Feds face challenge of balancing data access and security

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April 07, 2008 (Computerworld) -- The U.S. government's reputation for protecting data has been hurt by a parade of bad headlines about spies, stolen laptops and, most recently, some Department of State contract workers snooping into passport files.

But the inability of intelligence agencies to share data that might have helped them detect the events that led up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks may have been the government's biggest information failure ever. And balancing data accessibility and security has become a big challenge for federal agencies in the post-9/11 era.

Charles Allen, assistant secretary of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis within the Department of Homeland Security, said last September that making vital information more readily available to authorized users is "at the heart of efforts to prevent another 9/11," according to the transcript of a meeting held that month by a data privacy and integrity advisory committee at the DHS.

But improving data-sharing remains a work in progress at many agencies. For instance, the Department of Defense wants to create an enterprisewide view of data with the flexibility to put information into the hands of an "unanticipated user," said Lloyd Thrower, director of strategic planning and transformation in the DOD CIO's office.

By "unanticipated user," he means a person or department not originally expected to need a certain piece of data — an Army unit that wants to use a satellite photo taken by the Air Force, for example. To make information available broadly but securely, the DOD needs to ensure that data is tagged appropriately and that user authorization criteria are attached to it, Thrower said. Credentials encoded in ID cards then can determine whether users are allowed to access information.

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