Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) bashed the Department of Homeland Security and called its cybersecurity deficiencies “inexcusable” in a Monday statement following the release of an inspector general’s report on the department’s information security.
“This report shows major gaps in DHS’s own cybersecurity, including some of the most basic protections that would be obvious to any 13-year-old with a laptop,” Coburn said in the statement. “They don’t keep track of weaknesses when they’re found, and they don’t fix them in time to make a difference.”
Coburn said that the deficiencies in the department’s information security are a national security risk.
“The fact is the federal government’s classified and unclassified networks are dangerously insecure, putting at risk not only U.S. national security, but the nation’s critical infrastructure and vast amounts of our citizens’ personally identifiable information,” he said.
The report found multiple ways in which DHS failed to properly secure its information and networks. For example, the department does not have a central repository for monitoring information it stores in a public cloud, and so DHS cannot accurately keep track of that information. Additionally, the department does not address all security deficiencies, which has been a problem for the last few years, according to the report.
[H/t Roll Call]
