Security incidents that federal agencies reported in 2003 reveal a sharply divided picture of information security across the federal government.

The incident numbers, which the Office of Management and Budget reported to Congress March 3, were so divergent that OMB officials say they will go back to the drawing board to help agencies understand incident reporting requirements.

"We do have a governmentwide definition" for a security incident, said an OMB official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But what we're finding is interpretation differences, even between bureaus."

Despite a federal definition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported a single information security incident last year, while Department of Health and Human Services officials recorded 348.9 million incidents.

By Florence Olsen at FCW.

[ Read more ]

Related items

• Review: The Effective Incident Response Team (8 January 2004)
• Review: Incident Response: Computer Forensics Toolkit (29 October 2003)
• Review: Incident Response - Investigating Computer Crime (27 October 2002)
• Review: Computer Forensics: Incident Response Essentials (18 August 2002)