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SecureInfo’s Christopher Fountain Testifies on Federal Information Security

SecureInfo President and CEO Christopher Fountain testified before the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement regarding “Federal Information Security: Current Challenges and Future Policy Considerations.” His testimony also highlighted strengths and weaknesses of FISMA as enacted in 2002.

Fountain spoke on keeping core tenants of FISMA related to standards and guidelines intact and improving the effectiveness of FISMA by increasing enforcement and oversight mechanisms. He supported legislation “under development by the subcommittee calling for a new office and senior official to oversee government compliance to provisions stipulated by current and future laws.”

“It is important that the standards and guidelines developed and maintained by NIST in support of FISMA remain an integral part of any future legislation. NIST has done an outstanding job of evolving standards and guidance as technology and threats have changed. While FISMA in its current form is sound, some improvements are warranted. Today, FISMA lacks a strong enforcement and oversight mechanism with centralized authority and a statutory basis for ensuring compliance, ” said Fountain. “The national office under consideration by this subcommittee is a reasoned and needed evolution of a law whose enactment rationale is more important today than ever.”

“Such an office should be housed within the Department of Homeland Security as securing cyberspace is requisite to securing the homeland, ” he continued. “Furthermore, the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications within DHS addresses mission areas that are highly complementary to the missions and objectives of any potential future office charged with overseeing compliance with laws, standards and guidelines designed to protect government information assets.”

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