Posted on 07/19/2013 5:40:12 PM PDT by SueRae
An obscure little State Department agency whose work is called "critical to the Department's information security posture" has been in a shambles for years, and is still in chaos, according to an audit report by the department's inspector general released yesterday.
As one result of all the bumbling and inaction, the security checks that the agency is supposed to perform and subsequent approvals for use that it is supposed to bestow every three years on 36 of those State Department systems have lapsed entirely, meaning that they are operating, in effect, illegally.
Some of the lapses have gone on for two years; in at least a couple of cases involving information systems that the audit calls "primary general support systems," the lapses have gone on since 2007.
One of the systems that is operating without a current license, known as iPost, was given an award two years ago for "significantly improving the effectiveness of the nation's cyber security." According to the inspector general's report, auditors couldn't find any documentation to back up how the award-winning system was created or maintained, nor any source code for the information it was supposed to track.
There is more -- much more -- concerning the 22-person agency, known as the Office of Information Assurance of the State Department's Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM/IA), which among other things certifies the security status of more than 170 information systems in the State Department
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
None of the code is known, or can even be found. It’s completely magic.
That’s maxima secure, you know.
THe State Dept. needs to be levelled like Carthage and rebuilt from the ground up again.
One criteria must be applied. If you were appointed by Obama and his regime, you can never work for the State Dept or any other governmental entity EVER.
Call it the “Benghazi Clause”, because payback’s a bitch.
and where is Kerry , sniffing out a Nobel Peace Prize in the Middle East
I think NYT had an email “breaking” that he still had got nothing done...
It appears this department has taken Killary's advice to heart, "What difference does it make?"
Who heads this up? Time to give them a promotion.
Clean up in aisles 9-16!!! Who the heck is running this clown car? (rhetorical question)
They receive an award for security and they can’t even produce the documentation on how it was created??? Putin must be laughing his butt off reading this..
“According to the audit report, the agency has statutory responsibility as State’s “lead office for information assurance and security.” Its top official, currently William Lay, is known as State’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who reports up to State’s Chief Information Officer, currently Steven C. Taylor.”
“In effect, IRM/IA seems to be something of a zombie agency. IRM/IA staffers, according to the inspector general’s report, don’t show up for inter-departmental meetings, don’t participate in their Bureau’s strategic planning exercises, don’t keep track of important documentation in the security certification process, and can’t find a major portion of their budget receipts.”
I’d like to know who held that CISO post before the current guy. But reading the audit report tells another story of too much government, redundant offices of redundancy departments until no one has any idea what the others are doing. Even the recommendations were somewhat startling...what business does an EEOC officer have in sub sub sub organizations? Isn’t there a direct link to a higher office? no wonder we’re in so much trouble... government grows branches like starfish...and that trend is rampant in corporate America as well.
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