Government Technology - April 2008 - (Page 30)

Facing the Unknown The Government Technology IT security survey exposed a troubling lack of knowledge about the nature and frequency of cyber-security attacks against government organizations, although this trend isn’t confined to the public sector. Poll results also indicate that public sector officials continue to struggle with security funding. Within the past two years, how has the volume of cyber-attacks against your organization changed? More Less Same Don’t know Within the past two years, how has the sophistication of cyber-attacks against your organization changed? More sophisticated Less sophisticated Same Don’t know 34% 2% 17% 47% 27% 9% 22% 42% done training and dealt with your policy issues, then your employees don’t click on that link. So is this an internal or an external issue?” Pelgrin added that internal threats encompass a wide range of activities — many of them beyond the normal definition of cyber-crime. “I think we do ourselves a disservice if we’re looking only at the criminal aspect,” he said. “There’s a human aspect to everything we do that can potentially have a vulnerability, a risk and a threat associated with it.” For instance, employees connecting to work systems via poorly protected home computers can bypass security measures and expose organizational networks to security threats. In addition, high-capacity external storage devices, such as MP3 players and USB flash drives, can readily transfer malicious software to government computers. No Money, No Training Given the importance of security awareness in the public-sector work force, the amount of training reported in the survey results is disappointing, Lohrmann said. “At best, only 50 percent appear to be participating in security training,” he said. “So if you’re a front-line person, my concern would be, are you aware of potential attacks? Are you aware that doing something like visiting a social networking Web site might be a risk?” Forty-five percent of respondents said their staffs participate in cyber-security training. More than 35 percent said employees aren’t in a security training program, and another 19 percent didn’t know. Lack of security training may be tied to stagnant security funding. About 30 percent of respondents expected their security funding to remain the same over the next several years. Almost 11 percent expect funding to drop, and 25 percent didn’t know. In a separate question, only 17 percent of respondents said news of recent security breaches had triggered more support for security funding among upper management. And scraping together extra dollars for security won’t get any easier in the foreseeable future. Taylor predicted security funding will take a hit as the weakening U.S. economy takes its toll on public-sector budgets. “There may or may not be a general recession out there, Has your organization experienced a conﬁrmed breach or loss of sensitive information? Yes No Don’t know 10% 54% 36% Have any of your main data trading partners (other public agencies or non governmental third parties) experienced a conﬁrmed breach or loss of sensitive information? Yes No Don’t know How have recent high-proﬁle security incidents impacted your organization? (Please check all that apply.) More support for security funding among upper management Stronger security policies Greater awareness of cyber-threats Greater enforcement of existing security policies A chilling effect on use of technology and deployment of new applications None of the above How do you expect security funding for your organization to change over the next two years? It will probably increase It will probably decrease It will probably stay the same Don’t know 36% 11% 28% 25% 17% 48% 63% 44% 8% 13% 15% 33% 52% APR_08 30 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - April 2008

Government Technology - April 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Freeze Frame How Safe Is Your Data? Easy Street Gadget Overload Indiana Overhaul First Person: A Better Bill Data Defense Strength in Numbers Public Storage Products Two Cents Spectrum Personal Computing signal:noise

Government Technology - April 2008

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