Saturday, July 12, 2008

US Agencies Make Headway in Reducing Internet Gateways

Via GCN.com -

Agencies have until the latter part of 2009 to begin operating approximately 79 Internet gateways that will serve the federal government under the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC), Karen Evans, Office of Management and Budget’s administrator for e-Government and information technology, said today.

The exact number of connections may change as some agencies provide more information and vendors establish TIC services, Evans said as she released a status report on the TIC initiative today. Evans also said the deadline for the TIC is "toward the end" of calendar year 2009, but did not provide a specific date.

The TIC effort should improve the federal government’s information security environment by making it easier to monitor data traffic on agencies’ connections, OMB said when it introduced the initiative last year.

“Fewer external connections means fewer vulnerabilities and better secured networks,” Evans said.

[...]

TIC is one of the security initiatives for which agencies accomplished the initial milestones by June 30. Agencies also demonstrated that their networks are ready for the transition to IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol, and for implementing a security standard, the Federal Desktop Core Configuration, for Microsoft’s XP and Vista operating systems.

Agencies also plan to install Einstein technology to continuously monitor traffic at the trusted Internet gateways.

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