Page 10 - FCW, July 15, 2016
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DHS plans
to expand
shared services
Shared services are a key part of the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to keep its accounting ledgers in order in the coming years, the agen- cy’s top financial officer said.
Chip Fulghum, DHS undersecretary for management and chief financial officer, said DHS’ inspector general has given the agency clean financial audits in its past three reports. Those clean audits are due in part to efforts to establish stricter management prac- tices and services, he said during a speech at AFCEA’s Homeland Security Conference in June.
Central to that effort are the shared management services for financial, acquisition and property operations that DHS receives through the Inte- rior Department’s Interior Business Center (IBC).
DHS’ Domestic Nuclear Detec- tion Office began using Interior’s shared services when the two agen- cies kicked off a three-year financial system modernization effort in 2014.
Fulghum said the Transportation Security Administration will switch to IBC services by the end of fiscal 2018, and the Coast Guard will make the move by the end of fiscal 2019. He told FCW that within five years, Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment, U.S. Citizenship and Immigra- tion Services and the Federal Emer- gency Management Agency will adopt IBC’s shared-services suite.
Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service have modernized their own systems so they won’t use shared services, he added.
During his remarks at the confer- ence, Fulghum acknowledged that the switch to shared services “isn’t easy.” But he added that the effort is worth it.
— Mark Rockwell
421controls are in the new FedRAMP high-security baseline requirements
DOD IT is killing CACs
The Defense Department is ditching its computer-based Common Access Card readers.
“We are embarking on a two-year plan to eliminate CAC cards from our information systems,” DOD CIO Terry Halvorsen said at a June event spon- sored by FedScoop and Brocade.
“Frankly, CAC cards are not agile enough,” he added. “It is really hard to get you a CAC card when people are dropping mortar shells on you and you need to get into your system. That doesn’t work.”
Halvorsen said Pentagon officials will instead seek to move to a new hybrid user authentication model — “true multifactor” — that will combine biometrics, behavioral analytics and passwords.
He added that they will work with NATO allies to develop a standard authentication process, so that NATO forces can better share IT functions.
CACs might still have a role for activ- ities such as securing access to DOD buildings, Halvorsen said.
He also promised to create a new data center closure panel made up of government and industry members. The group will choose one of the Pentagon’s top 50 data centers to close and deter- mine where to route that data.
He also said DOD plans to move to an on-premises cloud system that will
include hybrid and public cloud technol- ogy. A formal announcement will come this summer, he added.
For the contractors in the audience, Halvorsen sought to recast the tradi- tional Pentagon/vendor relationship. Given constrained defense budgets, he said, companies cannot pitch proj- ects that will cost the Pentagon $100 million upfront and pay off only after several years.
“You’re going to have to share in that investment and [then] share in the return,” he told vendors, indicating a desire for creative arrangements.
He also stressed the need for com- pletely autonomous cybersecurity tools. Given the lightning speed of digital attacks, Halvorsen said, “I can’t have people in that loop” of breach response.
He acknowledged that the DOD pro- cess of certifying commercial technol- ogy is “completely broken,” echoing earlier comments. He said he expects to be able to offer large, trusted com- panies some level of self-certification.
“All of the upcoming changes will require close partnerships between the military and industry,” Halvorsen said, and everything will need to hap- pen while systems stay up and running.
“Unfortunately, my business is grow- ing,” he added. “We’re deployed every- where.”
— Zach Noble
Telos Corporation
@telosnews
Why should feds care about #blockchain? #Identity management, eHR, voting, etc. http://ow.ly/TIld301mp7b @FCWnow
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