Workers' View of Security? It's Scarier

When it comes to cybersecurity, lower level government employees are far more worried about the porous nature of federal networks than top executives, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The differences are stark, wide ranging and most prominent in departments that handle some of the most sensitive data.

In a survey of 320 federal information technology employees funded by the security firm CA, the Ponemon Institute, an independent privacy and security research firm, found that lower level workers were more concerned than their bosses about:

• their agencies' ability to withstand cyberattacks or to comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act;
• controlling who has access to sensitive files;
• providing security training;
• the number of possible threats and the risks they present;
• the inability of deployed security solutions working; and
• the need for security tools like identity management, firewalls, and antivirus and antimalware apps.

These findings have some serious implications. First, those who work on the computer systems -- the mechanics, as it were - are the ones who know the honest state of cybersecurity I the government. They know what's really going on, and they are sounding a louder alarm bell than their superiors. Second, without leaders who are more tuned in to what troubles federal security, how can we expect them to set the necessary priorities to fix them? We can't.

Finally, the Ponemon survey reported another troubling finding: The departments that have the biggest discrepancies between what line workers and executives think about cybersecurity are those very agencies that work with the most sensitive data: the Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments.