The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is not effectively protecting sensitive information exchanged with external entities. Of four leading practices for such oversight, HUD did not address one practice and only minimally addressed the other three in its security and privacy policies and procedures. For example, HUD minimally addressed the first leading practice because its policy

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) did not incorporate key cybersecurity management practices into the planning for its Secure Online Claims Reporting and Tracking E-filing System (SOCRATES) project. While OCWR drafted a SOCRATES project schedule, the office did not finalize and use this schedule to manage cybersecurity activities, such as the time frames for conducting informati

During fiscal year 2018, many federal agencies were often not adequately or effectively implementing their information security policies and practices. For example, most of the 16 agencies GAO selected for review had deficiencies related to implementing the eight elements of an agency-wide information security program required by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA).

As GAO reported in June 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented technical controls and an information security program that were intended to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information systems and information. However, GAO identified control and program deficiencies in the core security functions related to identifying risk, protect

The Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) partners with various entities ("non-school partners") that are involved primarily in supporting the repayment and collection of student loans. (1) Federal loan servicers are responsible for collecting payments on loans and providing customer service to borrowers on behalf of the Department of Education through its Direct Loan prog

Reliance on a global supply chain introduces multiple risks to federal information systems. Supply chain threats are present during the various phases of an information system's development life cycle and could create an unacceptable risk to federal agencies. Information technology (IT) supply chain-related threats are varied and can include: (1) installation of intentionally harmful hardware or

As required by the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act of 2015 (act), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) developed a cybersecurity coding structure under the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) as well as procedures for assigning codes to federal civilian cybersecurity positions. However, OPM issued the coding structure and procedures 5 and 4 months later than

The Defense Security Service (DSS) has upgraded its capabilities but also faces challenges in administering the National Industrial Security Program, which applies to all executive branch departments and agencies, and was established to safeguard federal government classified information that current or prospective contractors may access. Since we last reported on this program in 2005, DSS has: (

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken actions to identify, categorize, and assign employment codes to its cybersecurity positions, as required by the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act of 2014; however, its actions have not been timely and complete. For example, DHS did not establish timely and complete procedures to identify, categorize, and code its cybersecu

During fiscal year 2016, federal agencies continued to experience weaknesses in protecting their information and information systems due to ineffective implementation of information security policies and practices. Most of the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act (CFO) agencies had weaknesses in five control areas--access controls, configuration management controls, segregation of duties, contingency