Office of Management and Budget
-
When there are big events, I like to pull together resources in one place — and, of course, this has been open government week — the Office of Management and Budget issued a series of…
April 09, 2010 -
J.D. Sicilia, Director of the DoD Lean Six Sigma Program Office and Howard Seamens, Performance Improvement Specialist with the Human Capital Portfolio in the DoD Lean Six Sigma Program Office say they\'ve cut hiring time and improved candidates for Defense jobs.
April 08, 2010 -
OMB will issue a new memo on HSPD-12 in the coming weeks. Agencies are feeling more pressure to meet the secure identity card requirements. Administration is also closer to finalizing new strategy for securing online transactions.
April 02, 2010 -
The Obama Administration is mapping out its plans for significant changes in federal financial management. Yesterday morning, the White House\'s top financial manager outlined those plans for his government colleagues in an appearance at the Willard Hotel.
March 31, 2010 -
New report from the Modernizing IT forum details the next steps OMB and agencies will take. The administration wants to focus on IT program management and customer service.
March 26, 2010 -
In the federal government, they wield spreadsheets, strive for \"clean audit opinions\", and are the first line of defense in accounting for the spending of taxpayer dollars. \"They\" are the top federal CFOs and financial managers, and yesterday, they met here in Washington to discuss their profession.
March 24, 2010 -
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra will sign a memo requiring agencies to do another, more detailed survey of their data centers. Agencies also are working on a department-wide plan to consolidate these buildings.
February 26, 2010 -
I am moderating a panel at AFCEA’s 9th Annual Homeland Security Conference — creatively named DHS – The 7-Year Itch – Renewing the Commitment: The Definitive Dialogue on Critical Homeland Security Issues. Specifically, the panel…
February 25, 2010 -
In addressing the importance of cyber security as a government priority in testimony before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee last fall, Vivek Kundra, the Federal Chief Information Officer, said: \"Our Nation\'s security and economic prosperity depend on the stability and integrity of our Federal communications and information infrastructure.\" Federal News Radio has reportedthat the federal government will spend $8.3 billion on computer security this year - marking a 60% increase in four years. As Federal information security decision-makers allocate dollars and resources to protect our infrastructure, it is important to prioritize the key challenges they face. These include: 1. Increased use of mobile devices.Mobile devices are becoming smaller and faster every day. Agencies face even more challenges as mobile applications have now become widely used and they are even looking to build their own mobile applications to increase their productivity in the field. 2. Continued movement of data into the cloud. Cloud computing has become a pervasive buzzword but in the end, risk stems from a matter of oversight and control. Agencies must rely on strong governance and compliance oversight of their service providers since they do not own or control the systems where their data resides. 3. Changing regulatory environment. NIST has undergone sweeping changes across their Special Publications by introducing a new Risk Management Framework and introducing new nomenclature such as \"Security Authorization.\" OMB continues to press their performance metrics as a part of the FISMA reporting process and could see some changes in the next 9 months. 4. Application security. Attackers have now moved their focus from the network and infrastructure level to the application layer. We\'re seeing more attacks proliferated through applications such as Adobe and web browsers but some high profile data breaches stemmed from custom web applications through SQL injection attacks. 5. Developing/maturing offensive capabilities. \"Understanding the offensive to build the defensive\" has become the mantra for today\'s cyber security efforts. The ability to understand the mindset of an attacker and their methods becomes critical in building defenses that focus on these attack vectors. Reigning in the changes can pose a difficult problem for several agencies but it ultimately comes down to understanding the threats to your particular agency and narrowing your defenses on those areas. Focus and prioritization become key in the constant battle.
February 02, 2010 -
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 -
Government workers generally despise the term “bureaucrat” — mostly because it has all sorts of negative connotations. Generally politicians use it dripping with derision as they scoff at the work done by government workers. And…
January 14, 2010 -
Current and former officials says day-to-day operations are working well, but morale and long term strategy are suffering. Martha Johnson, the nominee to be GSA administrator, remains on hold in Senate. GSA names fourth acting administrator since 2008 and the parade of interim leaders is creating more uneasiness about the agency\'s future.
January 13, 2010 -
White House now eyes good ideas from industry. OMB also tells agencies to apply other contest suggestions within their agencies, including electronic pay stubs. President Obama says SAVE award will be an annual contest.
December 22, 2009 -
Deputy DoD CIO Wennergren dispels rumors of modified responsibilities for next appointee. Technology executives see their responsibilities evolve to meet their agency\'s mission. OMB will issue memo reaffirming the role of the CIO.
December 02, 2009 -
More than 3.3 million agency employees now have secure ID cards. The CIO Council also releases new roadmap and implementation guidance for identity and access management. The guidance is intended to bring several governmentwide efforts together under one initiative.
December 01, 2009