Government Information Security Podcast

Money's tight everywhere in this recession, and New York State - like other governments - need to be innovative in how to secure its information assets.

For Will Pelgrin, the director of the state Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Coordination, that means keeping key executive branch officials - from the governor on down - and lawmakers informed about the threats to the state's information systems is key in getting the needed backing to support his efforts. Such briefings are crucial, Pelgrin says, because those who control state coffers don't perceive cyber threats as IT professionals do. Not only briefing them, but putting cybersecurity in a context they understand - i.e.: if you don't have a break-in, you don't remove your locks - is critical.

In the second of a two-part interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Pelgrin discusses the need to make new technologies such as social networks secure for state employees because of the potential benefits they offer.

In the first part, Pelgrin discussed the synergy between safeguarding IT and physical infrastructures and the need for government and business to work together to ensure cybersecurity.

Pelgrin was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com

Will Pelgrin is a CISOs CISO.

Minnesota Chief Information Security Officer Chris Buse describes Pelgrin - director of New York State's Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Coordination - as "cool testament" to the type of leaders emanating out of state government.

Pelgrin chairs the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center - MS ISAC - a 50-state consortium that collects information on cyber threats to government and critical infrastructure IT shares that information among the states and local governments. He also served as a member on the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency. In New York, he heads the New York State Public/Private Sector Cybersecurity Workgroup that consists of representatives from federal, state and local governments, academia and business and ensures cyber readiness in the state.

In the first of a two-part interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Pelgrin discusses the synergy between safeguarding IT and physical infrastructures and the need for government and business to work together to ensure cybersecurity. In part 2 of the interview, Pelgrin addresses the impact of the recession on government cybersecurity spending and how best to employ social networks securely.

Pelgrin was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com.

In an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Kettlewell discusses:

Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity managing editor, interview Kettlewell.

The ranks of state IT security employees has a number of people who were attracted to government service by the challenges of creating and maintaining secure IT in an environment that most businesses cannot replicate, says Buse, in the second of a two-part interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com.

Buse describes government work as "a feel-good job," especially for those who have spent years "grinding out money for the stockholders. ...We have a lot of people who have done some pretty remarkable things in their career, but come in here and took pay cuts to be part of our organization."

In the interview, Buse explains how he's looking to find bright, talented computer science graduates from regional universities to join the state's IT security team. He also discusses the role of state CISOs in helping shape national cybersecurity polichy.

Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor, interviewed Buse.

Click here to listen to the first part of the interview, in which Buse addresses Minnesota's efforts to shift to a hybrid IT security management approach, as well as how the state secures its information assets in a recession.

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Minnesota, like nearly all other states, can't count on overflowing coffers to fund fully crucial programs, such as IT security. But Chris Buse, Minnesota's chief information security officer, says limited funds is no excuse for not properly safeguarding the state's information assets.

"Absolutely not," Buse responded to a question about whether sufficient funds exist to fully secure IT. But it's incumbent on government leaders like Buse to figure out how to work with one another to stretch those dollars to provide the security the state needs. "It's difficult, especially if you're a taxpayer to hear somebody in government say, 'Oh, that's not enough money to provide adequate security,'" Buse said in an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfSecurity.com.

In the interview, the first of two parts, Buse also addresses efforts to shift to a hybrid IT security management approach from a decentralized one while allowing agency information security managers to continue to make key decisions.

Buse spoke with Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor.

It's not too often you find an IT leader praising FISMA, but National Science Foundation CIO George Strawn says his agency has made great strides in securing IT by following Office of Management and Budget guidance on the Federal Information Security and Management Act.

"We've had A's and A-pluses for the last two or three years from the congressional grading of the results from FISMA," Strawn says, in an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com "Does it work? If you think that FISMA means certify and accredit of all of your information systems, you can make it a paper process that is nothing but bureaucratic, and really doesn't improve the security for much.

"I suppose we spent little more on C&A process than they were worth. but since we take security seriously and have a multi-dimensional security process, overall we're pretty satisfied with the requirements that have come down form OMB-land to us. Some of them my be a little bit onerous, then others we think may not be quite worth the cost, but if you integrate over the whole process, they've done a pretty good job of telling us what to do and we've done a pretty good job of doing it, and I think we're much more secure because of that partnership."

In the interview, Strawn also points out that because of its relatively small size - its annual budget is about $6 billion - NSF assigns many of its operational IT staffers cybersecurity responsibilities.

Strawn was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com.

Listen to this podcast and hear Sims insights on:

"Cyber terrorism, in particular, cannot exist," says Harper, director of information policy studies at The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "I think there's no such thing as cyber terrorism because cyberattacks can't cause terror. They don't scare us, and that's an essential element of terrorism as the name implies."

In an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com, Harper also:

Harper spoke with Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com.

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Landry is the Ellis Endowed Chair of Technology Management, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance at the University of Dallas. He joined the University of Dallas in the fall of 2006, following six years of teaching at the University of New Orleans. He has worked in network security and design in the private and public sector and earned his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University. Landry has published numerous journal articles on Information Technology in the ACM Journal of Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC), Communications of the ACM (CACM), Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, International Journal of Services and Standards, Journal Business Ethics, Journal of Organizational Change Management and others.

In 2005, newly elected Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann assembled the city's public safety and IT officials together to develop an integrated security program, forming a public safety oversight committee, chaired by chief information officer Gordon Bruce. "Anything that has to deal with security; anytime the issue of security came up, we put it on the list," Bruce says, in an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com. "We took an entire, enterprise approach."

Bruce spoke with GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow about the benefits of linking governmental physical and IT security.