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GCN Home > 09/26/06 web stories

Security issues dominate confirmation of VA technology chief

By Wilson P. Dizard III, GCN Staff

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee likely will vote later today to confirm Robert T. Howard as the Veterans Affairs Department’s assistant secretary for information and technology and CIO, according to committee chairman Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho).

But committee members of both parties emphasized during a confirmation hearing this morning that their committee expects improvements in the scandal-prone department’s headline-grabbing IT security lapses.

Craig cited IT security lapses in recent months ranging from mislaid veterans’ data, poor data security at the department’s contractors and insecure notebook PCs.

“If you are confirmed, you will be expected to lead VA in certain areas, not just support the agency’s mission,” Craig told Howard at the hearing. “Most importantly, you will be expected to bring VA up to the ‘gold standard’ of federal IT security that secretary [R. James] Nicholson has said he expects to achieve.”

Howard has performed many CIO duties since Nicholson appointed him supervisor of the Office of Information and Technology when the previous technology chief, Robert McFarland, left in April.

Formerly, Howard was a member of the U.S. Army for 33 years. He retired as a major general. Later, Howard went to work as a vice president and general manager at Cubic Corp. of San Diego.

In his testimony and during a question and answer session with the committee members, Howard presented the department’s latest version of its IT security upgrade plan, now known as the Data Security-Assessment and Strengthening of Controls Program. “This is VA’s high-priority program designed to remedy the many security deficiencies that have been uncovered,” Howard told the panel.

Chairman Craig confronted Howard, saying, “Let’s cut to the chase. Some people are arguing that these 322 [IT security upgrade] tasks are simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Howard responded, “That is absolutely not the case.” He described how the department’s leadership has been conducting a series of briefings presented by the directors of its various divisions at which the officials describe the status of IT security in their organizations.

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