Patrice McDermott remembers when government information was freely available on the Web. Beginning about 1994 and up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal employees published thousands of documents on the Internet. Information that previously had been difficult to find suddenly was easy to get.
You can buy hunting and fishing licenses. Fork over the registration fee for your boat or snowmobile. Renew a nursing or physician license. Report workplace injuries. Pay your taxes. You can do a lot of business with the state of Minnesota online.
But how secure is the personal and financial information that people share with the state via the Web?
Weiterlesen: USA: Minnesotas State Web sites' security in question
One approached died last week when the federal CIO Council withdrew its support from the CISO Exchange, a privately run group chaired ostensibly by senior government IT officials. The way the CISO Exchange worked, six companies willing to fork over $75,000 could join the Exchanges exclusive advisory board comprised of leading federal CIOs and chief information security officers. Other vendors, with smaller contributions, would have had some, but more limited access to these officials. The arrangement smacked of pay to play, and the Exchanges initial cheerleader in Congress, House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis, vacated his earlier, enthusiastic endorsement.
Weiterlesen: USA: Government, Not Vendors, Must Lead In Securing Federal IT
Weiterlesen: USA: Audit sounds alarm over Minnesota government's online transactions