Agencies taking aim at HSPD-12 management obstacles

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

As agencies await approved products and services under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, another significant barrier to completing the administration's mandate remains: establishing a trust among agencies to accept each other's cards.

HILTON HEAD, S.C.'As agencies await approved products and services under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, another significant barrier to completing the administration's mandate remains: establishing a trust among agencies to accept each other's cards.

While it may seem obvious that HSPD-12 and its corresponding documents would establish this trust, agency officials in charge of implementing the program point to inconsistencies in evaluating performance under other governmentwide programs such as the Federal Information Security Management Act as examples of why trust is an issue.

'You hope no one is cutting corners, but there is need for oversight,' said Patrick Howard, the Housing and Urban Development Department's chief information security officer. 'When you have a program like FISMA, and there is an agency that gets a B or A, how can they lose data? It leaves you with questions of how well they can issue cards.'

Howard said agencies must trust each other that the card has been issued properly and that the enrollment systems are secured.

'All agencies need assurance through a third party that they are following the rules,' he said yesterday at a panel discussion of the challenges of implementing HSPD-12 during the 26th annual Management of Change conference sponsored by the American Council for Technology and the Industry Advisory Council. 'The problem is all [inspectors general] measure in different ways. The oversight must be consistent.'

Another barrier, Howard said, is whether agencies can agree to accept each other's risk assessments. For instance, if one agency considers an employee a low risk but another agency considers that same employee a medium risk, how does each agency deal with this issue, he asked.

'There is an opportunity for inconsistency, so we need to deal with it,' Howard said.

Joe Bond, the director of the Veterans Affairs Department's HSPD-12 program, said one barrier he sees is different adjudication standards within his own agency and governmentwide. For instance, within VA about 20 percent of all employees have not had background checks. Part of the advantage of this program is putting in checks and balances.

But HSPD-12 will not stifle agencies' ability to use the technology for their benefit as well, other officials said.

'Everyone agrees there has to be certain consistencies to the process, but what they don't want is to be hampered because many agencies have said they have found other values and don't want to be limited to the use of this card to some standardized set,' said Chris Niedermayer, Agriculture Department associate CIO and chairman of the HSPD-12 Executive Steering Committee. 'I don't think there is a concern about the minimum critical [set of standards] as long as we don't hamper people from doing other things they have already imagined as values in their own organization.'

One of the things VA imagines HSPD-12 will help it do is improve their entire identity management capabilities, Bond said.

'We will be able to define what the authoritative data sources are for payroll, human resources, law enforcement and physical access and provision or deprovision of data,' Bond said. 'Right now we don't do that, so if data changes in one of those systems, it has to be changed in all those systems separately. Once we do that, our systems will be more secure.'

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.