After Dodging the Bullet that Hit OPM, Interior ‘Owns’ Up to Cyber Problem

Sometimes fear is the best motivator. At the Interior Department, this was the case when computer hackers stole millions of federal employee records from an Office of Personnel Management database stored inside one of Interior's data centers. The assailants left Interior's data unscathed. But point taken, Interior Chief Information Officer Sylvia Burns said at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. The incident, part of a historic hack against the US government, prompted the department to expedite a goal of eliminating wimpy passwords as the only safeguard when signing in to agency systems.

"When I, as a CIO for the department, learned of the intrusion, it was horrifying to me and since that time, my team and I have been on high alert working probably seven days a week, long hours to take our lessons learned and do a mitigation plan around it," Burns said. Still, Burns clearly has her work cut out for her. Results of an information security audit presented to lawmakers laid out thousands of security vulnerabilities in Interior’s public websites. "We have to all own this problem and it will take all of us to fix the problem, “Burns said of the cybersecurity dilemma in general, across her department's distributed bureaus and offices. “And everybody has been taking it seriously so I’m very gratified by that.”