[ISN] Chu: IT security a drag on Energy's mission

http://fcw.com/articles/2009/05/11/chu-it-security-a-drag.aspx

By Matthew Weigelt
FCW.com
May 11, 2009

Energy secretary wants to balance information security, mission

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said the Energy Department needs to 
consider whether its information security systems are worth the drag on 
its mission.

“We’re going to be looking at information technologies," Chu said at 
press briefing May 7 about the department's fiscal 2010 budget proposal. 
"Do we have the right balance between keeping our IT secure from viruses 
to how it compromises productivity?”

In an April 29 speech at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 
Golden, Colo., Chu said “well-meaning people” in the chief information 
officer’s office and in the procurement and finance offices “whose job 
it is to protect the Department of Energy” actually hinder what the 
department can do.

“They forgot the Department of Energy has a job, and it’s not to protect 
the Department of Energy. It’s to get something done,” he said. Terrible 
accidents and financial waste are bad things, he said, but added, “It 
has to be balanced against the mission of the department and so this is 
something that I feel very strongly about.”

[...]


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