Cyberattacks on fed systems triple in two years

With all the talk about cybersecurity, it's no surprise that new numbers are showing that attacks have tripled in just two years on federal computer systems. Data provided by the Department of Homeland Security found that cyberattacks increased by more than 250 percent.

And while federal agencies have been spinning their wheels trying to figure out how to prevent such attacks, at least two kinds of attacks are easily prevented. That includes centralized management of information technology systems, and better training.

"The simple answer is yes, there's a lot more that we can and should be doing," John Gilligan, a former chief information officer at the Air Force and the Energy Department, tells Federal Times. "Most of what we're seeing are [attacks] that should be easily preventable."

Last year, civilian agencies reported more than 18,000 attacks. But Federal Times reports that that is only a fraction of the real number because agencies cannot monitor every intrusion.

It certainly seems that the alarm bells are going off right now. But maybe there should be a high alert and plenty more money poured into a system that is currently at war with an unknown enemy.

For more on cyber attacks:
- check out this Federal Times article