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U.S. government looks to shape cybersecurity with new Oracle pact
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September 23, 2003 (Computerworld) -- The U.S. government is starting to use its immense purchasing power to influence cybersecurity, beginning with a Department of Energy contract with Oracle Corp. that requires the software vendor to build in security configurations.
The Energy Department, along with four other federal agencies and the Center for Internet Security (CIS), today announced the release of a security configuration benchmark for Oracle Database Versions 8i and 9i running on Windows and Unix. A department contract for an Oracle enterprise license, the first phase of which is worth $5 million, requires the vendor to deliver its database software to the agency with the security configurations installed -- and requires the vendor to ensure that any future security updates it ships to the Energy Department are compatible with the benchmark.
Energy Department and CIS officials said they hope the contract will be a model for future software procurement negotiations between the U.S. government and software vendors, although agencies will have to evaluate their needs against procurement requirements, said Karen Evans, CIO at the Department of Energy.
"What we're talking about today we hope will be called a best practice in federal government," Evans said. "The federal employees and citizens really want to know their systems are secure. The public wants to know that the information they give to the government is going to be protected against theft, fraud and abuse."
Software vendors should expect more such demands in contracts, but not just from government, said others at a news conference in Washington.
"This is an example for corporations, too," said Sallie McDonald, acting director of outreach and awareness in the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "There's no reason why it needs to just exist in government."
The 50-plus-page, 250-item security configuration benchmark, developed with dozens of Oracle software users and the SANS Institute through the CIS, will be available to anyone free of charge at the CIS Web site.
Along with the security configuration benchmark, the CIS, a not-for-profit membership organization, will release an automated scoring tool that government agencies and private companies can use to test their configurations against the benchmark.
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