According to DHS CTO Lee "trying not to be a scapegoat" Holcomb, the DHS stinks on ice. Alright, he didn't actually say "stinks on ice", but he did say what we all already know in a shameless "don't crucify me" dance more embarrassing than Ashley Simpson's lip-synch jig on Saturday Night Live. He said specifically:
- "...we are not really that well prepared, and history will show that that is actually the case."
- "I think we witnessed a failure in that [disaster preparedness] plan over the last week."
- "The consequences ... have been disastrous..."
- "... a major problem ..."
- etc, etc, etc.
Here's my question to Lee: why is it that this is such a surprise? Seems to me like this is your job and that you've had three years go by with this stuff as your priority. Remember in 2003 when you said, "We got the lowest grade from the federal government in the recent [security] scorecard, and we're going to change that"? That report included disaster recovery - how come you didn't change it like you said? How is it that three years later after being given an F - for flunking by not "... [having] inventories of their critical information technology assets; identified critical infrastructure and systems; implemented strong incident reporting procedures..." - are you here saying "news to me - I think maybe we've got some problems identifying our critical assets and implementing strong reporting procedures."
Let me put it another way. Remember when Chairman Putnam said, "We expect significant improvement from Homeland Security next year, they should be leaders in improving their computer networks." I'm pretty sure that he had in mind those goals that DHS flunked and that you're so vocal about. Oh yeah, and remember that mandatory risk assessment that the Homeland Security Act requires and that DHS testified saying would be done in 2003 - it probably would have helped make your organization more effective if you had actually done it.
Last, but not least, you have a problem with the wired and wireless comingling? Didn't you build that?
Posted by Ed at September 12, 2005 03:32 PM