U.S. Lawmakers to Chastise Department of Homeland Security CIO over Data Breaches

The Washington Post’s technology reporter, Brian Krebs, wrote in his computer security blog yesterday that House lawmakers are planning to take U.S. Department of Homeland Security CIO Scott Charbo to task today over the department’s lax information security practices and the hundreds of data breaches it has subsequently suffered. Charbo is scheduled to appear before a House subcommittee on homeland defense today.

Members of the House Homeland Security subcommittee are prepared to grill Charbo and other DHS officials on their information security budget and efforts to identify and fix vulnerabilities in the department’s computer systems. According to Krebs’ blog, “DHS and its constituent agencies have suffered more than 800 serious computer security incidents from 2005 through 2006, including compromised agency Web sites, unchecked computer virus and worm infections, and digital intruders that were quietly transmitting stolen data out of government networks.”