Results tagged “Information Technology” from FastGov: Where Government is Going

Information technology is a curious artifact in government budgeting and spending.  It is deeply embedded in almost everything government does yet gets called out with unique visibility when it comes to itemizing cuts.

The latest evidence of this trend comes from fiscally weary Michigan when the Granholm Administration announced the most recent mid course correction in order to meet the constitutional requirement to keep the budget in balance:

Executive Order 2009-22, the second issued during the current fiscal year, reduces spending by nearly $350 million, achieving $304 million in the general fund savings.  The reductions will reduce services in some areas of government but will allow the state to protect critical functions of state government like education, health care, support for families in crisis, and job creation efforts.

The 23-page executive order provides an agency-by-agency itemization of the reduction package.  It lists the programs that will take hits, and how large they will be.  And in that respect, information technology is treated as a program (rather than just infrastructure or overhead).  The named reductions to IT projects and other tech spend include:

• Agriculture: $89,000
• Attorney General: $6,400
• Civil Rights: $22,500
• Community Health (Health IT Initiative): $1,072,600
• Human Services: $165,000
• Management and Budget: $200,000
• Military and Veterans Affairs: $3,200
• Natural Resources: $2,400
• Department of State: $300
• State Police: $860,000
• Treasury: $75,500

The spending cuts take $2,496,600 out of modernization efforts  -- an unwelcome development to be sure.  But seen against the $304 million in general fund reductions, IT's share is only eight-tenths of 1% -- compare that to a record (inflation adjusted) 23.5% year over year drop in state revenues.  All things being equal, it is probably less than a fair share.  But not all things are equal.  IT still holds the unique promise for changing the cost structure of service delivery in ways that no other program, overhead or infrastructure can.  Perhaps that helps explain why the cuts were held to less than a single percentage.

All of that from a state that is fresh out of options.  The announcement included the now familiar recitation that moves were made necessary to eliminate a budget shortfall "caused, in large part, by the massive restructuring in the domestic auto industry."  Perhaps that now goes without saying, given that the announcement also came the week that this John Rich single was at Number 12 on the CMT country music chart:

Dinner with Kevin Mitnick is at once fascinating and frightening.  In the time that it took the chef to prepare dinner, Mitnick did a little vishing on a major bank's IVR system (with each number pressed on his cell phone appearing in real time on his laptop sceen) after looking up -- through legal online subscription data resellers -- a dinner companion's social security number, drivers license number and mother's maiden name.

Mitnick, an early and infamous hacker who was convcted of computer crimes in 1999, has taken a turn as an information security consultant to government and industry.  We were both in Columbus, Ohio for a Government Technology event.  Interestingly, he is beginning to work magic (or, more properly, illusions) into his speeches and presentations, which takes him back to a childhood curiosity about slight of hand that became a pranksterish era of phreaking (phone freaking), all of which was a precursor to a short but headline-grabbing career as a computer hacker.

He has now gone legit, with a consulting firm and a 2002 book, The Art of Deception, which focuses on the promise, pitfalls and perils of social engineering.


Mitnick, whose metal business card can be broken out into a lock-picking kit, tells a great story but the underlying message is rather basic: Do not use information that is readily available -- SSNs, divers license numbers and mothers' maiden names -- for authentication because it just invites mischief, or worse.  (He differentiates between old school hackers who were motivated by intellectual curiosity and a new underground economy of commercial, malicious hackers who are in it for the money -- yours.)

Granted, information security is the purview of Dan Lohrmann's Securing GovSpace blog but allow me an observation or two: As sophisticated as the attacks and defences have become on this front (and they have), it is telling that the successful exploits remain rather simple, taking advantage of human foibles and poor technical design.

In accepting his party's nomination for president, Senator John McCain basked in the reflected glory of a long and distinguished career in public service and the runaway buzz around his pick for vice president. 

His acceptance speech included a single reference to technology - significantly, it was in the context of a confession of things that the federal government had failed to do well, or at all.  He delivered the line at 10:56PM Eastern:

We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children. All these functions of government were designed before the rise of the global economy, the information technology revolution and the end of the Cold War. We have to catch up to history, and we have to change the way we do business in Washington.

A fair reading suggests that catching up with history requires public policy focus and public investment in infrastructure.  Reconcile that with promises to reduce taxes and cut government spending.  It is not just a math problem.