[Dataloss] Lawmakers ask agencies for data security update

[security curmudgeon]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alerts at infosecnews.org>

http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151741-1.html

By Jason Miller
FCW.com
February 25, 2008

Two high-ranking senators want to know when agencies will fully implement 
the Bush administrations requirements to protect personally identifiable 
data.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs Committee, and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), ranking member 
of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters to 24 Cabinet agencies Feb. 
22 requesting a written timeline for when they will meet all four 
requirements laid out by the Office of Management and Budget in a June 
2006 memo.

In the letter, the senators told the agency secretary which of the five 
requirements the department needs to implement. The lawmakers also asked 
for status updates or compliance timelines for five other OMB memos dating 
as far back as 2005 that deal with data security, including designating 
senior officials in charge of privacy.

As the federal government obtains and processes information about 
individuals in increasingly diverse ways, it is critically important that 
it ensure the privacy rights of individuals are respected and that 
personal information is properly secured and protected, the senators 
wrote.

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