Government IT Security: Protecting Infrastructures From Exploits

The Linux in Government series has taken a new format for 2005. This year's articles will provide fundamental information to government technologists about Linux and open-source software. Although we will continue to inform you about agencies and projects specifically using open-source solutions, we also are going to provide information about open-source resources available to governments.

In the day-to-day life of government information technology, procurement issues, vendor relations, support desk calls, system failures and lobbying command most decision makers' attention. The overall picture of keeping critical infrastructures safe rarely commands enough focus. Because of this, many officials have forgotten that a war exists, and technology infrastructures provide easy targets. Yet, if government officials recognized the magnitude of the problem, they could not avoid attending to it.

In this article, we address some aspects of the hostile environment threatening our critical infrastructures and how government CIOs can protect their organizations. This article offers only a glimpse of the problem and urges public administrators to "do something about it".