Federal, state, and local government agencies are embracing social media outlets, mobile apps, and real-time monitoring as new approaches for providing critical updates to citizens. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the ultimate wake-up for FEMA, the National Guard, and federal and state executives that our country lacked a resilient communication network. The three levels of government failed to communicate and present a coordinated relief effort. On an individual level, the citizenry was also left defenseless without updates for several days in the heat of the crisis. In the years following, public and private officials have invested resources in streamlining relief efforts and exploring social media and mobile devices as communication channels during an emergency.

Recently, the New York Police Department and Microsoft teamed up to develop an all-seeing surveillance system to be implemented downtown. This offers to potentially bring in an incredible amount of revenue, as New York City stands to make 30% of all revenue that Microsoft will make from this “Domain Awareness System.” As stated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, this technology “will fund more new crime-prevention and counter-terrorism programs.” When this surveillance system is put into effect, the NYPD will have a lot of power, that some may argue, dwells into peoples’ right to privacy. With the recent allegations of the NYPD probing terrorist activities beyond their jurisdiction in Rutgers University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, and many others in the Northeast, this new technology has to raise eyebrows for the general public. People have to be concerned with how the NYPD will utilize this new technology, and whether or not they will use it for justice or another violation of citizens’ civil rights.

As part of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, federal agencies have been working hard to close data centers and move to a virtualized environment. According to FedScoop, in the past 90 days, agencies have closed 50 data centers. That is definitely a step in the right direction- bringing the government’s total to 318 since the launch of the initiative. In talks with Civilian and Defense agencies, we have seen great pressure that is coming down on enterprise IT staff to close these data centers. The definition of data center is any room that is devoted to data processing servers, i.e., including server closets (typically < 200 sq. ft.) and server rooms (typically < 500 sq.ft.) within a conventional building is considered a Data Center, just like larger floor spaces or entire buildings dedicated to housing servers, storage devices, and network equipment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently announced that they will be increasing their spending in several areas of information technology. The increase is set to take place in FY2013, and will be directed towards cyber security, network security, and privacy. According to Washington Technology, the VA is planning “to spend $123.2 million in fiscal 2013, an increase from $109.5 million in 2012 and $121.4 million in 2011.” The increase in spending is due to the high demand of computer network privacy. In today’s world, privacy comes at a high price. As technology evolves and becomes easier to access, the concept is becoming less concrete and harder to sustain. Therefore, companies are taking painstaking strides to make sure their sensitive information is kept away from unauthorized individuals. Both the GSA and the VA Office have noticed the increase in the number of contractors specializing in IT security over the last few years.

Cyber security is a pervasive concern that is growing in threat level every day, especially for the US government, and now the director of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command Chief, Gen. Keith Alexander, has deemed the US as unready for these severe cyber assaults.

Criminal Justice organizations make up a large part of our Federal, State and Local Governments. As such, they are also a large consumer of IT. But do they have the same security standards as other agencies for IT services?