Management

  • While 2010 turns the page to a new decade, many threats from the past 10 years persist. In the cyber security world, nations such as China continue building cyber capabilities from an offensive and defensive perspective, resulting in what has become a new arms race. In response to these threats, the Federal government hopes to shore up its defensive capabilities by mandating new FISMA performance metrics that incorporate \"real-time\" countermeasures—with real-time being the keyword. Real-time denotes the ability to identify, act, and respond to minimize the impact of attacks. This leads to our movement of increasing situational awareness and our ability to detect threats as they occur instead of reacting after the damage has been done. While real-time measures provide many benefits, they also carry a hefty price tag for agencies looking to implement these capabilities. Real-time capabilities can only be implemented through automated technologies and solutions. These technologies carry significant costs further straining the department or agency\'s already thin cyber security resources. Government agencies currently possess varying levels of maturity to implement and maintain these capabilities and, in some cases, do not possess these capabilities at all. Although they are absolutely necessary in any \"defense-in-depth\" strategy, the key question becomes \"How much?\" and \"How fast?\" can we implement them. With shrinking budgets and tougher times, it becomes a difficult exercise in prioritizing investments, especially when FISMA may formally capture progress and impact an agency\'s grades and ultimately, their budget. It would be impossible to implement these capabilities within a 6-12 month period, at least not effectively. Organizations need to take a risk-based approach to prioritizing initiatives and developing a strategy that allows agencies to prioritize their investments to obtain the greatest return and most importantly the biggest risk reduction to support their missions.

    January 27, 2010
  • The agency received more complaints last year than in any of the previous eight years. GAO also came to a final decision on more cases in 2009 than the year before. More agencies and vendors also are turning to alternative dispute resolution to solve their differences, GAO finds.

    January 26, 2010
  • The long pending nomination of the Obama administration’s nominee to head the General Services Administration could be headed to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) could bring Martha Johnson’s name to the…

    January 26, 2010
  • The most read stories from the week of January 17-23, 2010… on the DorobekInsider.com, on the Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, for Mike Causey, and for FederalNewsRadio.com… …from the DorobekInsider.com… DorobekInsider EXCLUSIVE:…

    January 24, 2010
  • It has been one of the worst kept secrets in town but it is now official in the halls of GSA — Susan Brita, who most recently served as the Staff Director for the House…

    January 22, 2010
  • The DorobekInsider has learned — and confirmed — that Energy Department CIO Tom Pyke notified his staff that he is retiring from that post. As he said in his note, he just completed 46 years…

    January 22, 2010
  • From “GSA riding to the rescue of agencies on Open Government” on FederalNewsRadio.com: “If you manage web or IT resources for a federal agency, its very likely you know that you and your bosses are…

    January 22, 2010
  • Multiple hearings focus on figuring out what led to the Dec. 25 attempted terrorist attack. FBI, DHS, State offer details on what changes each made in the last month.

    January 21, 2010
  • Today, of course, marks the anniversary of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States — and there are all sorts of assessments of his first year going on right…

    January 20, 2010
  • President Obama is expected to sign new regulation today cracking down on tax cheats getting federal contracts. The Government Accountability Office says 1.6 million businesses owe more than $58 billion in unpaid payroll taxes.

    January 20, 2010
  • We’ve been following following the ongoing trials, tribulations and drama at the General Services Administration in recent months. And tonight, on NewsChannel 8’s Federal News Tonight program to talk about GSA. Federal News Radio’s Jason…

    January 19, 2010
  • It has been one of the worst kept secrets in town, but it is now official — Adrian Gardner has been appointed the chief information officer for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Insiders confirm…

    January 19, 2010
  • Today, of course, is a federal holiday celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. — technically his birthday was January 15 and he would be 81 this year. As President Obama noted in this…

    January 18, 2010
  • The most read stories from the week of January 10-16, 2010… on the DorobekInsider.com, on the Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, for Mike Causey, and for FederalNewsRadio.com… …from the DorobekInsider.com… DorobekInsider: GSA…

    January 17, 2010