December’s news of yet another highly sophisticated break into U.S. government agencies’ cyber systems didn’t come as a surprise to the Government Accountability Office. The government’s auditing agency investigates possible weaknesses or cybersecurity gaps and makes key recommendations to rectify problems. In some ways, it saw this coming.
“We are starting to see people in government taking the issues more seriously,” says Nick Marinos, director, Information Technology and Cybersecurity Office, Government Accountability Office (GAO). “But in other ways, we are behind the eight ball. Adversaries are advantaged by the fact of the automated ways by which they can attack. They can keep trying and bombarding federal networks. In many ways, there’s no time for the agencies to take a deep breath and realize from a strategic perspective the measures that could help protect their networks.”
Marinos and his team conduct several audits simultaneously, primarily involving cybersecurity, privacy and data protection issues. Depending on the requested audit, the team examines how an agency is protecting its networks and information.
“The nature of the work can span from…
