OMB said US CIO Tony Scott also established a team to conduct a 30-day review of the federal government’s cybersecurity policies, procedures and practices.
The team is comprised of OMB’s E-Gov Cyber and National Security Unit (E-Gov Cyber), the National Security Council Cybersecurity Directorate (NSC Cyber), DHS and DoD.
At the end of the review, the federal CIO will create and operationalize a set of action plans and strategies to further address critical cybersecurity priorities and recommend a Federal Civilian Cybersecurity Strategy, according to OMB.
It said key principles would include better protecting data in storage and during transit, improving situational awareness, improving the ability to recruit and retain cybersecurity personnel, process automation to speed up patch management, and breach mitigation and recovery.
Additional key principles of the strategy will include buying more secure platforms and retiring legacy systems in a timely manner, as well as reducing the complexity and number of things that need to be protected – so this could become another driver of consolidation.