Congressional Sledgehammer Drops On DHS Cyber Insecurity

Following a series of tough investigations and oversight hearings on cybersecurity in April and June with more to come, the House Homeland Security Committee dropped the hammer on DHS and its contractors in a letter on September 21, 2007, finding that cyber attacks on federal and contractor IT systems "have resulted in the loss of massive amounts of critical information," characterizing DHS and contractor responses as "misleading" and subject to potential criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1001, and demanding a DHS IG investigation -- and referral for "criminal investigation" if appropriate. With contractors operating over 1,100 federal IT systems subject to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), future security breaches virtually assure Congressional investigations, as the Homeland Security Committee promised: "The Committee will continue to investigate security breaches, particularly those occurring among commercial contractors."