Are you ready for a FISMA overhaul?

The 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which has caused plenty of headaches for federal CIOs and their staffs, may be on the chopping block. The White House is planning to release the results of its cybersecurity review shortly, and federal CIOs say it likely will recommend a major FISMA overhaul to make it more responsive to cybersecurity needs.

No surprise here. FISMA requires agencies to adhere to standards created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but the rules are outdated and poorly focused, according to federal CIOs. And there is no opportunity for individual CIOs to monitor Internet traffic and use their findings to patch holes in their security systems.

"It's very onerous....The metrics aren't associated with things that are meaningful," said Robert Carey, the Navy's CIO. "The intent of FISMA was to raise overall security; it did raise security awareness, but it didn't necessarily raise overall security."

For more on FISMA and likely changes:
- check out this Federal Times article