Establishing a foundation for data governance has never been more critical as federal agencies face more data center consolidation pressures. Many agencies are following the IT trend of breaking their problems into smaller pieces to make a complex problem more solvable. Your agency may be planning to send “some data” and “some applications” to the cloud, but do you have a methodology for optimizing your data once it...

Don’t be caught with your guard down, your networks open to attack. Today’s threat environment is constantly evolving and maturing in levels of sophistication and capabilities. The old ways of doing things are no longer enough. Relying solely on the organization ‘s perimeter to detect and prevent these threats is full of holes. Security Operations must mature along with the threat and leverage the internal network as a sensor...

The federal government continues to face significant challenges in protecting the nation’s cyber-reliant critical infrastructure and federal information systems, and the cyber security news is just getting worse: The number of incidents reported by federal agencies to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team increased from 5,503 incidents in fiscal 2006 to 41,776 incidents in fiscal 2010. And according to a new report from the Office...

EA Now More Than Ever Enterprise Architecture has become one of the pillars of the federal IT world to help make operations run smoothly, seamless and easy to maneuver. It's no longer an option but a necessity for every federal agency. Because no matter what technology is touted, no matter what delivery mechanisms are implemented, and no matter how service oriented and agile the applications are -- especially cloud-based or SAAS environments -...

With the overwhelming growth of digital information, from documents to e-mails to instant messaging and even Twitter – the scope of electronic records management has expanded exponentially and is an increasingly critical issue for government agencies, particularly as it relates to being able to provide secure storage, access, and retrieval of this information. And agencies are constantly challenged with managing new forms of Electronical...

OMB and NIST over the past year issued in Special Publication (SP) 800-37 the new FISMA "Authorization" process (previously call (Certification and Accreditation) to be used by all Federal organizations, including the DoD and Intelligence communities, to gain approval to operate. Additionally, NIST is finalizing SP 800-39 on the Risk Management Framework (RMF), which is the basis for this new "Authorization" process. This moved us from a 4-pha...

Few doubt the critical importance of trusted identity management in our cyber-focused world. As a nation and as individuals, we conduct our business using Internet- and increasingly, Cloud-based, services that demand reliable identity protection and management. As a society, we bank, shop, file tax returns, manage portfolios, check health information, apply for licenses and permits, enroll in courses, book planes/trains/and automobiles—j...

The Federal Government has taken notice of the flexibility, operational benefits, increased efficiencies and substantial cost savings cloud computing can provide. But sifting through the hype and understanding the true value, security risks and challenges associated with this migration is a challenge for public sector agencies. Cloud computing is not a single capability, but a collection of essential characteristics manifested through various...