The experience of DHS and ODNI suggest leaders must imbed the vision and values in the new organization for it to gain traction and succeed, but that doing so might rank among the most challenging tasks.
Intangible elements, or the “soft stuff,” such as communicating a new culture and identity while remaining sensitive to tradition, are often the toughest to tackle. Keep reading →
An in-depth analysis of flaws in DHS and ODNI reorganization efforts shows both would have benefited from strong leadership to articulate the mission and the reasons for change, guide the transformation, and meld together disparate entities and management approaches.
Essentially, chain of command is necessary, but not sufficient. Keep reading →
Along with the obvious turmoil and political strife caused by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the historic tragedy set in motion the most significant government reorganizations in decades in the homeland defense and intelligence communities.
The effects of the reorganizations continue to reverberate today. For that reason, the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton released a report Tuesday detailing lessons from those efforts that may guide the Obama Administration in government reform and reorganization efforts currently under way. Keep reading →
The nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security says the border can be secured using commercially available technologies, and that the Department of Homeland Security’s failed multibillion-dollar contract with Boeing Co. to build an electronic border fence ran counter to the legislation that created the DHS in the first place.
Tom Ridge, who served in that role under President George W. Bush, recently praised the Department of Homeland Security for putting an end in January to Boeing Co.’s multibillion-dollar contract for the Secure Border Initiative (SBInet). After nearly five years and $1 billion in taxpayer funding, the deal netted a mere 28-mile prototype and a 53-mile permanent segment of electronic sensors in Arizona. According to Ridge, the effort failed in large part because it did not leverage commercially available technology. Keep reading →
The Homeland Security Department is putting cloud computing policy into practice, as the department begins migrating all of its public-facing, non-sensitive Web sites onto platforms maintained entirely by commercial cloud providers.
In addition, DHS is laying the groundwork to move two other programs to the cloud:an employment verification system and a data center services program. Keep reading →
The nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security said Congress has “failed” America’s first responders by not acting on legislation that would dedicate wireless communications spectrum to a nationwide, interoperable, public safety network and said it is unlikely anything will pass before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“It’s wrong. It’s really wrong for them to have failed these first responders,” said Tom Ridge, appointed by President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to lead the homeland security effort, and who subsequently became America’s first Secretary of Homeland Security in 2003. Keep reading →
As the number and sophistication of cyber attacks targeting government agencies and large private enterprise continue to increase, the Department of Homeland Security has released new risk management strategies for the nation’s critical IT infrastructure.
The strategies were released last month in an effort to raise awareness and help public and private enterprises better understand and respond to emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Specifically, they pertain to products and services, incident management and Internet routing and were developed in cooperation with the private sector-led Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council. Keep reading →
While the White House and Congress squared-off last month on how best to solve the problems facing first responder communications, a team of IT experts at McLean, Va.-based MorganFranklin unveiled a new mobile communications vehicle that is already helping a major component of the Department of Homeland Security operate in places where IT infrastructure either does not reach or does not exist.
In an exclusive tour of the new Mobile Communications Vehicle, designed to custom specifications for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), the team at MorganFranklin showed Breaking Gov how they have integrated a wide variety of IT and communications systems to effectively expand the agency’s enterprise network to any geographic location in which it needs to operate – even those where there is little or no infrastructure in place. Keep reading →
If the fiscal 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations bill now under consideration in the Senate becomes law, it would slash research and development funding by 81%, effectively ending the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate’s ability to innovate across a multitude of critical technology areas.
That’s the warning from Paul Benda, the newly-appointed Director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). Keep reading →
The Department of Homeland Security has implemented several new measures, including automation and collaboration with other agencies, to reduce the number of backlogged, unvetted visas.
Rand Beers, DHS’ under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, noted that the agency has vetted 843,000 out of 1.6 million visa overstays since a General Accounting Office report issued in April on the subject. Keep reading →