Agencies' cybersecurity grades rise slightly
By Jason Miller
Published on April 12, 2007
The government’s overall information technology security grade rose only slightly according to the latest House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s score card, released today. But score cards ignore the fact that the overall cyber posture of agencies is so much better than it was a year ago, let alone four years ago, when most departments received failing grades, said an administration official and a key member of Congress.
Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member of the committee, said agencies continue to make slow and steady progress across the board to reach a total score of C-, or 72.9 out of 100.
Eight agencies received grades of A and eight others received failing grades for their cybersecurity position in 2006, the committee said. Four agencies earned a B and two earned a C. The Veterans Affairs Department did not receive a grade because it did not submit a Federal Information Security Management Act report last year, the committee said.
“For those agencies that received an F, they are good, solid F’s,” said Karen Evans, the Office of Management and Budget’s administrator for e-government and information technology. “When we started, we didn’t know where to even start. Now we are doing a better job knowing what we don’t know. I take this overall grade as my own. I would never accept a C for my kids, and I will not accept it as my own grade.”
Evans and Davis both attributed the improved score to more agencies completing their systems inventory. OMB reported in its March FISMA report to Congress that 20 agency inventories were at least 80 percent complete, and a majority of those reported that their inventories were 96 percent to 100 percent finished. OMB said this is a decrease of one agency from the number that reported at least 80 percent complete in 2005.
“Some agencies are still demonstrating large fluctuations in the number of systems in their inventories, both upwards and downwards,” the OMB report states.
But Davis pointed to the Homeland Security Department as one example of an agency completing its inventory and seeing its grade rise. DHS received a D after earning an F the past three years.
Still, Davis expressed concern about the grades for DHS and the Defense, State and Treasury departments. DOD, State and Treasury earned Fs.
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