 articles)
   Analysis: Spying Chinese temptress steals senior Brit's BlackBerry
   The White House email controversy: it's time for a Special Prosecutor
   The worrisome implications of the Mexican theft of White House BlackBerry devices
Get Weekly Email Updates
Subscribe to our regular weekly email newsletter. It's packed with tips, reviews, deep analysis, and the latest news.
 
Recent DominoPower Articles
Application development, William Shatner, and the origin of the universe
Learn Domino Designer 8.5 for free
The (near) future of Sametime, Quickr, Connections, and Symphony
Inside the IBM Innovations lab
Lotusphere 2010: Hot fixes and cool news for Notes, Domino, and LotusLive
Lotusphere 2010: mobility and collaboration
2010: A Lotusphere of change
Latest Lotus Headlines
Xpages not loading? JVM errors? - Solution
How to implement an iCalendar feed into your Notes calendar with XPages
DWA Hotfixes for Domino 8.5.1FP1 - A Gotcha
IBM Adds DB2 to Lotus Foundations SMB Package
SNTT : XPages onclick Ghosts in the machine
Ports used by Lotus Sametime 8.5 servers
Exploring a Domino Date Bug
>> Read all the news
More from the ZATZ journals
Computing Unplugged: The iPad defenders have spoken
David Gewirtz Online: CNN commentary and analysis
OutlookPower: More about disappearing text
-- Advertisement --

Find unused Lotus Notes groups and clean up your address book
Have you ever wanted to get rid of old Lotus Notes groups that were cluttering up your address book, but you weren't sure if they were used? Find Unused Groups can help.

Find Unused Groups will check your ACL, mail, multi purpose and server groups to help you determine if they are used, and who uses them.

Learn how to easily clean up your address book.

-- Advertisement --

Mark your calendar for in-depth Lotus training, May 12-14, Boston
Join experts and peers May 12-14 in Boston for educational and networking events that deliver real-world Lotus training so you can increase productivity and efficiency in your company, advance your skills, and squeeze the most from your current environment. One registration gets you into THE VIEW's Admin2010 and Lotus Developer2010.

Register by April 10 to save $200.
ZATZ Home  ·  News  ·  Back Issues  ·  Credits/Trademarks ·  Link To Us
Copyright © 1998-2010, ZATZ Publishing. All rights reserved worldwide.
Editor's Login