State Department CIO: What's Changed Since WikiLeaks

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232800365

By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
April 05, 2012

Eighteen months after its diplomatic cables were exposed in the 
WikiLeaks breach, the State Department continues to lock down its 
confidential information, while using the Internet and social media to 
further its work in other ways.

State Department CIO Susan Swart, in an interview with InformationWeek 
at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, outlined steps underway 
to prevent any further data leaks. "The State Department has continued 
to enhance the security of our classified data and systems 
post-WikiLeaks," she said, adding that the department is playing a lead 
role in the interagency response to WikiLeaks that was launched last 
year by Presidential order.

The agency is deploying new security technology in the wake of 
WikiLeaks. That includes auditing and monitoring tools to detect 
anomalous activity on the State Department's classified networks and 
systems, which it's using to "aggressively address" any abnormal 
behavior, Swart said. State has also begun tagging information with 
metadata to enable role-based access to those who need it, and is 
planning to implement public key infrastructure on its classified 
systems by the summer of 2014.

In the wake of the WikiLeaks breach, which occurred in November 2010, 
the State Department suspended outside access to several of its 
classified information portals. Those portals--including the Net Centric 
Diplomacy diplomatic reporting database, ClassNet classified websites, 
and some SharePoint sites--remain largely inaccessible or subject to 
restricted access from other networks, including the military's 
classified network known as SIPRNET.

[...]


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