A multibillion-dollar stimulus push to modernize the nation’s power grid is raising cybersecurity concerns, as the Department of Energy’s official watchdog reports that dozens of grant recipients came to the table with inadequate security plans.
The finding comes amid new warnings about cybersecurity threats, and a rash of international cyber attacks.
The power grid program in question is in the Energy Department, and received a $3.5 billion infusion in the 2009 stimulus package. That money was awarded to 99 recipients, with individual grants ranging up to $200 million.
In a January report, the inspector general for the Energy Department found “shortcomings” in those recipients’ cybersecurity plans.
Though the projects are still being developed, the report noted that “existing gaps … could allow system compromise before controls are implemented.”
In one instance, the report said an unnamed recipient had never conducted a “formal risk assessment” — without which, “threats and weaknesses may go unidentified and expose the recipient’s systems to an unacceptable level of risk.”
The IG report said 36 of the 99 cybersecurity plans were “lacking” in at least one area. Though the Energy Department told the recipients to update their plans, the report found “the initial weaknesses had not always been addressed.”
No one spends someone else’s money as wisely as they spend their own money.
Pennsylvania officials are wading into the controversial territory of drug-testing welfare recipients, testing out a new program Republicans say is meant to prevent beneficiaries from getting a “free ride.”
After a federal judge blocked a much broader drug-test rule in Florida, Pennsylvania is taking a more careful approach. Instead of mandating drug tests for all welfare recipients, Pennsylvania plans to randomly test only those with a felony drug conviction within the past five years and those on probation for such offenses.
[…]Proponents have argued it’s not unreasonable for the government to require drug tests in exchange for payment, just as some employers do.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least three dozen states proposed bills pertaining to drug tests for welfare and food stamp recipients. Arizona and Missouri have joined Florida in passing drug-test bills, though theirs were more narrowly tailored.
As Pennsylvania tests its approach, other states are moving forward. Indiana’s House recently approved a drug-test bill for welfare recipients, as did a Virginia House committee.
Opponents of measures like this think that although a person who works to pay taxes should be drug-tested, people whom the government pays not to work should not be drug-tested.
