“Hacking the Homeland: Investigating Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities at the Department of Homeland Security”

A House Homeland Security subcommittee held a hearing today into security breaches, hacking and IT security failure at the Department of Homeland Security, that totaled more than 800 incidents in two years..

Harsh words from the Committee's chair Bennie Thompson -

How can the Department of Homeland Security be a real advocate for sound cybersecurity practices without following some of its own advice? How can we expect improvements in private infrastructure cyberdefense when DHS bureaucrats aren’t fixing their own configurations? How can we ask others to invest in upgraded security technologies when the Chief Information Officer grows the Department’s IT security budget at a snail’s pace? How can we ask the private sector to better train employees and implement more consistent access controls when DHS allows employees to send classified emails over unclassified networks and contractors to attach unapproved laptops to the network?