The government seems to be consistently behind the curve of
Information Technology purchasing. Is that because they are slow to adopt or do
they have other difficulties in acquiring the newest and the best?
Being so far behind the curve of IT purchasing not only
wastes taxpayers money, it also leaves the government extremely vulnerable to
cyber-attacks. Earlier this year, millions of current and former federal workers’
data was stolen
from the Office of Personnel Management. Prior
to that attack, security clearance information was stolen from the same office.
Software used by the government, sometimes even including infrastructure, is
not able to repel determined cyber-attacks and hacks.
All these problems result from the government’s old and
difficult ways of purchasing. The best and brightest of the information technology
world, centered in Silicon Valley, are not open to working with the government due
to purchasing methods that are old and outdated. Some government agencies will
not even consider purchasing a product that has not been on the market for at
least 2 years. With how quickly technology moves, this leaves the government
vulnerable and open to attack.
Around June of 2015, the United States
Navy signed a $9 million dollar contract to continue providing security
patches for the Windows XP operating system, which had an original release date
of October of 2001. Microsoft stopped support for the system in April 2014, but
the US government is paying $9 million dollars to continue the support of the
system. Reason being? The latest operating system, which is more secure for the
government to use, has not been on the market long enough, according to
government procurement rules, to be considered.
Looking forward, The
National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 is being debated in
Congress at this time and within it are acquisition reform provisions; including some procurement rules that could potential
be repealed. At the top of that list is easing restrictions on Information
Technology Purchases, which will entice startups and the “best and brightest”
of Silicon Valley to help the government upgrade to better and, more
importantly, safer hardware and software.
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