Government Information Security Podcast

That simple belief is at the foundation of IT security efforts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as articulated by Jerry Davis, NASA's deputy chief information officer for IT security.

As NASA consolidates its IT infrastructure - active directory, IP address management and e-mail, to name a few - its security team is actively involved. "Security doesn't function on its own in silos," Davis says in an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com. "Managing better IT in that regard helps us better to manage security as well."

Davis also discusses the need for NASA to attract more highly skilled IT security practitioners, especially those with forensic experience, and secure new technologies such as iPhones that employees like to use.

Davis was interviewed by GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow.

Beasley is the Deloitte Professor of Enterprise Risk Management at the College of Management at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Initiative at NC State provides thought leadership about ERM practices and their integration with strategy and corporate governance. As founding director, Dr. Beasley leads the ERM Initiative's efforts to help pioneer the development of this emergent discipline through outreach to business professionals, with its ongoing ERM Roundtable Series and ERM Executive Education for boards and senior executives; research, advancing knowledge and understanding of ERM issues; and undergraduate and graduate business education for the next generation of business executives (www.erm.ncsu.edu). He frequently works with boards of directors and senior management teams to assist them in strengthening their risk oversight processes.

John Streufert, deputy chief information officer and chief information security officer at the State Department, in an interview reveals the results of the match and explains how that knowledge helps the department secure its worldwide IT systems and networks. In addition, Streufert discusses a new grading system employed by State aimed at reducing systems and network vulnerabilities.

Streufert, in an earlier interview, discussed the department's Risk Scoring Program, which is aimed at pinpointing and correcting the worst vulnerabilities on any particular day on any of its worldwide systems and networks. (Click here to listen to that interview.).

Streufert spoke with Information Security Media Group's Eric Chabrow, managing editor of GovInfoSecurity.com

The State Department in 2006 instituted its Risk Scoring Program, which is aimed at pinpointing and correcting the worst vulnerabilities on any particular day on any of its worldwide systems and networks.

John Streufert, the State Department deputy chief information officer and chief information security officer, says in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com that the daily monitoring of IT vulnerabilities under Risk Scoring truly measures systems and network security as compared with the once-every-three-year assessment required by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. Because of Risk Scoring, overall risk on State's key unclassified network has plunged by more than 80 percent in the past year.

As lawmakers craft legislation to upgrade to FISMA, expect to see a program like Risk Scoring incorporated in it.

Streufert spoke with Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor, in the first of a two-part interview.

Deborah Frincke is leading a team of computer scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, one of nine Department of Energy national labs, to find new ways to defend government IT systems.

In an interview with the Information Security Media Group, Frincke describes four areas of research and development being conducted at the Richland, Wash., labs:

(A summary of the lab's R&D activities can be found here: i4.pnl.gov.)

What are some of the key audit and risk trends to track? David Melnick of Deloitte answers that question in an interview focusing on:

Melnick is a principal in security and privacy services within the audit and enterprise risk services practice in the Los Angeles office of Deloitte and brings more than 17 years of experience designing, developing, managing and auditing large scale secure technology infrastructure. Melnick has authored several technology books and is a frequent speaker on the topics of security and electronic commerce.

In an interview with Information Security Media Group's GovInfoSecurity.com, Tipton discusses the:

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

Schwartz is vice president and chief operating officer of the public interest group Center for Democracy and Technology, which has on its site, at eprivacyact.org, a wiki in which cybersecurity professionals are proposing language on how the 35-year-old law should be upgraded. Schwartz hopes to send lawmakers CDT's final draft by the end of June, so legislation could be introduced by Independence Day.

The law has not kept up with technology, such as data mining. Also, Congress enacted the original act years before anyone even heard of the Internet technology that easily makes sharing of information, which proves problematic.

Schwartz spoke with Information Security Media Group's Eric Chabrow about the changes he sees the Privacy Act needs and how the wiki works and who is using it.

In an exclusive interview, Daniel Likarish, faculty of the Regis University School of Computer & Info Sciences, discusses:

Regis University, with nearly 16,000 students, comprises Regis College, College for Professional Studies and Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions. The University is recognized by U. S. News & World Report as a Top School in the West and is one of 28 Catholic Jesuit colleges and universities throughout the United States. Regis University is located at 3333 Lowell Blvd. at 50th Street in north Denver. In addition to its north Denver Lowell campus, the University has campus locations in Aurora, Colorado Springs, Interlocken at Broomfield, Denver Tech Center, Fort Collins, Longmont and two in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But, as Jim Flyzk says in this interview conducted Friday, June 12, much action is occurring behind the scenes, at government contractors with designs to win an expected increase in the number of federal cybersecurity contracts and along the corridors of the White House and Capitol as officials prepare for a sea change in the way the government addresses information security.

One thing is for certain, Flyzk says, cybersecurity is now a crucial topic that won't be ignored.

Flyzk, if anything, is as well connected as anyone in Washington's government IT community. He spent 27 years in government, most notably as chief information officer of the Treasury Department and White House IT advisor on homeland security. Today, he heads his own consultancy, The Jim Flyzk Group, and hosts a monthly radio program, The Federal Executive Forum, on a local Washington radio station.

Flyzk spoke with Information Security Media Group's Eric Chabrow.