Agencies make headway in reducing Internet gateways
Agencies make headway in reducing Internet gateways
Agencies have until the latter part of 2009 to begin operating approximately 79 Internet gateways that will serve the federal government under the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC), Karen Evans, Office of Management and Budget’s administrator for e-Government and information technology, said today.
The exact number of connections may change as some agencies provide more information and vendors establish TIC services, Evans said as she released a status report on the TIC initiative today. Evans also said the deadline for the TIC is “toward the end” of calendar year 2009, but did not provide a specific date.
The TIC effort should improve the federal government’s information security environment by making it easier to monitor data traffic on agencies’ connections, OMB said when it introduced the initiative last year.
“Fewer external connections means fewer vulnerabilities and better secured networks,” Evans said.
Agencies have reduced the number of their external connections to the Internet from 4,300 in January to 2,758 in May and shown progress toward meeting the goal of fewer than 100 connections that was established in June, Evans said.
Source: Government Computer News