The chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have asked OMB to provide an update on its planned revisions to Circular A-130, the policy guide on IT and cybersecurity for federal agencies.
They said the circular hasn’t been revised in more than 15 years, a period in which cyber threats have evolved rapidly—with one response being the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014, which required OMB to update the circular by December 2015.
That deadline was not met; OMB currently has proposed revisions out for public comments. The senators cited that as progress but asked the agency to specify a completion date.
The circular in its present form is “an obstacle to the full adoption” of a modern, automated approach to cybersecurity across government, they said.
