Page 10 - FCW, October 2017

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10,000 new DHS hires would be authorized by H.R. 3548 — twice what theTrump administration requested
IToutagesdisrupt work at CBP
Despite its $1.4 billion IT budget, Customs and Border Protection suffers from system downtime that could lead to increased security risks, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.
From June 2016 to March 2017, CBP reported 99 outages and service degradations, resulting in 277.3 hours of downtime or interrupted service, the report states. Issues with passport control systems at Miami International Airport hindered the screening of 91,850 passengers on 698 international flights.
In addition, CBP employees reported problems with the TECS portal, a system designed to provide traveler information to multiple DHS agencies. According to users, system performance “had greatly diminished over the past year as a result of ongoing efforts to modernize the underlying system architecture.”
The Border Patrol’s E3 system for collecting and transmitting biographic and biometric data also suffered from outages and poor performance, creating problems for law enforcement agents and resulting in extended periods of detention for some people in the Border Patrol’s custody.
CBP officials agreed with the IG’s recommendations and said they planned to conduct a survey of TECS users and enhance Border Patrol technology. In addition, they will strengthen system monitoring to measure response times and improve the backup processes available to end users during system interruptions.
CongresshammersArmyCIO over IT budget request
The Army has asked for $416 million to be added to its IT modernization budget for fiscal 2018 after receiving approval for $544 million earlier this year. Without a detailed plan of how the Army would spend the money, CIO
management of its networks “has been challenged for many years.”
Despite the criticism, Crawford defended the decision to ask for more money by saying the Army’s battlefield IT backbone and communications hardware — the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 — must be updated so the Army can fulfill its defense responsibilities.
Maj. Gen. James Mingus, director of the Army’s Mission Command Center of Excellence, said part of the problem is that “we have been way too prescriptive in trying to tell industry what to deliver as opposed to asking industry how to meet the capabilities we need.”
Legislators, however, wanted to know what happened to the $6 billion invested in WIN-T so far. Crawford assured them that the existing technology will still be used, and that the Army would develop a detailed modernization plan.
— Lauren C. Williams
8 October 2017 FCW.COM
— Mark Rockwell
Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford faced sharp questioning from lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this month.
Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) said the Army’s waffling on IT budget needs was not a new problem, and internal
FCW INSIDER
OPM names new CIO
FormerMarylandCIODavidGarciawill replace David DeVries as the Office of Personnel Management’s
CIO. DeVries resigned in September.
Garcia founded NMR Consulting, a firm that offers
IT, program management, infrastructure and logistics
services and is included
on several large federal
contract vehicles, including
the General Services Administration’s Schedule
70. In addition to the Maryland CIO post, his public-sector experience includes
serving as an intelligence analyst in the Army.
David Garcia
Garcia will face pressing IT priorities at OPM, which lacks a permanent director. Since a massive data breach in 2014, the agency has been working to better secure systems that contain personal information. However, recent watchdog reports have criticized the agency’s lagtime in addressing vulnerabilities and pointed out a number security concerns.
— Chase Gunter
of lingering
ANDREW KRASOVITCKII/SHUTTERSTOCK/FCW STAFF