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Federal Cybersecurity: America's Data Still at Risk
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Abstract
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, on behalf of Chairman Gary Peters and Ranking Member Rob Portman, issued a staff report revisiting eight agencies that did not meet cybersecurity standards and protocols in a 2019 bipartisan report looking at federal cybersecurity. The report finds that seven of these federal agencies did not satisfy the basic cybersecurity standards needed to protect America’s sensitive information with weaknesses including operation on systems without authorizations to operate, usage of legacy systems no longer supported by the vendor with security updates, and a failure to install security patched or other vulnerability remediation controls quickly. Furthermore, it finds that the lack of a unified cybersecurity strategy makes it difficult to combat the cybersecurity threat in the Federal Government. The report recommends that OMB should develop and require agencies to adopt a risk-based budgeting model for information technology investments to address blind information technology spending and that Congress should update the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 to reflect best practices for cybersecurity.
Date
2021-08-01
Document Type
House Bipartisan Staff Report
Serial Number
Document Length
47 pages
Congress
117
Relation
DOI
Keywords
Staff Reports, Bipartisan
PAP Major Code
17: Space, Science, Technology, and Communications
PAP Minor Code
1709: Computer Industry, Cyber Security, and the Internet