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A Publication Featuring The Information
Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume V, Issue 11 | December 2002 |
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By Harry Lanphear, Chief Information Officer
"The lack of secure interoperable communications systems puts 300 million Americans at risk every day" says Steve Cooper, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Office of Homeland Security. Mr. Cooper made these remarks at a recent State CIO Conference, and asked for help from the states to better secure our critical technology infrastructure.
I came away from this conference with a clear mandate from the federal government and recognize that Maine can certainly do more in this area. The good news is that we are indeed making progress.
First, we have a project being worked on by the State Police, Bureau of Information Services (BIS), and others to design an interoperable communications system for state government. In addition, we have partnered with the Public Safety Wireless Network (PSWN) to complete an interoperable study for local, state and federal government as well as critical private sector entities (e.g. utilities) in Maine. PSWN is funded by the Departments of Justice and Treasury and has done work in many other states. The goal of both these efforts is to ensure that first responders and emergency management personnel can communicate with each other as well as the public during times of crisis. We expect to have the design phase of these projects completed within the next few months.
| This fall, the Department of Public Safety in conjunction with the Bureau of Information Services awarded a contract to review all of the State’s radio networks. The vendor will evaluate the current State radio network and usage, and will recommend a future network direction and architecture. Their recommendations paper is due 2/2003. |
Second, the Information Services Policy Board (ISPB) approved a first reading of a Statewide Information Technology Security Policy on November 12, 2002. The policy is based substantially on the ISO 17799 framework which is an international security standard used by many private and public sector entities. It is considered a best-in-class standard. While Maine’s policy is tailored to meet our needs, the vast majority of its content is from the ISO standard.
Having a statewide security policy is just the first step in improving information technology (IT) security. Several agencies have made significant strides to improve their security over the last few years. The statewide policy will provide a consistent framework for everyone to work from. The Office of the CIO will provide training on the ISO standard over the next few months as well as helping agencies with implementation. A more detailed overview of the policy will be provided upon final approval from the ISPB.
State government is very much a part of federal homeland security efforts. As we all know, emergency situations are almost always local events, hence the need for local solutions. For these reasons and many more, both the interoperability work and IT security policy must be priorities for state government in our continued role of working with the federal government on improving homeland security.
