title: Unisys blamed for DHS data breaches link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/unisys-blamed-for-dhs-data-breaches/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 633 created: 2007/09/25 17:49:46 created_gmt: 2007/09/25 17:49:46 comment_status: open post_name: unisys-blamed-for-dhs-data-breaches status: publish post_type: post

Unisys blamed for DHS data breaches

From El Reg, this article really says it all. If it gets past the moderators, you’ll see a comment from me where I make the statement

This is the end result of outsourcing critical functions to private contractors, the government can’t even protect itself.

Which kind of begs the question, how can they claim to be able to protect us?

Of course the answer is, they can’t.

This is all related to the breach of U.S. government systems by Chinese military hackers earlier this year, which I commented on in an earlier post.

Ironically, as an employee of a Unisys customer in the past I’ve been less than impressed with their delivery, although my last experience with them is a couple of Unisys corporate reorgs back. But it would be a distraction to focus on Unisys here, the real problem here is systemic and goes far beyond this particular incident and cast of characters.

There’s lots of bullsh*t on both sides, by contractors and by government agencies, in every corner of government IT. The truth is they’re all ineptly led and because of that also extraordinarily poorly resourced. So poorly resourced that if it were judged by the standards of my old profession, it would be considered actionable malpractice. Unfortunately the ultimate remedy available there, disbarring the managing partners of the firm, isn’t available either in the private consulting or government world.

Copyright 2004-2019 Phil Lembo