When it comes to a report card for how fortified its cybersecurity defenses are, the United States federal government doesn’t make the grade. That’s according to a new 47-page report issued by the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Out of eight federal agencies, four received grades of “D,” three earned “Cs,” and just one earned a “B,” according to coverage from tech news website Ars Technica.
“It is clear that the data entrusted to these eight key agencies remains at risk,” quotes Ars Technica from the report. “As hackers, both state-sponsored and otherwise, become increasingly sophisticated and persistent, Congress and the executive branch cannot continue to allow PII and national security secrets to remain vulnerable.”
This isn’t the first report of its kind. Two years ago, an earlier review of these agencies found glaring failures in protecting personal data, maintaining a list of hardware and software used on all agency networks, and installing timely security patches. That report covered information from a decade-long period — from 2008 to 2018.
Here is how the different federal agencies fared in the new report:
Department of State: D
Department of Transportation: D
Department of Education: D
Social Security Administration: D
Department of Agriculture: C
Department of Health and Human Services: C
Department of Housing and Urban Development: C
Department of Homeland Security: B
For many in the government, this kind of oversight report signifies we are in a precarious moment where our federal agencies need to better defend against sophisticated hacks that threaten some of the nation’s most sensitive data — not to mention the data of its citizens.
"From SolarWinds to recent ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure, it's clear that cyberattacks are going to keep coming and it is unacceptable that our own federal agencies are not doing everything possible to safeguard America's data," said Ohio Senator Rob Portman in a statement reported by CBS News.
“This report shows a sustained failure to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities at our federal agencies, a failure that leaves national security and sensitive personal information open to theft and damage by increasingly sophisticated hackers,” Sen. Portman added. "I am concerned that many of these vulnerabilities have been outstanding for the better part of a decade.”
In the face of these concerns, some movement has been made. In July, the Biden Administration swore in its first National Cyber Director Chris Inglis. During his public introduction, Inglis announced he will make it a point to guarantee the digital infrastructure utilized by “the 102 civilian components of the federal government” have “the right technology and the right practices” to reach “unity of effort and unity of purpose,” CBS News reports.
During a time when so much is at stake regarding how we safeguard our data, reports like this reiterate that the U.S. is at an inflection point where cybersecurity has to remain front and center.