OMB: Agencies Need Help With Old Problems
June 7, 2018 2 Comments
By Chris Wiedemann, consultant
The cybersecurity challenges facing the government are well understood. Combine a highly federated environment, huge volumes of sensitive, classified or legally-protected data, all running on outdated legacy technology, and you get the government’s current situation: struggling to stay ahead of the latest threats in an increasingly dangerous digital environment.
Federal networks are very popular targets. The government deals with thousands of attacks each year – 35,277 in FY17, according to the most recent FISMA report. Moreover, the consequences of a successful attack are significant. Perhaps no data breach better exemplifies the dangers of lax security than the OPM attack in 2015, which exposed the personally identifiable information of millions of individuals to malicious actors and prompted a round of reports, recommendations and recriminations on the security posture of agency networks – as well as a renewed sense of urgency around security at the agency leadership level.
of last week, among all the furor around the FY15 “cromnibus” passing, another long-awaited bill passed; the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) made it through both the House and Senate as part of the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). All indications point to FITARA becoming law shortly.
Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) head, Anne Rung, released a memo focusing on updates to federal acquisition policy. It’s no secret both agencies and vendors have struggled with overly long solicitations and proposals, complicated contractual language, and unique government requirements. The OFPP memo outlines specific actions that agencies are expected to adopt in the coming year in an effort to improve acquisition and transparency across the board. This falls in step with a new trend brought to the forefront by the Obama administration that aligns with the Digital Services Playbook, modernizing IT infrastructure and how the government purchases IT.
Government Sales Insider 