Federal Government

Data breaches at federal agencies involving personally identifiable information (PII) have been on a steady incline for the past several years. Knowing the ongoing struggles that agencies have with data security, the Federal government is taking steps to hire contractors to deal with future data breach fallout.

There have been a number of troubling reports, including one from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), indicating that data breaches at federal agencies involving personally identifiable information (PII) have been on the rise. According to reports, federal agencies continue to struggle in many areas of data security, from security policies and procedures to security controls and incident response programs.

The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently released details about two cybersecurity incidents that impacted the data of Federal employees, contractors and others. In April 2015, it was discovered that the security incident led to the breach of 4.2 million current and former employees. While investigating this incident, it was discovered the breach was larger than originally thought.

Government Officials in the UK are facing some backlash over their ability to protect citizen information following the breach of three independent judge-led inquiries in January. The breach has been tied to two missing discs, which were mailed but not received. The loss is being investigated, and individuals affected will be contacted, but the larger question at play is how the incident happened and what that says of the government’s ability...

President Obama made a speech at the Federal Trade Commission recently calling for federal data breach legislation. The proposed legislation, The Personal Data Notification & Protection Act, would create a unified standard, improving the current system of State-by-State laws that companies need to comply with: “Right now, almost every state has a different law on this, and it’s confusing for consumers and it’s confusing for companies — and it’s...