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White House CIO lacks credibility
7 comments- TAGS:e-mail, FDCC, White House
- IT TOPICS:Careers, Government & Regulation, Management, Security
The current White House administration is pushing government agencies to adopt the Federal Desktop Core Configuration because it's thought the FDCC mandate will make Windows PCs much more secure. As noted here earlier, few government organizations are ready for a compliance audit today.
However, some argue that compliance will happen. John Moyer, CEO of BeyondTrust Corp. in Portsmouth, N.H., contends that the Executive branch will allow "few or no exceptions to complying with the standard." He says, "Excuses are going to fall away." And Amrit Williams, chief technology officer for BigFix Inc. in Emeryville, Calif., says that if there is a successful attack against a recalcitrant agency "people will lose their jobs." Adding, "Who wants to be the CIO dragged in front of Congress to testify about a security failure?"
Well, the White House's own CIO doesn't seem to care about complying with IT-related regulations, so why should any other government agency? This week Theresa Payton, CIO for the White House Office of Administration, testified before Congress and dubiously argued that her team "is getting to the bottom" of the Bush Administration's lost e-mail scandal. Her staff apparently mishandled up to 1,000 days of e-mail in the first four years of the current Republican White House. That's two out of every three days worth of e-mail.
How credible is that? Payton's staff is required by law to retain those messages. If she and others lose their jobs over this failure, indeed, other agency CIOs might have cause for concern. But they won't, so Payton's peers can continue to ignore the FDCC without fear of retribution.
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