Horn preps security grades

Horn's September 2000 report card

Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) plans to release his next round of report cards on agencies' information security status by the end of the month, according to a spokeswoman.

Horn issued his first security report cards in September 2000, giving the government an overall grade of D-minus, and said that he would follow up with another examination this year.

Now, as many agencies have stepped up their security awareness after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last week, the timing of the new set of report cards couldn't be better, said Bonnie Heald, Horn spokeswoman.

"We're working on evaluating computer security at the 24 [Chief Financial Officers] Act agencies again this year, and we anticipate issuing the report cards at the end of this month," she said. The CFO Act laid the groundwork for many federal management reforms.

Horn called for the review as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee.

The work to develop the report cards had been under way for some time, including a March request to the General Accounting Office to review the implementation of the Government Information Security Reform Act, Heald said.

Under GISRA, chief information officers and inspectors general are required to perform annual assessments of their agencies' information security practices and policies. They submitted the first set of GISRA reports to the Office of Management and Budget on Sept. 10.