The Office of Management and Budget has tried at least two other times to get agencies to consolidate and optimize their security operations centers (SOC).

At some departments, there are eight or 10 SOCs, meaning there is no single pane of glass for the chief information security officer, the Department of Homeland Security, or OMB to understand what’s really going on.

Grant Schneider, the federal chief information security officer (CISO), said the latest attempt to improve the value and reduce the number of security operations centers is well underway.

“We have been looking for all agencies to raise the bar. One of the ways we know we want to do that is the focus on shared services,” Schneider said in recent interview on Ask the CIO. “With SOC-as-a-service, DHS is in the process now, as the management office, of setting the standards for what would any service provider in this space need to deliver, and what would they need to be able to achieve. This doesn’t mean DHS will be the only service provider in this space. The Department of Justice is already working to be a service provider in this space as…

Read More…