Letter to the editor
This is in response to an FCW.com survey question that asked "What is the primary obstacle to improving information security at federal agencies?"
It's not the lack of any of those issues you identified. The fact is that information assurance/protection exists across the board in government and no one is trying to consolidate that into a set of procedures.
Contact Alicia Clay, program manager of the Information Technology Laboratory's Computer Security Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, if you desire to see the first proactive involvement I have seen that addresses these issues.
I served as an information systems security manager in the Navy and helped write the course of instruction. I would still be there if one could live comfortably in the government and do security. One can't.
The key then is directly relevant to the pay that the individuals responsible for the security receive. Compare it to the open market. How many former experts in the Defense Department now are experts in the open market? Probably 75 percent to 90 percent.
Michael Huggins