New U.S. government Web site flunks security test

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A one-stop gateway to all 27 million U.S. government Web pages set up last month is inadequately protected from hackers, congressional investigators told a House panel Monday.

The FirstGov.gov site, introduced by President Clinton September 22, lacks a "comprehensive security plan and, from a security standpoint, has not been accredited for operational use," the nonpartisan General Accounting Office (GAO) warned. "Access controls" had not been tested independently nor had the 11-member FirstGov board, the site's governing body, set a schedule for security assessments, said the GAO, which has found such lapses at virtually every government office it has checked.

"It is critical that these and other elements of a complete security program be put into place to meet government-wide requirements and to ensure that security is consistently maintained throughout the life of this important and highly visible project," David McClure, GAO's chief information technology management expert, said in the GAO report delivered to Congress Monday.

The report was presented to a House Government Reform panel reviewing FirstGov, described by U.S. officials as capable of searching a half billion documents in less than one-quarter of a second and handling millions of searches a day.

Sally Katzen, a deputy director at the White House Office of Management and Budget who sits on the 11-member FirstGov board, told Congress that about four million people had visited the Web site -- www.firstgov.gov -- in its first four days.

She said citizen feedback would play a key role in shaping the effort to promote electronic access to government resources.

Eric Brewer, an Internet entrepreneur, developed and donated the powerful "FedSearch" search engine at the heart of the site. He is maintaining it for two years as a gift to the government, after which new arrangements must be made for its upkeep.

Brewer told the panel that he favors stronger security -- "firewalls, private access, the whole nine yards" -- but that federal agencies were ultimately responsible for protecting their online material, not FirstGov.

The Software & Information Industry Association, whose member companies provide code and content to the online world, called on the FirstGov board and the FedSearch Foundation set up by Brewer to draw up a plan outlining the project's expected costs, revenues and responsibilities.

Unclear were "the anticipated costs and implementation demands" for any future entity interested in taking over after FedSearch stops donating its services, said Mark Bohanan, the association's general counsel. Gartner Group, a technology consulting firm, released a study at the hearing projecting that as many as 50 million U.S. adults were in danger of becoming functionally "illiterate" because they lack knowledge of or access to the Internet.

"The Internet will soon be so pervasive that not having access to the technology or not knowing how to use it will be the equivalent of not knowing how to read or write," Gartner Chief Executive Michael Fleisher said in remarks prepared for the subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology chaired by Rep. Steve Horn, a California Republican.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Government records to become available online anytime, any place
August 11, 2000
Report: Citizens embracing government online
July 28, 2000
U.S. government moves to electronic transactions
July 25, 2000
Report: Citizens embracing government online
July 28, 2000
Government records to become available online anytime, any place
August 11, 2000

FirstGov.gov
The United States General Accounting Office
White House Office of Management and Budget
Software & Information Industry Association

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.