Feb 4, 2014 // Andrew Stroup
Most of us are pretty bad at picking secure passwords, and as it turns out the U.S. Government is no different. Several agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Education, and the Department of Homeland Security have been found to have serious deficiencies in their cybersecurity and password management systems that places reams of highly sensitive data at risk to being poached by hackers.
The report outlines the perilous state of information storage, including Federal Emergency Management Agency databases secured by default passwords and nuclear facility data stored on easily hackable unsecured drives. IT departments shouldered most of the blame, with “general sloppiness” and slow response times cited as primary issues.
Despite spending $65 billion on computer and network security in recent years, many of the issues currently facing the government can be traced back to the basics of choosing a good password and employee education.
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