The Internet has been around for years. Gradually, it has become an integral part of almost all of our societal functions.
You would think that the government — keeper of our security — would have tried to get ahead of the Internet technology curve.
But if you thought that, you would be wrong. Government systems often lag far behind those of the private industry and, in some cases, this is putting all of us at risk.
A report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, shows that more than 20 federal agencies have failed to implement five federal recommendations designed to protect personal information.
Two agencies investigated met all of the requirements, two met none of them and the rest of the agencies had varying levels of compliance.
And these recommendations are not idle advice. They stem directly from an incident where a computer hard drive with millions — MILLIONS — of names, Social Security numbers and birth dates were
stolen from the home of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employee. The hard drive was eventually recovered.
The government keeps a lot of our personal information. Unfortunately, in the modern technological age, personal information is more than just words and numbers on a page. They can be money-making opportunities, and unscrupulous people will do all they can to get their hands on such information.
So, if the government is going to have our information, it needs to safeguard it.
We know that technology changes faster than most of us can adapt to it.
But the government isn’t even at the level of adaptation. It is constantly catching up to levels of sophistication long since reached by private companies.
Private companies have their money to protect, but the government has us. Which is more important?
Security doesn’t just mean protection from terrorism. It means protection from having our livelihoods stolen. It’s time to implement these recommendations — all of them.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement