IT executives say cybersecurity is top concern

Leading federal information technology executives say that cybersecurity is their chief concern, according to an information technology vendor's survey.

Forty-three percent of federal executives surveyed at a conference this week in Orlando, Fla., said information technology security was their highest priority for 2005. More than two-thirds listed it is one of their top three concerns.

The survey, released Wednesday by CDW Government Inc., was conducted at the 2005 IPIC conference, and included 79 government technology executives attending the conference. The company, a division of CDW Corp., sells computers and other accessories to federal, state and local government agencies.

The Federal IT Executive Survey results are similar to those in a recent survey by the Information Technology Association of America, which concluded that cybersecurity is the top priority of federal chief information officers.

Other concerns listed by IT executives included demonstrating returns on investments, the size of technology budgets and telecommuting. Only 5 percent thought that Congress would fully fund e-government initiatives.

Survey respondents predicted that it was more likely that cyclist Lance Armstrong would a win a seventh Tour de France this year then that the government would receive a B grade on the House Government Reform Committee's Federal Computer Security report card.

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee's chairman, said that it's important for outside organizations to educate members of Congress on e-government and cybersecurity because only about 10 lawmakers understand the importance of laws such as the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act.

"If you don't have constituent interest in this area, there are few incentives for members to get involved until there is some downside: either a cyber Pearl Harbor, companies lose money, or people get hurt," Davis said in a statement.

The survey found that federal executives believe the Office of Management and Budget is the government's most influential policy body, followed by the House Government Reform Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The National Institute of Standards and Technology and Government Accountability Office were also considered important by respondents.

Also at the conference, Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, endorsed the creation of a governmentwide chief information officer. In an interview with Government Executive, he noted that in most major companies, the CIO is among the top group of executives who report to the CEO. Creating a federal CIO, he said, would bring much-needed consistency to government IT strategies.

"The president of the United States buys 20 percent of the computers sold in this country," McNealy said. "He needs much more top-down architectural consistency."

McNealy assailed federal procurement systems as "stunningly" slow, leading to purchases of equipment that are chronically a generation behind the best technologies.