US Federal CIO calls for IT systems to be redesigned

US Federal CIO Tony Scott has called on the IT industry to redesign the building blocks of IT systems to better address the cybersecurity threats of today.

In a keynote speech at Nextgov Prime 2015, Scott noted that key IT system components including hardware and operating systems were designed before the new generation of threats arose, FierceGovernmentIT reported.

These building blocks will need to be redesigned for the new era, which will mean forming the right partnerships and designing the right frameworks.

Scott also stressed the need for governments to work with partners to ensure that the next generation of the IT workforce is prepared to tackle the security problems of today and the future.

The government CIO's office is working with the Federal CIO Council to create a pipeline of such workers, but Scott said this will also mean working with other partners.

Scott also revealed that the government is evaluating a system for measuring cybersecurity incidents and implementing the required solutions.

The government is looking at practices used in the manufacturing sector to measure defects and failure rates. Scott noted that a cybersecurity incident is simply an example of a defect or error, and that both error rates and progress patching security holes may be measurable over time.

Image courtesy of Rob Marquardt under CC